Gathering Data
You are interested in conducting research concerning police officers and their jobs. The information you want to gather, including job satisfaction or job hazards, is up to you as long as you clearly state the goal of your research. The method you use should be appropriate for the goal of your research. Develop a 1,100 word paper addressing what you have learned about criteria for criminal justice research, specifically with regards to what research method is appropriate in your proposal. Address the following questions: What is the goal or purpose behind your proposed research? What type of interview structure would you use? Why? What would be some questions you would ask? Why? What are some distinct advantages of a qualitative data-gathering strategy, such as participant observation, over more quantitative approaches? When conducting survey research, how important is informed consent and confidentiality? Include at least 3 references. 3 intext citations Format your paper consistent with APA 6th edition guidelines.
Gathering Data
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Purpose of Research
Security is one of the key pillars of any society. The need to feel safe and have this feeling guaranteed is essential for the sustenance of any civilized society. Unlike many centuries ago when people used to take the law into their own hands, the situation today is very different from what it was. The establishment of a police force in every nation (and society by extension) is almost unavoidable. Charged with upholding the rule of law, these selfless men and women dedicate their lives to overseeing the deliverance of justice to wrongdoers in society. While this is an honorable job, it does have its fair share of challenges. Police officers all over the world are faced with strikingly similar challenges in carrying out their duties (Berg, 1999). This paper aims to gain deeper insight into some of the hazards that police officers face in the line of duty. The research is geared at uncovering and understanding the dynamics involved in some of the hazards that police officers face while at work.
Interview Structure
In a bid to understand the hazards that police officers encounter, it is mandatory that first hand experiences from police officers themselves are used. This is because employing any other method would provide a false notion of the reality of the matter. For this reason, this research will employ the use of qualitative methods, and specifically the use of interviews as the primary method of data collection (Dantzker & Hunter, 2012). Dantzker & Hunter (2012) also posit that the criminal justice section is extremely sensitive, and there is a growing need to understand the operations of this system by citizens of almost every state. For this reason, interviews will provide raw data from the source (in this case the police officers) that is both accurate and concise.
To realize the best results from the research, the interviews used to collect data will be non-structured. It is inevitable that many of the hazards facing police officers at work are matters that are taken very seriously, and that have the potential of affecting the lives of police officers and their families. This sensitive nature calls for a non-structured interview that will allow the police officers being interviewed to be open and to share their experiences and fears alike. The non-structured interview allows the interviewer to direct the course of the interview, especially in aspects that seem to be of greater importance than others. The structured interviews follow a specific set of questions, and in essence limit the interviewee from expressing their true and honest opinions and feelings. This non-structured interview, on the other hand, allows for the development of close dialogue between the interviewer and interviewee.
The use of this interview structure makes it possible to collect data that would have otherwise been impossible to collect using structured interviews. Although the answers to questions in structured interviews may still provide information regarding the hazards police officers face at work, they terribly fail at collecting data on the emotions and opinions of police officers regarding these hazards. In this sense, it becomes more difficult to interpret the officers’ opinions about the causative agents of the hazards that they face. It is for this reason that I choose a non-structured interview as the best interview structure in pursuing the goal of this research.
Possible Questions
The questions that I would pose to the police officers will be centered on a few key issues such as health, corruption, fa...