Introduction
Since criminology is scientific study of crimes and the behavior of criminals, effective scientific research methods are imperative to provide credible evidence to the justice system. The evidence must be valid and reliable to provide a basis of exonerating or incriminating suspects. Before 1960, criminology relied upon casual evidences and the criminal justice system made theoretical judgments. Piquero (2009) argues that after 1960, “…the federal government initiated research projects that were designed to understand the extent of criminal behavior, including the etiology of criminal behavior as well as the reaction of the criminal justice system to criminal behavior” (2010, p. 5).
Continued funding of criminological research has led to the development of varied research methods. In criminology, there are four research questions, which relate with the four research methods, namely exploratory, explanatory, descriptive, and evaluative methods. For effective criminal justice system, criminological research is very essential since it provides the basis for justice in the society.
Criminological Research
Research is an integral part of criminology because conviction of suspects by the criminal justice system requires sufficient evidence that is tangible and credible to attain prosecution threshold. Without scientific research to ascertain validity of alleged evidences, it would be subjective to determine sufficiency of evidences casually. Therefore, learning criminological research is imperative in order to enhance credibility and reliability of any criminological evidence and subsequent justice to the victims and suspects of crime.
According to Dantzker& Hunter, “…research studies provide interesting findings about a plethora of problems, events, tissues, or activities … necessary for the understanding both crime and criminality as well as for developing suitable responses” (2006, p.12). Criminological research studies deepen the understanding of the students and give empirical experience thereby widening tools and approaches involved in criminology. The scientific skills employed in criminology guarantee credibility of the evidences and justice to the suspects and victims of crime.
Current criminal justice system bases its legal processes on theoretical analysis and empirical evidences from criminological research. Earlier criminal justice system relied on casual observations that are prone to selective observation, inaccuracies in observation, stereotyping, and irrationality. Casual observations as a form of evidence is not credible due to the subjective processes and strategies that are unscientifically sound thus unreliable in criminal justice system.
“By imposing order and rigor on our observation, science seeks to reduce the possibility of these common errors occurring in the criminal justice system,” (Dantzker, & Hunter, 2006, p. 7). Hence, learning criminological research studies and subsequent application in pursuit of justice in the society will significantly reduce subjective casual errors in criminal justice system. If students acquire necessary criminological research skills, criminology would be the foundation of justice in the criminal justice system since the research would provide valid and credible evidence.
Effective criminological research is very vital for proper dispensation of justice by the criminal justice system. Achievement of justice in the society cannot occur if criminological research findings are ineffective. For instance, casual inquiry as a means of seeking substantial evidence necessary for prosecution would not yield sufficient and credible evidence for criminal justice system to contemplate any prosecution. Moreover, ineffective criminological research would neither give reliable and substantive evidence. Dantzker and Hunter (2006) argue that, “the scientific method seeks to prevent the errors of casual inquiry by utilizing procedures that specify objectivity, logic, theoretical understanding, knowledge of prior research in the development and the use a precise measurement instrument designed to accurately record observations” (p. 7).
A good criminological study gives solid foundation to the criminal justice system in the application of the due process of the law. The essential link between criminology and the justice system illustrates the importance of effective criminological research in the administration of justice in criminal justice system.
Research Questions
Criminological research has four possible research questions that are applicable in respective four research methods. The four research questions are explanatory, exploratory, descriptive, and evaluative questions. Explanatory questions are applicable in explanatory research that aims to unravel the causes and effects of crimes in the society. The research questions try to find why crimes occur or why prevalence is high or low in certain areas.
Explanatory questions further seek to explain predisposing factors associated with crimes and their impacts in the society. Exploratory questions used in exploratory research seek to reveal the mystery of criminals’ activities and their behavior. The findings give a scope of crimes and criminals’ behaviors, which is paramount in predicting the prevalence and occurrence of the crimes in the society, hence their control.
Descriptive questions enhance the understanding of crime by describing the elements regarding the occurrence of crimes in a given environmental set up.”Research of this nature help us to gain a better grasp about an issue or a problem we know little about as it tends to define and describe what we are trying to understand” (Mears, 2010, p. 112). The answers to descriptive questions provide information in terms of opinions and perceptions, hence unreliable in criminal justice system.
The evaluative research employs evaluative questions that focus on the predictive and intervening measures of crime. For example, evaluative questions may seek to assess whether the current measures of combating crime are effective or not, and to predict the consequences therein to the state. This research method gives the probable causes of crime in a certain security condition.
The use of integrated research methods in criminological research increases the validity of criminological evidences that are critical in the prosecuting criminals and preventing crimes. Mears argues that, “…an effective criminal justice must ensure that all efforts are systematically integrated and coordinated with one another to increase system accountability, effectiveness, and efficiency” (2010, p.258).
By integrating and coordinating the criminological research methods, a criminologist gets a scope of crime and minimizes the probability of subjective findings that may have no bearing on the course of justice. In the view of the fact that criminal justice system requires tangible and credible evidence that warrant prosecution and subsequent verdict that is justifiable, integrated research methods is the best approach.
Reflection/Conclusion
Since various criminological research methods require subjects to participate, sometimes the use of deceptions are inevitable. The use of deception in research has elicited wide-ranging views concerning the ethics of research.
Critically, it is justifiable to deceive subjects for the purpose of research if the benefits outweigh individual losses incurred in the research. Normally, it is extremely impossible to conduct a research without deceiving or withholding some vital information of the research from the participants. Many research studies require the application of single or double blind design in the research, otherwise the findings would have biasness due to the expected outcomes. Therefore, if the benefits of research findings are very important to the majority, then it is justifiable to deceive participants so long as they will incur minimal harm.
References
Dantzker, M., & Hunter, R. (2006). Research Methods for Criminology and Criminal Justice: A Primer. New York: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Mears, D. (2010). American Criminal Justice Policy: An Evaluation Approach to Increasing Accountability and Effectiveness. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Piquero, A. (2009). Criminology and Criminal Justice Research: Methods. Journal of Crime and Justice, 1-26.