Getting to the Heart of it

1. Getting to the Heart of it Socio-Legal Research Methods Forum Monday 24 May 2010 Dr Susan Dennison, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice Dr Elena Marchetti, Griffith Law School

2. Introduction • Why do empirical work? • Qualitative vs quantitative • Importance of research questions • Examples • Reference materials

3. Why do empirical research? • It’s fun • Allows you to travel • Human intuition is flawed and very subjective • Answers questions you could otherwise not answer • Sometimes the only way to get answers for your research questions • Can apply for grants • Increases the range of peer-reviewed journals available as an outlet for your work

4. What others say about qualitative analysis • Explicit and implicit methods and ‘winging it’

5. What is qualitativeresearch? • How do YOU define qualitative research?

6. What is qualitativeresearch? • Berg says qualitative research refers to: “the meanings, concepts, definitions, characteristics, metaphors, symbols, and descriptions of things.”

7. What is qualitativeresearch? • Can include the following methods: • interviewing • participant observation • observation of experimental natural settings • use of photographs or imagery • historical analysis • document and textual analysis • ethnographic research

8. What is quantitative research? • Essentially involves reducing everything into a numerical system: • Categories (e.g., gender: 1 = male, 2 = female) • Rankings (most to least important) • Scales (e.g., attitudes) • Continuous (e.g. sentence lengths, charges)

9. What is quantitative research? • Allows you to: • Make comparisons • Make predictions • Describe trends • Identify differences • Describe relationships • Use statistical analyses

10. Tip! • If you want to obtain some quantitative data but haven’t been trained in quantitative methods or statistical analysis, collaborate with a colleague in the social sciences (e.g., psychology, criminology, economics) before you begin the research… …there is only so much you can do with poor data at the end of a project… • Even if you think you know what you are doing, it is always useful to get feedback on a research design and methodology from your peers

11. The importance of research questions • Your research questions will determine what your methodology is • Try to develop questions that can be answered • Research questions should probe or be identifying a puzzle to be solved – they don’t ask questions that can be answered by looking up a textbook or doing a Google search • Research questions should be informed by theory and thorough knowledge of the literature (relevant to your discipline) • Sound research questions are they key to your research – but most people struggle with this • Don’t start your research until you can articulate your research question/s

12. Examples - Susan • ARC Linkage: ‘Vulnerable families: A study of the impact of parental offending and incarceration on children’s developmental outcomes’

13. Vulnerable Families project • The starting point…we do not yet understand: • How many children in Qld are affected by paternal incarceration • Differential impact of paternal incarceration versus paternal criminality • Mechanisms through which incarceration exerts an effect on children • The type and timing of interventions/programs that may assist children and their families • The underpinning theories are developmental systems theory (psychology) and life-course theory (criminology)

14. Research Question 1 • How many male prisoners are parents? • Quantify parental status (therefore quantitative design) • Produce estimates of number of children in QLD with father in prison • Methodological considerations: • Snapshot of prisoners over a short period (cross-sectional) • Issue of representative sentence lengths and other demographics • Eligible participants - all new intakes in Qld prisons over a 6-month period (Oct 2008 – March 2009)

15. Research Question 2 • In what capacity do male prisoners engage in parenting? • Themes/events to be explored • Contact and relationship with child • Relationship with caregiver • Parenting style and role modelling • Maintaining contact with child and potential problems • How being in prison has changed child’s life • Circumstances upon release

16. Method for RQ2 • Interview approx 100 male prisoners serving the last quarter of their sentence who have children under 18 years • Mixed method • Qualitative data through semi-structured interviews (approx 1 hour) • Quantitative data through official records and survey (sentence length, prior sentences, age, number of children, age of children, employment, education, indigenous status, marital status etc) • Aim to obtain a representative mix of non-Indigenous, urban Indigenous and remote and rural Indigenous men

17. Research Question 3 • 3a: Does parental incarceration exert an effect on children over and above parental criminality? • 3b: How does parental incarceration affect children’s developmental outcomes over time? • 3c: How do parental transitions from prison to home affect children’s developmental outcomes?

18. Method for RQ3 • Sample will comprise 100 families with an incarcerated father and 100 families with a father serving a community correctional order • Two waves of data collection (more in future) • Mixed method using structured questionnaires, validated scales, and semi-structured interviews • Data will be collected from caregiver’s and children (5 -17 yrs) relating to: family background, child measures, parent-child relationships, the offender parent, neighbourhood characteristics, support networks, service access, and government records (education, juvenile justice)

19. Examples - Elena • ARC Project: ‘Sentencing Indigenous offenders of partner violence: A fundamental comparative analysis of Indigenous sentencing courts and specialist family violence courts’

20. Examples - Elena • Research questions: • What unique contribution do Indigenous sentencing courts make in addressing Indigenous partner violence that may not be present in specialist family violence courts? • What can each type of court process learn form the other?

21. Examples - Elena • Subsidiary questions: • In what ways (if at all) do the courts change an offender’s behaviour? • What benefits of the courts do victims identify? Do these differ, and is one court perceived to be better than another? • What Indigenous-specific mechanisms exist in the Indigenous sentencing courts that may not exist in the family violence courts? Conversely, what gender- or victim-specific mechanisms exist in the family violence courts that may not exist in the Indigenous sentencing courts?

22. Examples - Elena • Subsidiary questions: • What is the impact of the Indigenous sentencing courts on wider community perceptions of responses to partner violence? • Are the processes culturally appropriate, according to Kelly’s (2002) criteria?

23. Examples - Elena • Four different methods • Interviews of court workers and Elders; interviews of victims and offenders • Observations of court processes • Thematic analysis of court transcripts • Statistical analysis of NSW court data comparing mainstream courts with Circle Courts

24. Examples - Elena • There are 7 court sites: • Nowra • Kempsey • Mt Isa • Rockhampton • Geraldton • ACT Circle Court • ACT Family Violence Court

25. Examples - Elena • Need to consider ethics and sampling strategies for interviews

26. Read, read, read! • Adler, Emily and Clark, Roger (2008). How it’s done: An invitation to social research, 3rd edition. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. • Berg, Bruce L (2009) Qualitative research methods for the social sciences, 7th edition. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon. • Dancey, Christine P. and Reidy, John (2007). Statistics without maths for psychology, 4th edition. Essex, England: Pearson Education Ltd. • Miles, Matthew B. and Huberman, A. Michael (1994) Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook, 2nd edition. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. • Neuman, W. Lawrence (2005) Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches, 6th edition. Sydney: Allyn and Bacon. • Silverman, David (2006) Interpreting qualitative data, 3rd edition. London: Sage.

27. Thank you …