ATS3462 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Theoretical Definition, Clinical Urine Tests, Transitional Justice
28 May 2018
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Week 12 -researching transnational and international crime and
justice
• Research always comparative
• Goals of comparative research
o Extending theories beyond cultural and national boundaries
o Assessing the performance of national criminal justice systems
o Evaluating national criminal justice policy
o Coordinating the fight against transnational crime
• Are we measuring the same thing?
o The definition of crime is a social construction
▪ Crimes differ from place to place
▪ This legalised/criminalised constantly
o Must define what we are measuring (ie how we define drug use) to audience
o The ay i hih rie is easured is itertied ith oth ho rie is defied
(and what is deemed to be serous and harmful) and how it is responded to by
institutions of criminal justie (through speifi apaigs ad iteretios (White
and Perrone, 2010: 17)
• The research journey:
• Type of data collection
o Quantitative
▪ Data concerned with counting and measurement for the purpose of
investigating broad statistical meaning such as numbers, rates, prevalence,
incidence and trend.
o Qualitative
▪ Data concerned with understanding, seeking to ask meaning questions. Such
data are based on information about how people feel about things, and
what their perceptions are about particular issues and how they make sense
of their lives.
o Interpretive
▪ Concerned with critical analysis and intended to be a form of reflection on
the social meaning of official documents, existing statistical collections,
media reports and citizen attitudes (White and Perrone, 2010: 22).
• Types of research methods
o Experimental
▪ Cause and effect, quantitative
find more resources at oneclass.com
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▪ Correlation rather than causation -cannot confidently say that something is
caused by something
o Naturalistic
▪ Examine meaning and process, qualitative
o Contextual
▪ Uncover contexts and decision-making processes, e.g. conditions under
which a program is introduced, documentary analysis
o Key Issue: local culture, politics, social context.
• What influences the research process?
o Ontology
▪ The essential or component properties of social realities
- Are our social realities the same?
▪ Where these realities are located
▪ In a nutshell – hat e eliee ostitutes soial reality
o Epistemology
▪ Theory of knowledge
▪ Principles and rules that determine how social phenomena can be known
o Methodology
▪ Science of finding out
▪ The tools of the trade
▪ Physical act of collecting and analysing data
• Observation of the social world
o Key concepts:
▪ Concept
- words, symbols or labels in language that we use to describe an
abstract image or event (e.g. labeling an event a crime)
- theoretical creations based on observations that cannot be
observed directly or indirectly (e.g. IQ, offender motivation)
▪ Differs from:
- Conception: a subjective thought about something we encounter in
daily life
- Conceptualisation: the process by which we specify precisely what
we mean by a particular term
▪ Conceptual definition
- a working definition providing a description of how the concept is
used in research
- E.g. socio-economic status vs disadvantage
• Deciding where to look
o What is the level of social reality to which theoretical explanations refer?
o The level of analysis in social sciences delimits the kinds of assumptions, concepts
and theories a researcher uses
• Three main levels of analysis in social science:
o Individual (micro)
▪ Focuses on individual experiences/attributes and concerned with identifying
attributes that lead to particular behaviours or outcomes
o Interactional/Social-Psychological (meso)
▪ Focuses on the interaction of small groups, examines how the interaction
proceeds, not the individual attributes of the groups
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Such data are based on information about how people feel about things, and what their perceptions are about particular issues and how they make sense of their lives. Are our social realities the same: where these realities are located. Conception: a subjective thought about something we encounter in daily life. Conceptualisation: the process by which we specify precisely what we mean by a particular term: conceptual definition a working definition providing a description of how the concept is used in research. Individual (micro: focuses on individual experiences/attributes and concerned with identifying attributes that lead to particular behaviours or outcomes. Interactional/social-psychological (meso: focuses on the interaction of small groups, examines how the interaction proceeds, not the individual attributes of the groups, societal/structural (macro, concerned with broad societal patterns and social structure. Interviews of families of children: what potential ethical issues could arise, minors, privacy, distress to researcher.
