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Research Methods in Crime and Justice
Chapter 11
Non-Reactive Research Methods
Non-Reactive Research Methods
• To capture human behavior in natural settings,
researchers have developed numerous nonreactive research methodologies.
• Non-reactive research is a collection of
research methods that unobtrusively gather
information from research subjects.
• Because the research subjects are unaware
that they are being observed, they are less
likely to change their behavior.
Non-Reactive Research Methods
Basics
• One way to observe human behavior
indirectly is to study the physical traces that
are left behind.
– An accretion measure determines behavior by
evaluating the things people possess.
– An erosion measure determines behavior by
evaluating how things are used by people.
Non-Reactive Research Methods
Basics
• An unobtrusive observation, involves
observing behavior without being noticed.
• Some researches use archival data, which are
data that have already been collected and
made available by an individual, group or
organization.
Types of Non-Reactive Research
Methods
• There are three major types of non-reactive
research methods.
– Field research – observing behavior in its natural
setting.
– Secondary analysis – analyzing data collected for
another purpose by a previous researcher.
– Content analysis – Analyzing existing textual
information to study human behavior or
conditions.
The Benefits of Non-Reactive Research
Methods
• Non-reactive research methods are beneficial
when;
– Research subjects are likely to change their
behavior after learning that they are being
observed,
– The researcher wants to observe behavior in its
natural setting and/or as it naturally occurs, or
– The data have been previously collected by a
different individual, group or organization
The Limitations of Non-Reactive
Research Methods
• Non-reactive research methods are;
– Ineffective for studying the internal motivations,
beliefs and attitudes that underlie some behavior,
– Potentially unethical if it involves breaching
research subjects’ right to or expectation of
privacy,
– Impossible in cases where secondary or archival
data do not already exist or are unavailable, or
– Often hampered by internal and external validity
problems
The Non-Reactive Research Process
• A Case Study in Non-Reactive Research (Economic
Conditions and Ideologies of Crime in the Media:
A Content Analysis of Crime News)
– The tendency of media outlets to focus on crime and
violence creates false perceptions regarding crime.
– To better understand media portrayals of crime,
Melissa Hickman Barlow, David E. Barlow and
Theodore G. Chiricos (1995) conducted a content
analysis of media content on crime.
– They wanted to know whether economic conditions
had an effect on how the media portrayed crime.
The Non-Reactive Research Process
• Asking a Research Question in Non-Reactive
Research
– The method chosen by a researcher should be
determined by the research question.
– Non-reactive techniques are effective when the
data that can answer a research question already
exists.
– In this case the media reports were readily
available to the researchers.
The Non-Reactive Research Process
• Asking a Research Question in Non-Reactive
Research – cont’d
– Barlow et al. (1995) state that their study is
exploratory, which would be appropriate for a
content analysis.
– However, the authors propose that political and
economic conditions might help explain how the
media portrays crime.
– Thus, it appears that there are pieces of this study
that are explanatory in nature.
The Non-Reactive Research Process
• Conducting a Literature Review in NonReactive Research
– Paying attention to the conceptual definitions
used by previous researchers is particularly
important in non-reactive research.
– Previous non-reactive researchers may have
developed some innovative ways of measuring
concepts in an unobtrusive manner.
The Non-Reactive Research Process
• Conducting a Literature Review in NonReactive Research – cont’d
– In their review of the literature, Barlow et al.
(1995) discovered a rather robust research history.
– They found numerous sources that confirmed
what we all suspected: “crime news distorts
and/or frames crime and crime control in ways
that support institutions of power and authority”
(Barlow et al. 1995: 3).
The Non-Reactive Research Process
• Refining the Research Question in NonReactive Research
– In non-reactive methods intended to produce
exploratory or descriptive information, traditional
hypotheses that predict relationships between
variables are not usually required.
– Instead, you may simply want to pose research
questions and/or general statements about what
you expect to find in the study.
The Non-Reactive Research Process
• Refining the Research Question in NonReactive Research – cont’d
– Barlow et al. (1995) predicted that newspaper
coverage of violent crime would not only
overstate the problem of violent crime, but that
coverage would be most intense during times of
unemployment and economic stagnation.
– Thus, they presented two sets of hypotheses at
the outset of their article.
The Non-Reactive Research Process
• Refining the Research Question in NonReactive Research – cont’d
– The first set of hypotheses focuses on the
depiction of violent crime in news articles.
– The second set of hypotheses focused on the
“characteristics and images of offenders within
crime news articles” (Barlow et al. 1995: 10).
The Non-Reactive Research Process
• Defining Concepts and Creating Measures in
Non-Reactive Research
– The process by which non-reactive researchers
develop conceptual definitions is not different
than in other types of research.
– The challenge in non-reactive research lies in
ensuring the validity and reliability of non-reactive
measures.
The Non-Reactive Research Process
• Defining Concepts and Creating Measures in
Non-Reactive Research – cont’d
– Barlow et al. (1995) propose that two elements of
crime reporting will vary by economic conditions.
• the type of crime (violent or non-violent) that is
reported, and
• the characteristics (age, race, gender, social status,
employment, marital status, family history, education,
friends and religion) of offenders that are highlighted.
The Non-Reactive Research Process
• Defining Concepts and Creating Measures in
Non-Reactive Research – cont’d
– The authors conceptualize ‘economic conditions’
in two ways.
• the level of unemployment (high or low).
• the level of economic stagnation (stagnation or
expansion).
The Non-Reactive Research Process
• Designing a Method in Non-Reactive Research
– Field research involves covert observation of the
behavior that a researcher is interested in
studying.
– It is important to prepare for all possible
contingencies that may arise in the field and all
possible threats to researchers’ safety.
The Non-Reactive Research Process
• Designing a Method in Non-Reactive Research
– cont’d
– The use of secondary data is appealing to most
researchers because of its availability and low
cost.
– However, the secondary data must be responsive
to the researcher’s data needs and research
question(s).
The Non-Reactive Research Process
• Designing a Method in Non-Reactive Research –
cont’d
– Content analysis is a technique wherein a researcher
uses previously recorded or written information to
study human behavior or conditions.
– The most important step in designing a content
analysis is to create strong conceptual definitions and
operational measures for the phenomena that are
being studied.
– In some cases, this may involve the training of
research assistants.
The Non-Reactive Research Process
• Designing a Method in Non-Reactive Research –
cont’d
– To study media coverage of crime at different periods
of time, Barlow et al. (1995) decided to study articles
appearing in Time magazine.
– The researchers chose Time because it was a widely
circulated news magazine and “the best available
representative of mainstream media as an influence
on and reflection of popular consciousness concerning
contemporary social issues” (Barlow et al. 1995: 6).
The Non-Reactive Research Process
• Collecting Data in Non-Reactive Research
– Unless the data are already collected (secondary
analysis) the researcher will have to develop a way
to capture it during the research process.
– Coding sheets provide researchers with an
effective and efficient mechanism for recording
information in content analyses and field
observations.
The Non-Reactive Research Process
• Collecting Data in Non-Reactive Research – cont’d
– Recording observations is a central part of field
research.
– Video- and audio-taping are is the most accurate
methods, but these are also reactive and potentially
unethical.
– Recording observations on paper or a laptop are the
least accurate, but also the least reactive.
– Researchers must find the appropriate balance
between accuracy and obtrusiveness.
The Non-Reactive Research Process
• Collecting Data in Non-Reactive Research –
cont’d
– Barlow et al. (1995) chose articles that were
“completely or substantially about crime,
criminals, or criminal justice.”
– They read each article and collected information
related to the variables in which they were
interested.
The Non-Reactive Research Process
• Collecting Data in Non-Reactive Research –
cont’d
– The researchers differentiated between articles
about violent and non-violent crime, which was
relatively easy to do.
– Collecting information about the characteristics of
the offenders was a bit more problematic because
most articles did not contain information relating
to all ten of their variables.
The Non-Reactive Research Process
• Collecting Data in Non-Reactive Research –
cont’d
– Although they did not report this it is likely that
the researchers read through a few of the articles
at first to see if their data collection procedure
would work (pretest).
– It is also likely that Barlow et. al. (1995) used
coding sheets as they read the articles to be sure
the collected the data required to answer their
research questions.
The Non-Reactive Research Process
• Analyzing Data in Non-Reactive Research
– Secondary analysis is nearly always quantitative in
nature.
– Field observations and content analysis nearly always
involve qualitative measures.
– There are, however, numerous exceptions to these
general practices.
• Secondary analysis can involved qualitative data
• Field observations and content analyses can involve counting
(i.e. quantitative) the frequency, and intensity of events.
The Non-Reactive Research Process
• Analyzing Data in Non-Reactive Research – cont’d
– Barlow et al. (1995) do not report how they prepared
the information for analysis.
– They do report using a statistical technique called ChiSquare, in which the compared percentages.
– For example, they compared the percentage of
articles that focused on violent crime during periods
of high unemployment to the percentage of articles
that focused on violent crime during periods of low
unemployment.
The Non-Reactive Research Process
• Interpreting the Results in Non-Reactive
Research
– It is often the case in non-reactive research that
there is room for multiple interpretations of the
data.
– Overall, Barlow et al. (1995) found that crime
news is not at all representative of actual crime
trends.
The Non-Reactive Research Process
• Interpreting the Results in Non-Reactive
Research – cont’d
– These researchers were somewhat successful in
developing a connection between economic
conditions and the types of crime stories reported
in the media.
– However, the causal connection between
economic conditions and crime reporting is really
not known.
The Non-Reactive Research Process
• Interpreting the Results in Non-Reactive Research
– cont’d
– This particular study was not without its flaws.
• One could argue that the sample of articles is not
representative of the overall media.
• The articles were published within a 29 year time frame
during which the publisher’s editorial philosophy may have
changed numerous times during this time frame.
• Although the authors show some relationship between
economic conditions and distorted depictions of crime, their
analysis did not allow them to substantiate why this might
be the case.
The Non-Reactive Research Process
• Communicating the Results of Non-Reactive
Research
– Quantitative results are best presented in tables,
charts and graphs.
– Qualitative results are best reported as a ‘story’.
– Barlow et al. (1995) chose to publish their results
in a peer reviewed academic journal. They are
university scholars and as such benefit from the
publication of their results in this medium.
Getting to the Point
• Non-reactive research is a collection of
research methods that gather information
from research subjects without their
knowledge.
• Because the research subjects are unaware
that they are being observed, they are less
likely to change their behaviors.
• These techniques are effective for observing
behavior in a natural setting.
Getting to the Point
• Non-reactive research methodologies have in common
their ability to collect information from and about
human beings without their knowledge.
• These methods can include;
– evaluating the things people possess (i.e., accretion
measures),
– studying how things are used (i.e., erosion measures),
– observing how individuals or groups behave (i.e.,
unobtrusive observation), and
– analyzing information collected and made available by
someone else (i.e., archival data).
Getting to the Point
• Non-reactive research techniques are most
effective when;
– research subjects are likely to change their
behavior when they know they are being
observed,
– the researcher wants to observe behavior in its
natural setting, and/or
– the data the researcher needs is already available.
Getting to the Point
• Non-reactive research methods are not
particularly effective when;
– a researcher needs to understand underlying
motivations and belief systems,
– research subjects have a right to or expectation of
privacy, and/or
– secondary or archival data do not exist.
Getting to the Point
• Most non-reactive research is exploratory or
descriptive nature.
• Because it is often difficult to measure the
underlying cause of behavior non-reactive
methods are less often used in explanatory
research.
Getting to the Point
• Reviewing the research methods and mistakes
of previous researchers who used nonreactive research techniques may help;
– define concepts,
– access certain populations, and
– avoid detection in non-reactive research.
Getting to the Point
• In non-reactive research that is exploratory or
descriptive in nature, researchers may simply
pose research questions and/or general
statements about what they expect to find in
the study.
• In non-reactive research that is explanatory in
nature, researchers will develop more formal
hypotheses.
Getting to the Point
• For the most part, the actual process of
conceptualization and operationalization is
the same in non-reactive research as it is in
other research methods.
Getting to the Point
• Non-reactive field research involves covert
observation of and, in some cases, covert
participation in the behavior that a researcher
is interested in studying.
• In this method, it is important to prepare for
all possible contingencies that may arise in the
field and all possible threats to researchers’
safety.
Getting to the Point
• The use of secondary data is appealing to
most researchers because of its availability
and low cost.
• However, the secondary data must be
responsive to the researcher’s data needs and
research question(s).
Getting to the Point
• The most important step in designing a
content analysis is to create strong conceptual
definitions and operational measures for the
phenomena that are being studied.
• In some cases, this may involve training
research assistants.
Getting to the Point
• Coding sheets provide researchers with an
effective and efficient mechanism for
recording information in content analyses and
field observations.
Getting to the Point
• Recording observations is a central part of
field research.
– Video- and audio-taping observations is the most
accurate recording method, but these are also the
most reactive and, in some cases, they are also
unethical.
– Recording observations on paper or a laptop are
the least accurate, but also the least reactive.
• Researchers must find the appropriate
balance between accuracy and obtrusiveness.
Getting to the Point
• The analysis of secondary data, field
observations and content material can be
qualitative or quantitative.
• The type of analysis depends on the research
question and the type of data that are
available.
Getting to the Point
• The data or information produced by many
non-reactive research techniques often can be
interpreted in multiple ways.
• As such, researchers using these techniques
should entertain various interpretations.
• They should also be up front about the
limitations of their study.
Getting to the Point
• Researchers may use tables, charts and graphs
to communicate the results of their nonreactive research if the analysis is quantitative
in nature.
• Alternatively, if the analysis is qualitative in
nature, they may tell a ‘story’ using quotes,
examples and descriptions.
Research Methods in Crime and Justice
Chapter 11
Non-Reactive Research Methods