CPSC 1100 Assignment 3 Blog Post 2

Research Methods: Criminology

Research is key in the social sciences because Criminology is based on making the law, finding people that are breaking the law, and finding ways that we can stop that from happening. There are many research methods that are used to explore what is happening in our society. One of the ways we can study something is by doing a Cross-Sectional Study which means studying a group of people and base our observations that represent a single point in time. So if we decide to study a group of college students, we will ask them to survey once and never again will they be contacted. In contrast, a longitudinal study is one which is designed to permit observations over an extended period of time. An example would be, a researcher who observes the activities of a neighborhood anticrime organization from the time of its inception until demise. There are also Surveys of Offending which ask people about crimes they may have committed. These kind of surveys don’t always give the best results because very few people are ready to admit the crimes that they have committed. However, this is one of the best methods available for trying to measure certain crimes that are poorly represented by other techniques. Some examples of this may be prostitution, drug abuse, shoplifting or drunk driving. These are crimes that are not caught very often therefore these surveys do give us more information about them. These are some of the few methods of researching, there are many more.