Prior to beginning work on this assignment, read Chapters 4 and 5 from the text. It is also recommended that you review the upcoming assignments in Weeks 2 and 3, along with your Capsto

4

Strategies for Reviewing the Research

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

• Identify and locate resources to use in finding appropriate literature on social and criminal justice topics, including online sources and treeing.

• Evaluate both the breadth and depth of social and criminal justice research, and how these dimensions influence research and literature reviews.

• Evaluate the credibility of sources, using criteria such as relevance, primary versus secondary, authorship, expertise, currency, accuracy, and corroboration.

• Analyze journal articles in a systematic way to extract relevant and pertinent information.

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CHAPTER 4Section 4.1 Locating Resources

Once a topic is identified and developed into a workable research question, the research begins. The ability to analyze and summarize information from a variety of sources,

which includes identifying common themes, is an incredibly valuable skill in college. It can also be viewed as a valuable skill by criminal justice employers and is sometimes nec- essary for advancement within the field. A “literature review” or “literature search” is the major component of the CRJ 422 Social and Criminal Justice Research Project and is con- ducted to identify the ideas that have already been made public or presented by scholars in the field. Although some of these ideas could be personal opinions or anecdotal reports, students should look for scholarly, peer-reviewed literature and learned opinions from experts in the field. The process of reviewing previous research allows students to build the foundation for answering the research question.

When students conduct a literature review, each aspect is related to specific components of the research question. The student presents the outcomes and results of past research in order to provide an answer for the research question, while concluding the literature review with recommendations for future research.

When outlining a literature review, the writing approach should focus on providing a pre- sentation of the facts in an impartial and objective manner, meaning the student should avoid providing personal opinions. Although the literature reviewed may persuade a stu- dent in his or her personal opinion, this opinion should not be expressed in this type of research paper. Students should remember that the evidence will answer the research question, not personal opinions.

A major component of this approach is the ability to incorporate evidence—specifically, research-based evidence—into the written text. Because of the unique nature of social and criminal justice research, a student might take a broad approach, which can include more than one of the fields, or a narrower approach, which would involve a specific focus on one field. Whatever approach the student chooses will ultimately affect the nature of the literature review.

4.1 Locating Resources

The first step in writing a literature review is to find appropriate literature that pertains to the research topic. Local public and university libraries, as well as a careful and

systematic Internet search (more on this in a later section), are all prospective options. In addition, the university offers a number of convenient resources for the online student, including an e-book database called ebrary, and the University Research Tutorial. In litera- ture reviews, journal articles are commonly utilized and summarized, but other types of resources can provide valuable academic contributions as well (e.g., books, monographs, recorded interviews, book chapters, websites, and so on). The criteria necessary to evalu- able the credibility of information (retrieved online or otherwise) are presented later in this chapter.

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CHAPTER 4Section 4.1 Locating Resources

Tips & Tools: Making the Most of Databases—Advanced Features

Databases like ProQuest and others are called search engines and are indexed on a num- ber of criteria. This indexing is used to facilitate quicker retrieval when a student enters

the search terms in which he or she is interested. However, a literal search engine may miss relevant docu- ments if the wrong term is used or if the term is misspelled. Unless the student asks ProQuest to return hits that are variants of spellings, the database will find only literal, exact matches (i.e., the exact word). To provide more flexibility, two advanced features to consider using are the commands for truncation and wildcards, shown in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1: Truncation and wildcard characters

Character Explanation Example * The symbol * is used as a right-handed

truncation character only; it will find all forms of a word.

Searching for crim* will find “crime,” “criminal,” “criminology,” etc.

? The symbol ? is used to replace any single character, either inside the word or the end of the word. ? cannot be used to begin a word.

Searching for “wom?n” will find “woman” and “women.” Searching for “l?w” will find “law,” “low,” etc.

(continued)

The Online Library and Other Online Options Many institutions pay for institu- tional access to online databases that help search what is available and help locate the materials for direct access. These databases are housed in the online library (login via the Student Portal) and include electronic books, journals, and other types of articles. Social and criminal justice students will likely use EBSCO, JSTOR, Pro- Quest, Project MUSE, and ebrary (see the library’s Database List by Subject). However, students are not limited to these databases. In addition, local public libraries and/or other university libraries might have access to databases to which the university does not subscribe. But the online library does offer descriptions of each database, as well as tip sheets and guides for research and advanced search techniques, which may be helpful to students. Knowing the important keywords as well as reviewing all relevant databases are essential steps taken prior to conducting the actual research, source evaluation, and analysis of the information. For additional advanced techniques on searching databases, see Tips & Tools: Making the Most of Databases—Advanced Features.

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The online library is a great tool for locating resources.

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CHAPTER 4Section 4.1 Locating Resources

Tips & Tools: Making the Most of Databases—Advanced Features (continued)

The * symbol (asterisk) is used as a type of wildcard that will search for words that start with the same root letters but may end differently. For example, a database search on the

word legalization might not turn up related words like legal, legally, legalize, legalizing, or legalized unless these latter words were also mentioned in the journal article. But a search on legal* would return all pos- sible options for words starting with l-e-g-a-l. Using the ? (question mark) feature can be helpful as well, as in the example from ProQuest in the table above, using the term woman and women in one search.

Boolean operators are mathematical terms and descriptors that can be used in database searches to widen or narrow the scope of the search. The most common Boolean operators used for database searches are and, or, and not—but there are other advanced features as well. For example, the terms woman and women can be searched for simultaneously using woman or women, in addition to the wom?n feature. This means the database should retrieve any journal article that contains either term, as opposed to woman and women, which indicates that the journal article must contain both terms. The not function can be useful as well. For example, a search including not dissertation means disserta- tions should not be included in the list of database matches (hits). Such searches can also be combined on the same line, such as (woman or women) not dissertation. To find database matches with terms within the proximity of one another, see the advanced options in Table 4.2.

Table 4.2: Operators used in database searches

Operators Boolean, proximity, and adjacency operators are used to broaden and narrow your search.

AND Find all the words. When searching for keywords in “Citation and Document Text,” AND finds documents in which the words occur in the same paragraph (within approximately 1,000 characters) or the words appear in any citation field. Example: Internet AND education

AND NOT Find documents that have the first word, but not the second word. Example: Internet AND NOT html

OR Find any of the words. Example: Internet OR intranet W/# Find documents where these words are within some number of words apart (either

before or after). Use when searching for keywords within “Citation and Document Text” or “Document Text.” Example: computer W/3 careers

W/PARA Finds documents where these words are within the same paragraph (within approxi- mately 1,000 characters). Use when searching for keywords within “Document Text.” Example: Internet W/PARA education

W/DOC Find documents where all the words appear within the document text. Use W/DOC in place of AND when searching for keywords within “Citation and Document Text” or “Document Text” to retrieve more comprehensive results. Example: Internet W/ DOC education

NOT W/# Find documents where these words appear but are not within some number of words apart (either before or after). Use when searching for keywords within “Cita- tion and Document Text” or “Document Text.” Example: computer NOT W/2 careers

PRE/# Find documents where the first word appears some number of words before the second word. Use when searching for keywords within “Citation and Document Text” or “Document Text.” Example: world pre/3 web

(continued)

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CHAPTER 4Section 4.1 Locating Resources

Tips & Tools: Making the Most of Databases—Advanced Features (continued)

One more useful tool that might prove helpful is ProQuest’s built-in thesaurus feature. This feature helps users identify other search terms that may be synonymous with the

initial search term or related to the term in some way. For example, a very broad search term, such as juvenile delinquency, would likely return hundreds of thousands of hits. But perhaps juvenile delin- quency isn’t quite the right term; the thesaurus feature will offer conceptually related ideas (and this feature is quite different from a literal search engine): broader terms, narrower terms, and then related terms. So if the true topic of interest is really juvenile female gangs involved in delinquency, clicking on the suggested Female Gang Members-Delinquency will make a search more precise. See Figure 4.1.

Figure 4.1: ProQuest’s Thesaurus feature

Access ProQuest’s Thesaurus feature by clicking on “Thesaurus” on the Advanced Search page or at the bottom of a search results page. Note that the “Suggested Topics” also provides additional search terms and related topics. As with other search engines, ProQuest includes dropdown menus of Boolean operators to help widen or narrow the scope of the search.

The screenshots are published with permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. www .proquest.com

The power and complexity of the available databases can be overwhelming to students who are first- time researchers. The key is to practice with these new tools, especially at the beginning of the research process. By becoming competent in database research in the beginning of the project, students will be better prepared to conduct the actual research and literature review. In addition, this competency will be beneficial to provide search skills that are useful well beyond the completion of this course.

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CHAPTER 4Section 4.1 Locating Resources

In addition to the library resources available to students, another route for discovering research of interest involves using Google Scholar, which searches scholarly literature and abstracts available on the Web, and even on Google itself. For example, because of the unique nature of criminal justice and its four major fields of study, a library database may at times be too narrow and too focused, so resources that are more broad-based (such as Google Scholar) might identify research efforts not captured in other databases. There are also numerous governmental depositories of resources (e.g., the Educational Resource Infor- mation Clearinghouse, or ERIC) that may be helpful to students. A reference librarian who has been educated and trained to help others locate reference materials is a great resource to consult in order to determine whether government databases may be of value.

Knowledgeable People Faculty can also act as resources, or at least a starting point for students. Depending on the course, the instructor may have more expertise about a given topic, or at least be able to point students in a direction of additional sources. A reference librarian also has special talents that can be particularly useful. The university’s team of librarians is familiar with the available databases and can assist students with locating resources, generating search terms, and narrowing research topics. Librarians are available via e-mail, and by chat or phone.

Treeing Treeing is a technique by which a student examines the references section of an article to determine whether some of the sources cited might also be of value as part of his or her current research project. This technique is particularly effective when the student identi- fies a spot-on research article directly addressing the issue of interest; odds are, some of the references in that article may be references the student wishes to consult for his or her own research paper. Even if a particular research article is not ultimately cited in the research paper, some of the references from that article may be valuable for treeing. Thus, be sure to save PDFs and paper copies because those resources may be valuable in a dif- ferent context. For an example of treeing, see Tips & Tools: Example of Treeing.

Tips & Tools: Example of Treeing

A research question that evaluates the effectiveness of a juvenile restorative justice pro- gram could draw related resource material from social justice journals as well as criminal

justice journals. The article “Putting a human face on crimes: A qualitative study on restorative justice processes for youths” was published in the Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal (2011, October), 335–355. In the References section, 66 sources are presented. A review of the first 25 citations yields the following nine potential articles that could be relevant to the research question:

Applegate, B. K., Davis, R. K., & Cullen, F. T. (2009). Reconsidering child saving: The extent and correlates of public supports for excluding youths from the juvenile court. Crime & Delinquency, 55(1), 51–77.

Bazemore, G. & Green, D. L. (2007). “Yardsticks” for victim sensitive process: Principle-based standards for gauging the integrity of restorative justice process. Victims and Offenders, 2, 289–301.

(continued)

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CHAPTER 4Section 4.2 Breadth of Field: Criminal Justice (Broad) and Topic-Specific Databases (Narrow)

4.2  Breadth of Field: Criminal Justice (Broad) and Topic-Specific Databases (Narrow)

One of the early decisions in writing a social and criminal

justice research paper is whether to take a broad approach or a nar- row approach. As mentioned in Chapter 3, criminal justice encom- passes four major fields of study (law enforcement, courts, correc- tions, and juvenile justice). Social justice encompasses three main principles (equality, solidarity, and human rights). A broad approach covers a breadth of topics so that a student may attempt to integrate multiple issues when examining phenomena and events of inter- est. This sort of broad viewpoint can include historical and cultural

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Should you take the broad approach and explore the ocean, or the narrow approach and explore the shark?

Tips & Tools: Example of Treeing (continued)

Braithwaite, J. (1999). Restorative justice: Assessing optimistic and pessimistic accounts. Crime and Justice, 25, 1–127.

Braithwaite, J. (2002). Setting standards for restorative justice. British Journal of Criminology, 42, 563–577.

Butts, J. A. & Mears, D. P. (2001). Reviving juvenile justice in a get-tough era. Youth & Society, 33(2), 169–198.

Calhoun, A. & Pelech, W. (2010). Responding to young people responsible for harm: A comparative study of restorative and conventional approaches. Contemporary Justice Review, 13(3), 287–306.

Choi, J. J. & Severson, M. (2009). What! What kind of apology is this? The nature of apology in victim offender mediation. Children and Youth Services Review, 31, 813–820.

Daly, K. (2002). Restorative justice: The real story. Punishment & Society, 4(1), 55–79.

Hayes, H. & Daly, K. (2003). Youth justice conferencing and reoffending. Justice Quarterly, 20(4), 725–764.

Once these potential articles have been identified, the student should then search the database for the actual articles. If an article provides information worthy of inclusion in the research project, the student would synthesize that information and add the citation to the reference section of the project. As a result of the treeing process, if all nine articles are worthy of inclusion, the student has added nine resources to his or her research project, provided from the one initial article.

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CHAPTER 4Section 4.2 Breadth of Field: Criminal Justice (Broad) and Topic-Specific Databases (Narrow)

issues within several or all of the fields, to examine the impact of events that influence our daily lives. For example, consider the topic “sex offenders.” A student might explore the context of how sex offenders are identified and labeled (legal), or the specific behaviors that sex offenders engage in (behavioral), or how the societal view of sex offenders has changed from the 20th to the 21st century (historical and cultural), or the role that the Inter- net has played in pedophilia (cultural and legal). To take a broad approach, the student might address all of these aspects on one literature review.

A narrow approach explores a subject in depth. In the earlier example about sex offenders, a student taking a narrow approach would perhaps explore only the legal perspective or only the cultural perspective but will explore it more deeply. This type of approach is common in criminal justice. Perhaps the student wants to understand a specific crime or examine a specific offender’s behavior. For example, a student may want to explore the early life of Ted Bundy in an attempt to identify whether events in his childhood had an effect on his later criminal behavior.

The type of approach would undoubtedly influence the types of journal articles a student might review in preparation of the research paper. There are journals such as The Journal of Crime and Justice and Crime and Delinquency, which publish a broad spectrum of articles and reflect the integrative work that criminologists often do. Numerous other journals focus on one of the specific fields or on specific topics or issues. For example, Police Stud- ies, Policing and Society, and the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin all focus on law enforcement topics and issues. Criminal Law Quarterly, Criminal Law Review, and the Journal of Criminal Law all focus on legal and court issues, while Corrections Today focuses on current issues and trends in corrections at the local, state, and federal levels. In addition, specific topic journals include Criminal Justice Ethics, Child Abuse and Neglect, Journal of Drug Issues, Fed- eral Probation, and the Journal of Criminal Justice Education, which all focus on a specific topic or issue within criminal justice. For social justice topics, many journals are topic spe- cific, while others are more integrative in nature (i.e., George Mason University Civil Rights Law Journal, Journal of Human Rights, Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, Race, Gender & Class, Social Justice, Social Justice Review, Social & Legal Studies, and Windsor Review of Legal & Social Issues).

Both broad and narrow approaches are effective in developing research papers that a stu- dent writes in social and criminal justice. However, depending on the topic and research question, the best approach might be a hybrid approach in which the student simultane- ously examines the big picture (broad) while also examining important specific details (narrow). Being able to develop the big picture (broad approach) while incorporating the important specific details (narrow approach) is an effective strategy, particularly when the research question involves a topic that can be evaluated on both a general and a specific perspective. For example, in a study of Ted Bundy, not only would his criminal behaviors be examined but the student would also examine his childhood history, as well as the social and cultural contexts in which his crimes were committed.

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CHAPTER 4Section 4.3 Evaluating Sources

4.3 Evaluating Sources

However broad or narrow the research topic might be, the

student will still face the task of sifting through the numerous potential sources or “hits” on a database search. In evaluating resources, students should con- sider the source’s relevance to the topic at hand as well as its credibility, or trustworthiness. This is particularly true of Inter- net sources. Search engines such as Google Scholar and JSTOR can be useful in uncovering sources unavailable on library databases, such as government records and sources at college libraries. How- ever, because it is more difficult to determine an Internet source’s credibility, students should take extra care in evaluating these sources. The following sections recommend specific cri- teria for making the decision about the credibility of the source. In truth, sometimes it takes quite a bit of detective work to determine whether the information from a particular source is believable or not.

Relevance Imagine that a student is using library resources and search engines to research a topic of interest. A search result emerges with many good leads on the topic. How does the stu- dent decide which materials to retain and which to ignore? To be able to do this efficiently is a skill, and like any skill, it will take practice before it can be perfected. But how does a student make those decisions now?

Honestly, it is a bit of trial and error. For the research project in CRJ 422, it would be better to err on the side of retaining too much information (for possible inclusion in the research paper) than to not have enough information available. It is easier to discard a source that is not used in the final project than it is to go back and generate more searches and reviews. A strong outline and a clear research question can be the litmus test for how relevant a lead or source might be. That is, a student can compare the “gist” of a located resource to the research question and ask whether the resource under consideration could contribute to answering the question.

It may seem odd to include sources that contradict each other in answering the research question. However, it is important for all students to strive to be open-minded and criti- cal thinkers, looking for evidence on all sides of an issue. Do not ignore contradictory research just because it is contradictory; be sure to acknowledge alternative points of view. Critically thinking about social and criminal justice issues almost always means consider- ing multiple points of view.

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When conducting Internet research, it is important to verify sources and make sure that they are trustworthy.

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CHAPTER 4Section 4.3 Evaluating Sources

Primary Versus Secondary Sources As much as possible, students will want to retrieve primary sources, which are original documents. For example, Doug Robinson conducted a research study on the effects of alcohol on criminal behavior and published an article in the Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice. As Robinson was the researcher and he wrote the article, this is consid- ered a primary source.

It is also possible to have articles that review or summarize a primary source, written by another author. These are called secondary sources. For example, if Stan Mitchell were to review and critique Robinson’s article about alcohol and criminal behavior, and write and publish his own article in the Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, Mitchell’s article would be a secondary source. Although Mitchell’s article is written about the origi- nal research conducted by Robinson, it is Mitchell’s interpretation of the research and is thus a secondary source.

Essentially, authors cannot control how others interpret their work; they can only control what they write. Criminologists prefer primary sources whenever possible, as they pro- vide the opportunity to understand the researcher’s perspective in his or her own words, as opposed to someone else’s interpretation.

Authorship For any information to be considered credible (including a journal article), it is important that an author be listed (Ormondroyd, Engle, & Cosgrave, 2011). When an author (or authors) wants to make an evidence-based claim in criminal justice research, the credibil- ity of that claim is based in part on the author’s identity, which is also related to expertise (discussed in the next section). In general, scholars should be willing to attach their name to their own work. There are rare occasions when a criminologist might publish a work as “Anonymous,” but a student should question why. It could be that a topic is so contro- versial that an author fears some sort of academic retribution, such as the denial of tenure or a promotion. In some limited cases, it might make sense to publish anonymously, but those extenuating circumstances are rare. So when authors are unwilling to attach their names to an idea or claim, one might start to think, “Is this idea so flawed that no one was willing to put their name to it?”

Anonymous publishing happens frequently on webpages. A student might locate some great web-based information in the process of conducting research for the literature review, but there is no author listed on the page (or document) of interest. It may take some extended detective work to ascertain the author, but that process is important. If no one is willing to attach a name to the work, then this should raise a red flag and the mate- rial should not be used.

The question of authorship is why many educators become concerned when students cite Wikipedia entries in their assignments. Wikipedia contributors often do not identify themselves. Couple this anonymity with the unrestricted ability to change an entry (at least temporarily), and doubts about credibility will certainly emerge.

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CHAPTER 4Section 4.3 Evaluating Sources

This is not to say that Wikipedia has no value. It can be a good source for generating ideas or seeing what others believe about a topic. In essence, the importance of Wikipe- dia hinges on how students will use the information. For example, if a student were to look for the crime rate in New York City and Wikipedia provided the wrong answer, that incorrect information may result in a point deduction for the student on a test or assign- ment, but getting the wrong information in this instance would not generate great harm. However, if that same student were employed by the New York Police Department and had gathered an erroneous crime rate for the city from Wikipedia, city and police policy decisions based on that erroneous information could lead to ineffective policies and polic- in

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