Conceptualization specify the meaning of the concepts to be studied Operationalization concrete steps or operations used to measure specific concepts Empirical research production of knowledge based on experience or observation Replication repeating a study to see if you got the same results each time An assertion must have both logical and empirical support it must make sense and it must agree w actual observations Errors in personal human inquiry Inaccurate observation professor s clothes on first day of class example Scientific observation is a conscious activity Simply making observations is a deliberate way to reduce error Simple and complex devices help guard against inaccurate measurements Overgeneralization Selective Observation Illogical reasoning Ideology and Policies To err is human Avoid inquiry errors such as generalization via replication Purposes of research Exploration Description Explanation Application Exploration Exploratory research much research in CJ is conducted to explore a specific prob Might collect data on a measure to establish a baseline w which future changes will be compared Description a key purpose of many CJ studies is to describe the scope of the crime prob or policy responses to the problem Descriptive research a researcher or public official observes and then describes what was observed CJ observation and description tend to be more accurate Descriptive research is often concerned with counting or documenting observation Exploratory studies focus more on developing a preliminary understanding about a new or unusual problem Explanation Reporting that urban residents have generally favorable attitudes towards police is a descriptive activity but reporting WHY some people believe that police are doing a good job while other people do not is an example of EXPLANATORY RESEARCH Application applied research stems from a need for facts and finding with specific policy implications Another purpose of criminal justice research is its application to public policy Applied research is used to see if a policy in place is actually doing what it intended to Evaluation Applied research is also used in the analysis of general justice policies and more specific problems What if questions Policy analysis focuses on future events tries to anticipate the future consequences of alternative actions Aggregate social scientists primarily study social patterns rather than individual ones All regular patterns reflect the aggregate or combined actions and situations of many individuals Social scientists study aggregate not individuals Attributes are characteristics that help to group variables Ex Male is an attribute of gender Causation a person s attributes on one variable are expected to cause or encourage a particular attribute on another variable Variables Independent variable the cause defense attorney Dependent variable the effect prison sentence Having a private attorney vs public defender example 3 key aspects of the overall scientific enterprise theory data collection data analysis Theory a systematic explanation for the observed facts and laws that relate to a particular aspect of life Has to do with what is not what should be Theories are comprised of statements Theories provide statements about social life that are used to guide research Hypothesis an expectation about the nature of things derived from a theory In the operationalization process general concepts are translated into specific indicators Observations aimed at finding out are part of what is typically called hypothesis testing Exceptions Probabilistic Patterns a general pattern does not have to be reflected in 100 percent of the observable cases to be a pattern Example Women overall are less likely to commit murder but when they do their victims are most often males Inductive reasoning moves from the specific to the general from a set of particular observations to the discovery of a pattern that represents some degree of order among the varied events under examination Deductive reasoning moves from the general to the specific It moves from a pattern that might b logically or theoretically expected to observations that test whether the expected pattern actually occurs in the real world Begins with why and moves to whether Induction is the opposite Causality 3 criteria Causation is the focus of explanatory and evaluation research Causation is inherently probab 1 Correlation the cause is correlated associated with the effect 2 Time Order the cause precedes the effect in time 3 Alternative explanation there is no alternative explanation for the association Necessary cause one that must be present for the effect to occur You must be arrested 1st IOT be convicted X MUST BE PRESENT FOR Y TO OCCUR Sufficient cause one that guarantees the effect of interest If you enroll in CCJ4700 you will spend time in BEL116 X GUARANTEES THAT Y WILL OCCUR Partial cause one of multiple factors causing the outcome X A B C Y X is one of multiple factors that influence Y Probabilistic cause one factor that changes the likelihood of the effect A type of causal reasoning that certain factors make outcomes more or less likely to happen X INCREASES OR DECREASES CHANCES THAT Y WILL OCCUR Validity when we are concerned with whether we are correct in inferring that a cause produced an effect we are concerned with the validity of causal inference The truth or accuracy of a measure or inference How confident should we be that our conclusion is correct Statistical conclusion validity can the change in cause and effect be statistically correlated Is the association large enough to be trustworthy Criterion 1 from causality Internal validity effect cannot be due to any other variables threatened when alt explanation exists Is the relationship due to the effect of some other factor Criterion 3 from causality Construct validity generalizing and observing real world settings OR do our variables represent the process we meant to represent Generalizability External validity can the effects be applied to different locations projects OR would we find this again under different circumstances Generalizability The question is whether results from experiments in one setting time and place will be obtained in other settings or whether a treatment found to be effective for one population will have similar effects on a different group Units of analysis the who or what is being studied Ex Individuals groups or organizations Ecological fallacy Drawing
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