Research Methods I:
Research Design
Crim
860 - Fall 2023
[Last updated 30 November 2023]
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08
September |
ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUES * The Methods Stream(s) in SFU/Criminology *
Get your free copies of NVivo 14 (download) and SPSS
26 (lab access) * Other software
available to grad students/faculty/staff * Other funded opportunities for grad students to keep in mind * SFU Learning Commons Workshops * A couple
of questions |
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15
September |
GENERAL FRAMEWORK * Background Reading: Preface and
Chapter 1 (Perspectives on Research) from Research
Methods in the Social & Health Sciences (RMSHS) * Palys (1989) Addressing the "Third
Criterion" * Dahler-Larson (2023) The Practical
Utility of Mixed Methods GETTING STARTED: Research Ideas, Research Questions, Sources of Data * Background Reading: Chapter 2 (Getting Started: Developing
Research Ideas) from RMSHS * Brancati (2018) Conducting a Literature Review *
Becker (1993) How I
learned what a 'crock' was * Assignment 1: Sampling – due
before class of 22 September |
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22
September |
SAMPLING ISSUES * Background Reading: Chapter 5
(Sampling & Recruitment) from RMSHS * Becker (1998) Sampling * Loseke (2017) Samples *
Road Trip! We visit Yolanda Koscielski of the
Library Research Commons regarding resources
for Crim students (11:15 AM in Library Room
4009). |
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29
September |
ETHICAL ISSUES IN CRIMINOLOGICAL
RESEARCH * Background
Reading: Chapter 3 (Ethics in
Social Research) from Research
Decisions (2014) *
ASSIGNMENT 2: Ethics. Complete the
TCPS ethics 9-module tutorial at https://tcps2core.ca/welcome
if you have not done so already. The Secretariat suggests it will take about
4 hours in total. Send your certificate of successful completion to Prof
before this class. * Brown (2018) Ethical
Challenges to Research in the Criminal Justice System * Palys & Lowman (2019) Eight challenges to research
confidentiality in Canada * Download VeraCrypt
for your Windows, Mac and/or Linux operating systems * Codes of Ethics: * Code
of Ethics of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences * Tri-Council
Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans * SFU Policy
R20.01 (2019). Ethics Review of
Research Involving Human Participants * A good week
to get your abstract ready for WSC? Deadline is
October 8th |
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06
October |
OPERATIONALIZATION PART 1 *
Gould (1981) Craniometry (Excerpt from The Mismeasure
of Man) * Harris (2017): 'Sexist and racist':
Indigenous inmate takes prison security tests to the Supreme Court * Davies (2017). How
statistics lost their power – and why we should fear what comes next * Palys &
McGuire (2023) Measuring crime. * Assignment 3:
Creating Items for an Attitude Scale |
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13
October |
OPERATIONALIZATION
PART 2 * Background Reading: Chapter 12
(Archival Sources) from RMSHS *
Bernard (2013) Scales and
Scaling * Gardner (2018) StatsCan
may be dull, but it’s a vital institution * Kosinski
(2013) Predicting
traits from digital records * Cadwalladr
& Graham-Harrison (2018) How
Cambridge Analytica turned Facebook
‘likes’ into a lucrative political tool * Assignment 4: Indexes and Scales |
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20
October |
NEXT STEPS IN CREATING A LIKERT
SCALE * A copy
of the data from Survey Monkey is here * Here is
the list of all
the items in the order they appeared in the survey * Here is
the SPSS
file of our data * Here are
the PowerPoint
slides detailing next steps * Here are
the slides giving the Spearman-Brown Formula
and showing where you can find Cronbach’s Alpha in SPSS * And here
is Assignment 5
(actually still 4) due either 27 October or November 03 (your choice) |
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27
October |
EXPERIMENTAL APPROACHES * Background
Reading: Chapter 6
(Eliminating Rival Plausible Explanations: The Experiment) from RMSHS * Festinger (1953) Laboratory Experiments *
Campbell & Stanley (1963) Experimental
and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Research (read to page 33) * Boruch (2012) Deploying
randomized field experiments in the service of evidence-based crime policy *
Class guest: Dr. Rylan Simpson, to talk of his use
of experimental methods in Criminology |
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03
November |
QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL & CASE
STUDY APPROACHES *
Background
Reading:
Chapter 7 (From Manipulative to Analytic Control: Quasi-Experimentation) from
RMSHS *
Campbell (1969) Reforms as experiments * Hutchinson (2019) Evaluation Failures:
Conclusion * Background Reading:
Chapter 8 (Case Study Approaches) from RMSHS * Stake (2003): Case studies * Maxwell (2013) Validity: How Might You
be Wrong? * Career Trajectories I: Our guest will be Dr.
Dawn Rault, a member of faculty hired in the
Teaching stream |
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10
November |
CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON RESEARCH
DESIGN * Noaks
and Wincup (2004): Doing Research on Crime and Justice: A
Political Endeavour? * Cunneen, Rowe & Tauri
(2017) Indigenous
Epistemologies and Methodologies *
Miner (1956). Body Ritual Among the Nacirema *
Lowman (2016) Expert
Testimony in Bedford and McPherson * Career
Trajectories II: Researcher
as Expert Witness/Advocate/Public Academic as well as Researcher as
Methodologist/Research Coordinator. Guest is Chris Atchison. *
ASSIGNMENT 6: Do an interview (as outlined in class) and submit 1-page report on
or before the evening of 16 November |
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17
November |
SURVEYS/INTERVIEWS * Background
Reading: Chapter 9 (Surveys &
Questionnaires) and Chapter 10 (Interviews) from RMSHS * AAPOR (2020) Best practices for
survey research * Godderis
& Root (2023) Centering
Reciprocity and Accountability in Community-Based Research * Good resources for
question wording and question types: * Robinson & Leonard
(2019) Sourcing
and Crafting Questions * Robinson & Leonard
(2019) Special
Purpose and Sensitive questions *
Introduction to NVivo *
Career Trajectories III: Our guest will be Dr. Amanda Butler, SFU/Crims’ newest appointment in the Research stream |
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24
November |
OBSERVATION AND ETHNOGRAPHY * Background
Reading: Chapter 11 (Observation,
Ethnography and Participatory Action Research) from RMSHS * Cresswell
(2016) Conducting a Good
Observation * Jordan (2003) Who Stole my Methodology?
Co-opting PAR * Madison (2005) Critical Ethnography * Dupont
(2008): PAR with marginalized
populations * Class Guest: Dr. Tamara O’Doherty,
to talk of her use of PAR in her research on the sex industry *
ASSIGNMENT 7: NVivo Report -- due before class on
01 December |
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01
December |
WRITING, PRESENTING PUBLISHING * Background
Reading: Chapter 15
(Disseminating Your Research) from RMSHS * Hewitt et al (2016) The "Art" of
Writing Papers for Criminology Journals * Liebenberg (2016) Writing to
Learn: Why We Should Write, Rewrite, and Rewrite Again * Davis (1971) "That's Interesting"
(synopsis only) * Sousa & Clark (2017)
Getting
the most out of academic conference attendance * Reddick
(2016) Using social
media to promote scholarship *
ASSIGNMENT 8: Choose Your Poison: Door#1 Door#2 Door#3 – all due 11
December |