Research Design and Ethical Issues on Criminal Justice Research

Research Design and Ethical Issues
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The methodologies used in criminal justice are the same as those used in behavioral and social sciences in general (Bachman & Schutt, 2018). A fundamental assumption that underlies the employment of these techniques is that diverse people believe in objective reality or a world that is similarly seen. Positivism is the idea that human and social processes may be scrutinized or scientifically investigated. Some of the research models used in criminal justice are:
Ethnography which refers to a qualitational study in which a researcher gathers thorough descriptions of processes and results linked to the phenomena of interest in a social group or sub-culture. An example of ethnography would be a study of prisoner social structures and adaptation to imprisonment in a specific jail (Bachman & Schutt, 2018). A penologist may comment on the sorts of prisoners in that jail and how they interact to explain, for example, why certain convicts are easier than others to adjust to prison (Turvey & Crowder, 2015). This knowledge may subsequently be utilized to build a generic theory of jail behavior, including all similar groups beyond the individual institution. The objectiveness of the investigator to make and document his observations on the conduct of prisoners is essential to the accomplishment of such an endeavor.
The link between impulsive (independent variable) and criminal behavior may be studied by criminological theorists (dependent variable). In investigating a connection of this kind, scientists build a summed scale of elements that evaluate the idea of impulsivity indirectly. This impulsivity measure is then used to forecast criminal behavior participation. Criminal justice researchers may wish to investigate the impact of a mandatory arrest policy (independent variable) on future patterns of family violence (dependent variable) (Turvey & Crowder, 2015). In examining such a matter, scientists generally examine the impact of an arrest on the future criminal conduct of the detained person compared to any other penalty. Quantitative techniques of research, therefore, require a pattern to investigate the relationships between sets of variables to establish cause and effect.
The classical experimental design is a pre-test for each group, a single intervention (i.e., the experimental group), and a post-test. Experiments explore fundamentally how an independent variable affects a dependent variable. In general, the independent variable takes the form of an existing or not existent treatment stimulus. For example, after criminals are released from jail, an experiment may investigate the influence of an intra-prison training program on recurrence (the dependent variable). The inclusion of therapy and control groups is another crucial feature of an investigation. The use of the control group enables the researcher to ascertain what would have happened if the stimulus or intervention in the treatment group were not applied (often referred to as the counterfactual). The treatment group (also referred to as the experimental group) gets the stimulus or the procedure to be evaluated, and the control group fails. This means that no systemat...