Research Ethics and Methodology in Deviance Studies: A Doctoral Dissertation Experience, Lecture notes of Sociology

Download Research Ethics and Methodology in Deviance Studies: A Doctoral Dissertation Experience and more Lecture notes Sociology in PDF only on Docsity!

Researching

Deviance

Chapter 3

Research…yay!

You may have picked up on the format of the course by now. That is, your main sources of material are the text (including the assigned readings) and the Power Point that was posted for you to use to organize your notes. My lectures - also in Power Point format - are to be used as supplemental material. I will not discuss material that is easily understood by reading the text. My notes will expand on some of the material to provide you with a better understanding of that material.

On to the business at hand…

I have decided to use some of the information about the process I went through to do research for my doctoral dissertation as examples for Chapter 3. I included some measures of deviance in my survey instrument, so it is relevant. [I am not going to describe my research question, variables, etc. If you are interested, though, you can find a description online. The title is “Deterrence Dynamics and Gender: Extending the Deterrence/Rational Choice Model”.] In a University setting, the Institutional Review Board (IRB) polices the University personnel who conduct research involving people. Special attention is given to research that involves those from infant to 17 years of age. The reasons are obvious. Refer back to the 3 research scenarios at the beginning of the chapter and refresh your memory about what each scenario focuses on.

Formal control in action.

Let’s start with the ethics of research. My dissertation required that I collect data from the incarcerated population. Before I could begin my research, though, I had to get approval from the IRB to do my study. That meant that I had to flesh out the research methods I intended to use to conduct the research. I also had to develop the instrument that I would be administering to my sample of inmates. This, along with a literature review and introduction, was submitted to the IRB (essentially, the proposal for my study along with the survey instrument). Why is this done? Just as the book says…to protect the respondents (and the researcher). And in my case, it also extended protection for Mississippi State University (Go Dawgs!) in the event that things “go wrong.”

Choosing the appropriate methodology

Back to the material. The process to get to the IRB phase is not simple, which is why using secondary data is a better option - if the data fits your research needs. Many social science researchers use secondary data, such as the General Social Survey (GSS). Researchers who want to measure some aspect of deviance, delinquency, or crime might use data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), Monitoring the Future data (MTF), or the Uniform Crime Report (UCR). Do you know why a researcher has to be cautious when using the UCR? Go back to that section if not. There was no secondary dataset for what I wanted to do - and believe me, I looked everywhere - so I needed to collect my own data. What methodology should I use? The research question/focus may dictate what data you will need to collect for your study. What you need from respondents may dictate the methodology you choose.

What if more than one method will work?

It is possible that there is more than one methodology that can be used. This is when you have to consider other concerns, such as: How much funding do I have to collect this data? How much time do I have to complete the data collection? Depending on the answers to these questions, there is usually one method that you will choose over other possibilities. I used a mixed method approach. I gained permission to do my data collection at a state penitentiary, which also served as a processing center (assigning inmates to the main prison, or to satellite locations for the length of their incarceration). This was great because it gave me access to male and female inmates.

Good sample or bad sample?

So, was my sample a true random sample? No. Did it fit the needs of my study? Yes. My sample size ended up being 726, so it was big enough to make generalizations about the larger inmate population at that facility (remember, it is not about the number of cases/respondents; it is about the proportion). Of course I also had to consider things like reliability, internal validity, and external validity. The book gives a good example of internal and external validity; examining school-based programs. Take a peek.

Is smoking ganja deviant?

Other methods are presented and discussed very clearly in the chapter. I strongly encourage you to read about them. Also be sure to read the section about “streets vs. suites.” The assigned reading can also clear up some of the fog you may still have about some the concepts in the chapter. I guess using “fog” was not the best…the reading is “Reefer Normal.” Below is the link for the documentary that was mentioned in the box on page 91 (Quiet Rage: Stanford Prison Experiment”). This is very relevant to the topics in this chapter. It is not required that you watch it, but it is a pretty interesting thing that happens as the experiment continues. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIUlBrvqyyo&t=2685s