3.1 Introduction
Methodology forms an important constituent in the research, where the conclusion needs to be drawn from the critical review of the secondary academic data and resources. The methodology of comparative analysis incorporates the research design, articles selection strategy, inclusion and exclusion criteria, data collection methods and data analysis methods (Kumar, 2010). A separate section of the chapter also incorporates ethical considerations.
3.2 Research Design
Research design refers to the plan of research through which the stated aim and objectives set for this criminology thesis could b achieved (Creswell, 2013). The research design of the present study is based on the qualitative method and theoretical evaluative analysis of the community penalty. It looks into the comparative analysis of the restorative justice approach and the retributive justice approach to show the relative effectiveness of the community based punishments and custodial sentences (Flick, 2011). The design tends to investigate how the community-based punishments able to rehabilitate offenders. This is a library-based study using information from forums and websites. Academic journals are located using Coventry University library catalogue and other criminological databases to relate to restorative justice, retributive justice, community penalties, offender treatment and many more. Thus, the current researches design offers much more than a simple methodological investigation (Vogt et al., 2012). The comparative analysis design considers it as an ethical issue because as a desk-based study it raises much less risk compared to the empirical studies (Merwe et al., 2009; Eley et al., 2016; Allen, 2012) have also employed the comparative analysis research design within their studies in investigating community-based punishments within different European countries.
Additionally, the exploratory research design has been adopted to ensure that benefits of the community-based punishments are explored in an effective manner in comparison to the custodial sentences through the current research study. Furthermore, the research has adopted qualitative approach in providing a detailed account of the benefit that community-based punishments have for the individuals as well as for the overall community as well.
3.3 Articles Selection Strategy
Subsequent to the choice of comparative analysis research design, it was very important to determine the appropriate article selection strategy. Data research strategy in the current study was ethnographic content analysis. The reason behind the choice of this strategy is the fact that the research was required to be based on secondary content solely. Therefore, all the relevant information was gathered past researches and journal articles.
For comparative analysis of the community-based punishments and custodial sentences, the study needed to focus on the selection of appropriate research articles. Keywords based strategy was used to search relevant data from sources. The main keywords used included “community-based punishments”, “effectiveness of community-based punishments”, “factors considered for community-based punishments”, “custodial sentences”, “effectiveness of custodial sentences”, “factors considered for custodial sentences”, “similarities between community-based punishments and custodial sentences” and “differences between community-based punishments and custodial sentences”. By using all the chosen keywords, the inclusion and exclusion criteria were set for the current investigation.
3.4 Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria
3.4.1 Inclusion Criteria
All the sources used for the comparative analysis of the custodial sentences and the community-based met all the listed parameters prior inclusion in the current study.
· The scope of selected source must be to compare custodial sentences with the community-based punishments
· The material and information must be published in English
· The material and information used must be global
· Only those articles and materials were included, which were published after 2006
· Extensive range of sources qualified for the inclusion (although research articles were preferred yet authoritative reports and forum-based discussion were included)
· Coventry University library catalogue and other criminological databases were used for search
3.4.2 Exclusion Criteria
· All those studies and articles were excluded, which were published in a non-English language or published before 2006
· The source or material that was confined to investigation in a specific geographical boundary, country or territory was excluded
· The study with limited focus on any one of the variable (either community-based punishments and custodial sentences) were excluded
3.5 Data Collection Methods
In pursuance of the identified article selection strategy given in the above section, the current study was based on the secondary data collection only since there was no involvement of the primary Study participants. A secondary source of information refers to the kind of information that is obtained through secondary sources such as online sources, journal articles, and books, etc. The source of data that has been adopted in a current research study is a secondary source of information. Through the adoption and use of secondary sources of data collection, the research has developed concrete findings on the issues that have been taken up for this particular research study. The research investigation looked at books and articles that analyses different effects about restore offenders relative to the ones kept in police custody or in the imprisons. Websites like Google Scholar or library databases will help in finding information about my topic. All the data sources were analysed and discussed critically.
3.6 Data Analysis Methods
The data collected was analysed using the ethnography content analysis method. By using the most frequently using words and terms in the collected articles and sources, respective codes and categories were developed. The main categories of the analysis investigated are specified below.
· Similarities between community-based punishments and custodial sentences
o Reoffending
o Need for Policy Intentions
· Differences between community-based punishments and custodial sentences
o Offender’s Filtering
o Overcrowding Issues
o Cost and Expenditures of Punishment
3.7 Ethical Considerations
According to Melewar et al., (2014), ethical considerations are the most important component of the research methodology regardless of the primary or secondary data based research design. Since the current study was focused on secondary data analysis, therefore, all the information, which has been acquired in the research, was kept confidential. The three specific ethical considerations were looked into the current study. These include interpretation of the information, identification of the appropriate sources of data collection and ownership of the data. By focusing on the unbiased and non-prejudiced presentation of the research findings, current study has also focused on the fair presentation of the information (Garvey, 2014). Besides, academic researchers have realised identification of appropriate data sources as one of the vital element in the secondary data based studies (Denscombe, 2014). Therefore, current research study has also given strict focus on the choice of valid and authentic sources of data collection such as journal articles and books. Similarly, in maintaining the sensitivity in using secondary data in the current study, complete ownership of data was taken into account by providing complete in-text citations and final reference list (Myers & Venable, 2014).
3.8 Conclusion
Based on the research design and methodology chosen, it can be analysed that comparative design was expected to help in achieving the central guiding aim and objectives of the study effectively. The ethnographic research strategy adopted; whereas, the explanatory research design chosen both were capable of achieving the aims of secondary-data based research successfully. The ethical considerations that have been identified include appropriate interpretation of the data along with finding authentic sources of data collection to validate the findings of a particular research study. The outcomes and findings extracted from the previous studies shed light on numerous similarities and differences. These collected data findings are explained and critically discussed in the subsequent chapter.
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