CRJS 380 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Open Set, Group Dynamics, Data Analysis
Document Summary
Biggest problem for quantitative methods = no room for more context; how and whys of human perspectives and decisions. Qualitative interviewing: verbal interaction between an interviewer and participant. has a general plan, but not always a specific set of questions. Open set of questions: no fixed response options. Bias of researcher issue in interview, analysis. Sometimes, this method is the sole way of gathering data for criminal justice research. Gain firsthand accounts about their impressions of their world; their lived experiences. Can also use focus groups to get at group dynamics. Perhaps the most talked about qualitative work in criminology is sudhir. However, there are important principles that do not change, regardless of your qualitative design. Getting to the human experience involves sifting through layers of meaning, constructing and recognizing shared cultural meanings. People living in similar subcultures have shared cultural meanings - transmitted through communication. Qualitative interviews are rooted in our perspective of reality in the social world.
