Teaching Responsibility
LJMU Schools involved in Delivery:
Justice Studies
Learning Methods
Lecture
Workshop
Module Offerings
7042LAWCJ-SEP-MTP
Aims
To prepare students for the compulsory dissertation on the MA Criminal Justice course.
To enable students to develop an advanced and critical knowledge of the key ontological, epistemological and methodological issues that impact upon research into crime and criminal justice.
To consider and demonstrate a critical appreciation of the particular research theories, and methods of data collection and analysis, which researchers use to study crime and criminal justice.
To examine and demonstrate advanced and critical understanding of issues relating to the politics and ethics of crime and criminal justice research.
To examine and demonstrate advanced and critical understanding of practical issues which can affect research into particular aspects of crime and criminal justice.
Learning Outcomes
1.
Recognise and critically evaluate the relative strengths and weaknesses of various theoretical perspectives on research into crime and criminal justice.
2.
Apply an advanced understanding of how to critically appraise research studies in the field of crime and criminal justice.
3.
Show advanced and critical awareness of the politics and ethics of research into crime and criminal justice.
4.
Show an advanced ability to recognise and critically evaluate the substance,
strengths and weaknesses of quantitative and qualitative research techniques,
when used individually and in combination with others.
5.
Show critical awareness of techniques of quantitative and qualitative data analysis.
6.
Construct a viable, robust and well-planned research design and methodology, applying advanced and critical knowledge of issues relating to research theory, research design, data collection, data analysis, and other relevant issues to a personal area of specialist postgraduate study relating to a particular aspect of crime or criminal justice.
Module Content
Outline Syllabus:BLOCK A: APPROACHING RESEARCH INTO CRIME AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE
What is social research? Issues of acquiring knowledge about the social world
Research theory and its links with methods of doing research
Producing a literature review for your research and secondary data sources in criminal justice
Assessing research designs
The politics of criminal justice research
Ethical issues in criminal justice research
BLOCK B: METHODS OF RESEARCHING CRIME AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Quantitative research: introduction and sampling issues
Quantitative research: structured interviews, self-completion questionnaires and structured observation
Quantitative research: quantitative documentary analysis and secondary analysis of official statistics
Quantitative data analysis
Using SPSS to analyse quantitative data
Qualitative research: introduction, principles and practice
Qualitative research: ethnography and participant observation
Qualitative research: qualitative interviewing techniques and qualitative documentary research
Qualitative data analysis: introduction, principles and practice
Triangulation in research
BLOCK C: PLANNING RESEARCH PROJECTS IN CRIME AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Writing research proposals
Formative peer review of research proposals and projects
Module Overview:
This module aims to give you a comprehensive and critical guide to both the theory and practice of research on crime and the criminal justice process. It aims to:
This module aims to give you a comprehensive and critical guide to both the theory and practice of research on crime and the criminal justice process. It aims to:
- prepare you for the compulsory dissertation on the MA Criminal Justice course
- enable you to develop an advanced and critical knowledge of the key ontological, epistemological and methodological issues that impact on research into crime and criminal justice
- consider and demonstrate a critical appreciation of the particular research theories, and methods of data collection and analysis, which researchers use to study crime and criminal justice
- examine and demonstrate advanced and critical understanding of issues relating to the politics and ethics of crime and criminal justice research
Additional Information:This module aims to give students a comprehensive and critical guide to both the theory and practice of research on crime and the criminal justice process. It will link theories to the practical issues relating to doing these kinds of research, using case studies to illustrate the possible difficulties which students may face when doing research for themselves (including political and ethical obstacles). It will also act as an advanced and theoretically-informed guide to the strengths and weaknesses of both quantitative and qualitative research methods in the context of research on crime and criminal justice. The assignments for this module are designed to allow students to develop skills for appraising research and to be as practical as possible for students planning and undertaking dissertation-length, postgraduate-level research for the first time. Formative assessment takes place in the form of peer-group presentations in a symposium format, to present ideas for the module assessment.