Models and Ethics in Criminal Justice Research and Recommendations to Curb Ethical Issues

Research Design and Ethical Issues
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Research Design and Ethical Issues
Research is a critical element in the criminal justice system since it is used for effective decision-making. Substantial decisions are vital for upholding justice. Research allows criminal justice organizations to explore different practices, programs, and policies (Maxfield, 2015). Successful criminal justice research requires reliable models which consider ethics. Ethics in research is based on adhering to reliable standards that do not jeopardize the research populations or the outcomes. Any researcher in criminal justice should ensure the research models aligns to goals and uphold ethics. The paper probes research models and ethics in criminal justice research and effective recommendations to curb emerging ethical issues.
Research Models
Different research models exist for criminal justice research. One of the models is experimental criminology. It is a type of research model which integrates specific scientific experiments in answering research questions related to punishments and crime (Koehler & Smith, 2021). The identified model is primarily used in real-life settings and not scientific laboratories. The model focuses on valid and reliable research data. The second research model applied in criminal research is quasi-experimental design. It is used to identify the relationship between dependent and independent variables (Maxfield, 2015). It focuses on non-randomized data, thus reducing the emerging ethical issues. A quasi-experimental design is applicable in real-life research settings to address criminal-related problems. The last criminal justice research model is the observational research model. It is non-experimental research that systematically analyzes key individual behaviors. The observational data is used to answer research questions. The model is viable for criminal justice research since it is used to identify criminal behaviors and develop appropriate interventions to curb the behaviors. Therefore, the three research models, including quasi-experimental, observational, and experimental criminology, can be used in criminal justice research since they integrate key ethical issues during research.
The most preferred research model is experimental criminology. The model is suitable since it is increasingly used to identify research evidence related to social policies. Experimental criminology can also be termed an evidence-based model since it focuses on policies, practices, and programs (Koehler & Smith, 2021). The model is also preferred since it majors on randomized real-life experiments contributing to valid and reliable data. An example that supports the choice of experimental criminology is its application in Maryland criminal justice research contributing to effective policy development by Maryland scientific researchers (Maxfield, 2015). Therefore, it shows that the model establishes a gold standard in promoting ethically viable criminal justice research.
Ethics in Criminal Justice Research
Different ethical aspects are present in criminal justice research, such as field experiments and justice surveys. The major ethical elements are research design outcome and informed consent. Ethics are necessary for criminal justice research since they provide moral guidelines that the researcher must consider to meet the population's desires (Maxfield, 2015). For instance, ethics ensures that researchers receive informed consent before collecting specific data in various populations. Ethics is also necessary since it allows the researchers to adhere to specific legal practices and policies during fieldwork or experimental research. For instance, a researcher cannot interrogate a certain party with a specific case in court unless they do not jeopardize the judicial process. These are v...