Week 3 discussion: Criminal Justice Research

Week 3 discussion: Criminal Justice Research: What are the advantages and disadvantages of using interviews and telephone surveys when collecting data in criminal justice research?

Week 3 discussion: Criminal Justice Research

Paper details

Respond to the following in a minimum of 275 words: 

• What are the advantages and disadvantages of using interviews and telephone surveys when collecting data in criminal justice research?
• Are victim surveys effective methods of capturing data related to criminal justice research? Why or why not?
• What is secondary data and how is it used? Why is it important?

Criminal Justice Research
Research in criminal justice is vital to decision-making in criminal justice. It facilitates implemented and well-designed policies, making it possible to explore better the impact of programs, daily practices, and policies. Besides, research enables a better understanding of the effectiveness of programs and if they help reduce crime. Various criminal justice research methods are usually incorporated, including primary sources such as interviews, telephone surveys, victim surveys, and secondary sources.
Telephone surveys and interviews to conduct criminal justice research offers more advantages than other data collection methods. They provide the interviewers with higher flexibility and usually have a better response rate than other research methods. The methods are also efficient for those who cannot read or write (Queirós et al., 2017). However, interviews can be costly and time-consuming when used for criminal justice research. They may also cause biases and offer less anonymity, which can be a big concern to most respondents in such studies, hence being less useful. Telephone surveys are also disadvantageous in that it is difficult for the interviewer to observe the respondent’s body language or behavior. Also, the interviews conducted may be shorter than when conducted face-to-face.
Victim surveys are effective methods of collecting criminal research data. The data collected is sufficiently reliable and valid for cross-national comparison use. According to Jennings and Reingle (2019), the victim surveys can inform the research team of a significant deal concerning crime cross-nationally, which data from police administrative may not provide.

Secondary data is defined as data that is compiled by an individual other than a primary user. The major sources in secondary data used for social science are censuses, organizational records, government departments’ information, and other original research data. Secondary data involves the researcher making use of data another individual had gathered in another research. He/she leverages analysis from secondary data to answer new questions. Secondary data is essential in that it forms the core of any research. It enables the researchers to build on research from existing sources that leads one to find better outcomes and saves money and time.

References
Jennings, W. G., & Reingle, J. M. (2019). Criminological and criminal justice research methods. Aspen Publishers.
Queirós, A., Faria, D., & Almeida, F. (2017). Strengths and limitations of qualitative and quantitative research methods. European Journal of Education Studies.