Definition Of Quantitative Research Methods

Further, understanding crime causation in particular types of criminals or situations is beneficial to understand in order to prevent future offences. For example, serial killers are specific types of criminals and they have their own characteristics. Serial killers differ from murderers in that they usually have specific targets, are not social misfits, are in plain sight, usually employed, often overlooked by police, not motivated by sex, and can stop killing for a period of time. Understanding these distinctions would not be possible without research. Research allows us to gain knowledge about the different types of serial killers- visionaries, mission-oriented, and hedonistic- and their tendencies.

The theory of Travis Hirschi, which is the social bond theory focuses on the concept of the causes and the acts of delinquency, which is what this theory is extracted from. This theory emerges when an individual’s bonds to the society and the community around them are weak or broken (Topak, 2017). The social bond theory can be described as the belief that socialization and personal relationships are significant aspects of human development, which keep individuals from committing crimes (Topak, 2017). The social bond theory is composed of four key components which are the following: attachment, commitment, involvement, and beliefs (Topak, 2017). In

The field of criminology is basically described as the study of crime through which the causes, prevention, and correction of offenses are examined. While this process can be extremely difficult, especially for students, the analysis of the causes of crime is significant to sociology and criminology. The difficulties associated with the study of crime originate from the numerous challenges in developing theories that explain human behavior. In relation to crime, human behavior varies because participants differ in backgrounds, experiences, and characteristics. However, several criminologists and other social scientists have made important contributions in explaining criminal behavior. These contributions have mainly involved the establishment of several theories on crime that focus on various aspects of criminal behavior. Some of the major theories on crime include classical, positivist, individual trait, sociological, and integrated theories.

Throughout history various schools of thought have been created; all attempting to explain why people commit crimes, how to identify criminals, and how we should react to these criminals. These early theories were predominantly deterministic, meaning they all believed there was some trait that can differentiate criminals and non-criminals. Determinism is an important part of the history of criminology and has had a large impact on modern criminology; but these theories are inherently problematic and have some very unfortunate implications.

Maxwell (2005) also notes that qualitative research can be used to address various issues and is not restricted to one ontological stance. The method also involves developing a relationship with the people one is studying, an aspect that is important in defining the authenticity of the data and determining the course of action.

Criminal behavior has been around for centuries, which is why many criminologist study and create theories based on criminal behaviors. They do this as a preventative measure, if you can find a causation of a crime you can stop its occurrences. Criminologist, took these theories and broke them down into three major factors of criminal behavior, psychological, sociological, and biological. Each factor focuses on a key component of criminal behavior, which is explained in theories. However, these theories all have strengths and weaknesses, which is what will be illustrated in this article.

dependent variables, (2) treatment and control groups, and (3) pretesting and post-testing ("Experimental Criminology - Criminal Justice - IResearchNet," n.d.)”.

Walker, J. T., & Maddan, S. (2009). Variables and Measurement. In Statistics in Criminology and Criminal Justice: Analysis and Interpretation (4th edition, pp. 34-35). Retrieved from

The study of criminology is a complex approach to the criminal justice system that uses preemptive theories as a means to decipher why criminals commit crimes. When law enforcement agents begin to think about criminal behavior in the perspective of the criminal they begin to surface the reasons why an individual would decide to break the law. The study of criminology focuses both root cause of the deviant behavior and the effects that crimes have on society (American Military University, last visited Apr 10, 2018). The primary focuses points of criminology are the locations times and frequency of crimes in relations to consequence and reactions these crimes have on an individual and society as a whole (What is Criminology?, Retrieved April

The most important part of describing the research process in criminology and criminal justice research methods consists of being familiar with terminology. The knowledge of proper terminology can be an asset when evaluating, and analyzing research studies or data. However, not knowing the proper terminology when conducting research could affect an officer’s report negatively. Those interested in the study of criminology and criminal justice has a wide range of research methods. Following the research process will strengthen the chance of obtaining a successful, well researched project.

Positivism can be described as a way of thinking about the basis on which knowledge can be classified as scientific. And that scientific knowledge has the ability to measure criminal behaviour and nature of criminal behaviour using secondary statistical data and methods linked with the biological, psychological and sociological knowledge to identify key causes of crime. In this way, scientific knowledge could ultimately provide universal explanations of crime that would apply to all situations and therefore is always objective. (Walklate, 1998). Quantitative research continues to be conducted in criminology but no longer adheres to a narrow positivist research tradition in which a casual explanation is used for crime. Instead, quantitative researchers take into account the vast amount of factors that may influence or cause crime. Similarly, qualitative research is significant due to the growth in new theoretical perspectives; qualitative researchers have moved away from causes of crime to exploring the process by which crimes are created and social reactions to crime.

This paper is about the terminology used in research and the processes in which are used in research. In this paper the reader will learn how not knowing the proper terminology can have an effect on someone that is trying to conduct a criminal justice research project. It will also tell how by being knowledgeable of the correct terms it can be a positive feature to the researcher when examining and weighing up data or following a line of investigation information. And lastly, it will also explain how the knowledge and terminology can and will be relevant to a career in the criminal justice field.

Criminology focuses on the causes, incidences and control of individual and group criminal behaviour. In criminology, there are many theories that focus on causal analysis of the crime. They are termed as the crime-causation theories. These theories aim at coming up with certain generalization as to be able to explain the causal connection between the factors which may lubricate or lead to the existence of crime in our society and crime itself. The debate on why people commit crime is a difficult one to settle down. Causation theories in criminology are important as their understanding will help us to

Quantitative means quantity which implies that there is something that can be counted. Quantitative research has been defined in many ways. It is the kind of research that involves the tallying, manipulation or systematic aggregation of quantities of data (Henning, 1986)

Criminology is the scientific study of crime as an individual and social phenomenon. Criminological research areas include the incidence of crime as well as its causes and consequences. They also include social and governmental regulations and reactions to crime. Nation master.com (2013) highlights that “in criminology the positivist school has attempted to find scientific objectivity for the measurement and quantification of criminal behaviour”. The Positivist School of thought presumes that criminal behaviour is caused by various internal and external factors which are outside of the individual 's control. The scientific method was introduced and applied to the study of human behaviour. Positivism can be broken up into three segments which include biological, psychological and social positivism Nation master (2013)