...Gathering Data Research David Thompson CJA/334 Research Methods in Criminal Justice Dr. Lane Roos July 19, 2012 Gathering Data Research Prosecutions, Convictions, Acquittal’s and all forms of legal action in between play a critical role in the courts. However, none of what the attorneys do can be done without first having a firm grasp on each and every case set before them, the judge and the jury that will be making its judgment. But before they can make an informed decision there must have been a gathering of information, or data to support both sides of the case. The gathering of information or data is vital to the case and perhaps even more so to the individual/s that are on trial as their lives can and often do hang in the balance. No matter what profession one may have within the judicial system, researching information is something that at one time or another must be done. The ineffective of data gathering, research and analysis in often one of the primary factors behind an innocent man/woman going to jail and the guilty going free, therefore, the emphases placed on the gathering of information cannot and must not be understated. The goal of this paper The goal of this paper and my research is to define an officer’s duty, to discuss the importance of research and to address the kind of interview/s structures I would choose to use, the particular questioning style to use during the...
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...problems of conducting research into the detection of lies (15) When conducting research into detecting lies, researchers could potentially face many problems. These could be ethical or practical. The study by Mann attempted to find out about the police’s ability to detect liars. They studied this as we cannot know for sure if the police are good at identifying liars as the public are not allowed to observe recordings of interviews as a suspect is always innocent until proven guilty. The aim of this research was to test police officers ability to distinguish truth and lies during interviews with suspects. Her research was made up of 99 police officers from Kent. This alone is a practical problem as it means the sample is geographically limited to only one area and means the sample can only be representative of this area or other police forces. Perhaps the MET or the FBI have different methods of detecting lies and are either better or worse than much larger forces. A problem in conducting research with this sample was that there wasn’t a control group of non-police officers to test the hypothesis of this study; therefore it was not proved that police officers were better at detecting lies. This research was a field experiment meaning that the ethical guidelines may be challenged as Mann would have had to have gained the full permission of the participants before conducting the study. In this study, Police officers were shown 54 video clips of 14 suspects of real life police interviews...
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...Police Job Hazard Jermaine Hunt CJA/334 January 22, 2013 Fred Hammett Police Job Hazard Police jobs are hazardous and stressful. The goal of this research is to find ways to make the police job less hazardous. In this day and age police officers are at soaring danger of more experiencing killings of most often killed, wounded or attacked even by people, hoodlums, and criminals whose conduct disagrees with society norms and the law. Police officers are experience friendly fire more than even before. Frequent police officers are most often involved in work-related accidents such as rescue operations, falls during chase, and vehicle crashes. They typically live under regular anxiety of physical hazard, work lengthy, irregular hours, and most often exposed to disagreeable sides of living. The research has shown than this can leads to mental stress, family problems, and behavioral troubles. This could come from police officers increase his or her health problems as the consequence of spending a great deal of time outside. Unavoidable bodily contact with people who have infectious diseases is a serious health hazard. The purpose of this research is to make the police job less hazardous but first we must find the best research method, choose an interview structure, ask questions, provide advantages of qualitative over quantitative gathering strategy approaches, and while conducting a survey research how consent and confidentiality are important. Research Method Purposed...
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...its main concerns the offensive use of ethnicity or race as a way of conducting searches, stops and any other law enforcement analytical procedures is unconstitutional. This research will establish whether minorities are likely to be such because of racial profiling. Annotated bibliography Alpert, G. P., Dunham, R. G., & Smith, M. R. (2007). Investigating racial profiling by the Miami‐Dade Police Department: A multimethod approach.Criminology & Public Policy, 6(1), 25-55. The authors in this article illustrate the perception and existence of biased racial profiling and policing as being one of the contemporary issues facing the American society today. In that, the authors conducted a study in Miami-Dade, Florida Police Department where they established that the police use race reprehensively in relation to conducting post-stop activities and making traffic stops. The authors concluded that there were mixed resulted in the sense that, the officer’s aggregate actions did not show any discriminatory actions towards the minority citizens in regards to making traffic stops. However, the post-stop activities indicated that there was disparate treatment of the minority groups. It is evident that the officers of the law, thus making the minorities to be the way they are as they are used to such treatment by people who are supposed to enforce and protect their civil rights, mostly use racial profiling. The police must make use of the intelligent tool where the apprehension should...
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...Gathering Research Data Gathering research within the criminal justice field can take time in regards to how certain information must be obtained and measured. When conducting research concerning police officers and their jobs, obtain statistics based on job satisfaction or job hazards can require an approach while using different ways to do so. So far, the quantitative approach can be used, but the qualitative approach must be used to gain a clear answer to this type of research. As of now, based on this type of criminal justice research and specifically in regards to what research method is appropriate, there could be different ways to complete this research. Goal or Purpose behind Proposed Research Today, the goal of research is to gather information concerning police officers and their jobs in regards to job satisfaction or job hazards. For the purpose of this research, job hazards for police officers are already known, but what about their job satisfaction? Obtaining research on these findings will be important because if police officers are not satisfied with their jobs, they will not have complete motivation to get things done or operate properly, which will affect their ability to work effectively. Now, if police officers can’t work effectively due to limited satisfaction, other issues can arise because of that issue alone. The issues that arise include affected work relationships, and mistakes made while on duty due to confidence levels, which will cause bad relations...
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...If I were to conduct research on police officers and their jobs the information I would look into researching on this topic would be how do police officers handle the long work hours as some departments require officers to work rotating shifts as well as 10 or 12 hour work days. How does this tend to affect the relationships with their family and friends? Does it create for more stress within the family as well as within the work environment? There is the fact that they will not be able to go out with friends as much who work a normal work schedule as well as the fact that the husband or wife will not be around for many holidays as well as working on some of the birthdays of their child. The goal of this research is to determine if working these longer hours in conjunction with working in a hazards and stressful work environment has cause for a higher rate of divorce for police officers in comparison to those who work a regular 9 to 5 pm job and don’t have to deal with hazardous and stressful work environment. The type of interview structure I would use is the depth interview structure. As this is a more intensive and detailed interview, and is particularly useful in life histories or case studies. It is also beneficial in that I would have a general list of topics to be explored, but have the ability to exercise whatever discretion and flexibility when it comes to the direction of questioning I would want to take. Some of the questions I would ask would definitely focus...
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...Gathering Research Data Paper Hayley Lacy CJA/334 April 11, 2016 Rhonda Grant Gathering Research Data Paper Police officers are viewed by the masses of Americans that they are sworn to protect as the men and women in blue. They have sworn to protect the innocent and keep them from harm’s way and in turn do much more than that for their community. It takes an extraordinaire person to be a police officer. They are someone who is willing to dedicate their lives, health and safety in order to protect those who depend on them. In this paper we will attempt to address and research an interest that has been voiced concerning police officers and their jobs. In this paper we will state the purpose behind our proposed research. We will inform you of the interview structure we will use and we will inform you as to some of the questions that we would ask. We will give distinct advantages of a qualitative data-gathering strategy, such as participant observation, over more qualitative approaches. We will inform you when conducting survey research the importance of informed consent and confidentiality. It is a common conception that police officers choose their particular career path simply because they are inheriting a family member’s desire. They choose to be an officer because their father or their mother or a relative was an officer. It is a common conception that officers are not chosen they are inherited and expected to be from family. This area of interest is something...
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...Public Opinion of Police by Different Ethnic Groups :Speech Good morning (evening or afternoon) ladies and gentleman. I would like your attention because I have a subject to discuss. I want to talk about the public's opinion towards police officers by different ethnic groups. There are many thoughts and public opinion on how the community feel towards the many police officers in this country. It is my personal opinion that people should not be hating on the police because they enforce the law, unless they have experienced some sort of police brutality and unprofessionalism. I will speak to you the various races ethnic backgrounds that have statistically shown me the truth behind why they dislike police officers. Amongst part of races that feel like that towards police officers they are Hispanics, African Americans and also other mixed races. Every Hispanic has their own reason to dislike the police officers in this country. For many it could be personal and for others it could be that they do not care and for some it could be that perhaps the immigration topic is what's affecting their opinion about police officers. Anything a police officer does may not be liked by someone for whatever reason, so no matter what not every person will be pleased. Research and plenty of study have been done to find out the truth about why distrust is so high amongst the citizens and the police. They found that "police violence against Rodney King, Amadou Diallo, and the racist attitude of Mark...
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...We both chose our participants because we knew them and felt like they would be able to feel comfortable speaking to us. In order to get them to engage with us positively we described the class and what was the purpose for our research. We also assured confidentiality of their identity. After receiving their consent to be interviewed, we conducted semi-structured interviews, of about an hour long for each interview. Prior to the interview, we prepared some open-ended questions for the interviewees instead of simply ‘yes’ or no’ questions. This way we would be able to allow them to go as much in depth as they would like and get more insight on their first or second hand experiences with the justice system. As they spoke we asked follow up questions...
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...background of the problem, Statement of the problem, General Objectives, Specific objectives, Research Hypothesis, Significance of the study, Limitations, Scope of study/case study, data collection methods, data analysis and literature review. Cybercrime is simply defined as crimes that are directly related to computers and using computers . According to Donna Batten , "computer crime is the use of a computer to take or alter data or to gain unlawful use of computers or services" ("Computer Crime"). International Law; united nation at the 10th United Nation's Congress on the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of offenders, several matters concerning computer networks and cybercrime which were categorized and defined as : "(a) Cybercrime in a narrow sense (computer crime): Any illegal behavior directed by means of electronic operations that targets the security of computer systems and the data processed by them". "(b) Cybercrime in a broader sense (computer-related crime): Any illegal behavior committed by means of, or in relation to a computer system or network, including such crimes as illegal possession (and) offering or distributing information by means of a computer system or network." The European legal framework concerned with the repression of cybercrime. This...
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...RESEARCH METHODS IN CRIME AND JUSTICE CHAPTER 1 – THE RESEARCH PRACTICE Chapter Review Questions Respond to each of the following questions using the information from this chapter. 1. During a recent meeting of the command staff at a mid-sized police department, the chief asks the patrol captain for his recommendation for new flashlights. The captain responds, “I did a little research and I recommend that we purchase the DryLight, Model X flashlight”. The patrol captain’s research consisted of “asking a few of the officers” what they thought would be a good flashlight. Did the patrol captain actually conduct research? Why or why not? ANSWER: Technically, the patrol captain did some research. He conducted interviews which is a form of data collection. One could argue, however, that the patrol captain’s research was limited (pp. 7-8). 2. Respond to the following statement in 3-5 sentences: Conducting research in the social sciences and in criminal justice in particular is easier than in other sciences because the things we measure are so vague that nobody really cares if we get it right or not. ANSWER: Generally speaking, social science research is more challenging than some of the ‘hard sciences’ because the things social scientists study are difficult to measure objectively. As a result social scientists spend a great deal of time justifying how they measure concepts to their peers (pp. 4-5). 3. Read the following scenarios and identify which of the following...
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...Checklist * Officers must Conduct a Pre-Trial Investigation Officers must gather and then verify all information about defendant. Then that information will used to determine if the defendant should be released while awaiting trial. * When officers place the defendant or defendant under arrest, this is when the officers begin their Investigation. * The Police officer will then call the District Attorney with any information about the defendant, and the reasoning surrounding the defendant’s arrest. * Police Officers will then conduct interviews with the defendants and any witnesses * Interviews are conducted to determine what the defendant does on a daily basis and where the defendant calls home. * Before officers’ conduct their interview they may conduct a criminal history check which may be used against the defendant. The Officer will then speak to the District Attorney’s office about the charges and to see what their decision will be regarding a release or detaining the defendant. * When interviewing the defendant the interview will take place at U.S. Marshal’s holding cell, local jail, or law enforcement agency’s office. * When officers speak to defendants it is usually done in private and the officers must remain objective during the interview. * The Officer will explain to the defendant what information will be used to determine his or hers release or whether or not he/she will be detained. * Officers will never talk...
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...advances in policing which are usually advantageous to officers. First, it was motorized patrol which increased response time. Next, the two way radio which made it game changing for preventative patrol, because officer can quickly get word from the station when they are notified of a crime and can be there quickly. Also, some of the newer technologies are also very significant as well, such as DNA testing and video surveillance. All of these things have shaped the roles that present day police officers have. When it comes to technology there are so many different way that it effects policing, but three of the biggest topics are, technological advancements in the late 20th and early 21st century, the use of technology to deter and prevent crime, and how technology impacts police culture, organizational structure, and management. Over the last thirty to forty technology in policing has increased to a level thought unimaginable fifty years ago. One of the most important pieces of technology that has really developed, is the collection of information in databases around the country at the hand of any officer at any time. With all this information that an officer has readily at use it can make the job not just easier but safer. If an officer pulls someone over just by acquiring an ID the officer can figure out if the driver has a warrant for his arrest or if his rap sheet is clean, that knowledge can really affect how an officer approaches a situation. Information technology is...
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...A Vile Blue Criminal justice has dealt with police brutality and citizens rights are taken away by the officers whom sworn to serve and protect the public. Officers that take advantage of their power unfortunately have an impact on all cops, including respectable cops. Not all officers are bad, but when you hear and see repulsive actions on the news or paper, it can make someone think twice on how police work is being managed in the line of duty. Officers are given the power to takeaway someone’s freedom or even takeaway someone’s life, and that can be a huge concern when officers are not conducting up to part with the power they’re responsible for. Evolution has been a major role for the criminal justice field; and for many years’ police brutality had a different definition; much of what we see today was ok to do in the past. Learning how the psychological aspect works and, how internal affairs deal with police brutality can help many understand why it occurs. When becoming a police officer they’re many serious of test and physical challenges that need to be completed before being accepted as part of the brother hood. One actual test being one of the most important to decide weather a candidate would be suitable to becoming a police officer is passing the psychological test. Many would think the psychological evaluation is to test a candidate’s sanity, but failing this test does not mean he or she is crazy; but would only prove a career in law enforcement is not suitable for...
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...Statement of Assignment You have asked me to prepare a memorandum of law conducting legal research using free electronic legal resources related to Minnesota law regarding sovereign immunity for a municipality. Issues Do police officers have a duty of care to automobile drivers and, under Minnesota statutory and case law, are municipal police officers’ actions protected by sovereign immunity? Brief Answer Yes, police officers have a duty of care to the general public as they are hired to protect and serve the public. The higher standard of care is legally imposed upon them due to their professional status. No, the Minnesota Supreme Court waived sovereign immunity in 1975 in order to do away with blanket immunity. The legislature responded by creating specific exceptions to liability in the State Tort Claims Act and the Municipal Tort Liability Act. Although no sovereign immunity exists in Minnesota, the Municipal Tort Liability Act provides an exception to liability for municipalities (vicarious immunity) when judgment is left to the discretion of the city employee carrying out his or her duties. If, however, the government employee is carrying out a job that is simple and definite and that employee has a duty to adhere to ordinance and statutes, the official is not entitled to immunity. Statement of Facts As written in the original memo, on the evening of January 15, city police officers stopped Jerry Myers on suspicion of drunk driving. One passenger, Susan...
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