Differentiate research methods used by criminal justice agencies.

Differentiate research methods used by criminal justice agencies.

Competency 1: Differentiate research methods used by criminal justice agencies.

Introduction

In a research project, there are many considerations that make up the design and direction of the research study. What is the problem being explored? Will there be human subjects? If there are human subjects, how are they governed and to what degree? For a research study to be valid, researchers must openly disclose the research methods proposed for the study and honesty present the findings of their study. It is for this reason that a true research study contains an entire section devoted to the research methods used. Only when full disclosure of the research methodologies takes place can proper assessment of the validity of the researcher’s findings and the ethics of the methodology be assessed. View the Crime Analyst in Action media resource (linked in the Resources) for an example of a problem statement, data collection, and ethics considerations in criminal justice research.

The purpose of this discussion is to understand that ethical gray areas exist and fellow researcher may view the same concept very differently. In an effort to highlight varying viewpoints regarding ethics in research, based on your reading assignment and any additional research needed, address the following in your main post:

Devise a list of 3–5 ethical violations in criminological research methodology, based on a study other than the Stanford Prison Experiment.

Analyze whether you would consider each research method a true ethical violation and to what degree.

Explain whether IRB and ACJS ethical standards are enough to ensure that criminal justice research is conducted using ethical research methods.