Research Methods - Risk and Security Management Assignment

In this assignment, you are required to submit TWO 2,000 word arte-facts: ONE 2,000 word research proposal and ONE 2,000 word small scale stud. You MUST also complete the 200 word ethics component which is outlined below.

You choose the topic; it may relate to a work based interest or be purely academic and related to a part of the course so far that has particularly interested you.

(A) THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL is your initial plan for your dissertation. Like most plans it will need some adjustment in light of the feedback you get. Your proposal is also part of the requirement for ethical review, prior to starting any research project.

(B) THE RESEARCH STUDY encourages you to collect and analyse secondary data on a subject of your choice. It can be in the subject area of your future dissertation (but doesn't have to be) and you can then improve upon this study in your final work. Types of secondary analysis include; the analysis of Crime, Justice, Risk and Security Statistics; or documentary and content analysis.

(A) Research Proposal - 2,000 words

Title - An informative title that is brief, self-explanatory. This can take the form of a question to be answered.

Table of contents - containing an updated list of various headings that structure your work. You can type table of contents entries and use tabs to get the dotted lines, or dot leaders, between each entry and its page number. For a faster way to create a table of contents, see Create a table of contents automatically.

Summary - highlights key references; the interest/importance and relevance of the chosen topic to your wider field of study; methodology of your proposed study (150 words maximum).

Aims - clear and succinct. Each aim should be no more than a sentence. Stick to one or two aims only. The aim(s) reframe the title/overall purpose of the research.

Objectives - clear and succinct. Each objective should be no more than a sentence. You can have a number of objectives which will help you fulfill your aim(s).

Why is this research worth doing? - establish the importance/timeliness/relevance of your proposed research area 150 words maximum).

Previous work (initial literature review) - starts either with seminal studies which perhaps brought the issue to the public attention or with a broad sweep about the breadth of work in the field and what is already well established, funneling down to your specific topic area, and relevance of your research. You might expect to have started your initial review by identifying at least 10 relevant studies - maybe many more (depending on the field you have chosen at this stage. If there appears to be no literature on your topic, either you have not searched thoroughly enough or you have not made the connections to relevant literature, by defining your topic too narrowly. Literature views will vary in the emphasis they give to theory in the chosen area (350 words maximum).

Design and methods - If you are doing primary data collection - clearly specify what type of research design you propose and the specific method(s) of data collection. If you are doing literature-based research specify dearly how you will go about your search. If you are analysing other forms of secondary data, highlight this and explain how you will analyse this data (450 words maximum).

Ethics - You must fully explore the Information and address all 12 points raised under Ethical consideration - Part2 (200 words).

Complete Ethical consideration - Part 2 form and send this attached to your proposal as an Appendix. This is a PASS/FAIL component of this assessment so it must be completed.

Timetable - specify month and year(s) and hours/days available for the research. (Half a side of A4 maximum -diagrams are fine)

Reference list - should include all references and sources used to support your work. This must be done using the recommended APA 6th Edition style.

(B) Research Study - 2000 words

The research study can take any of the following structure.

EITHER

Write a report based on the analysis of crime, justice or security statistics on a topic that interests you (or may form the basis of your future dissertation). You can also source statistics from within your organisation.

OR

Conduct a content analysis of newspaper reports on a topic that interests you (or may form the basis of your future dissertation).

Structure the presentation of your study using the sub-headings provided below. The questions and comments within each sub-heading are there to remind you of the things you need to cover in each section.

Title: An analysis of statistics on XXXXXX"

Locate tables of statistics from one of the government sites such as: Home Office, National Statistics, Ministry of Justice or Police OR From within your organisation.

1. Crime, Justice, Risk and Security Statistics

a) Table of contents - containing an updated list of various headings that structure your work. You can type table of contents entries and use tabs to get the dotted lines, or dot leaders, between each entry and its page number.

b) Introduction - Introduce the issue of using crime, justice, risk and security statistics in research and the academic debates about this.

Is the data 'official' or organisational (i.e. collected on processes and practices within the system, convictions, numbers in prison) or is it a 'self-report' survey data (like the British Crime Survey, now known as the Crime Survey for England and Wales)?

c) Data source - Explain the source and coverage of the statistics presented for the purposes of the assignment and by whom they were collected.

Make clear whether your data is international, national or local.

Is the data based on a sample? If so, what kind of sample'

d) Data presentation - Present the statistics in their original form (as an appendix to the report if complex).

Choose ways of clarifying/ simplifying the statistics and present the data using graphs.

e) Data explanation and discussion - Summarise and explain what the analysis of statistics appears to show about your chosen topic.

f) Evaluation and conclusions - Evaluate the use of the analysis of the statistics you have chosen as a way of researching the topic. Outline any problems in the nature of the data collected.

Are there any ambiguities in the data?

How does the data represent the scale or nature of the issue shown in the statistics?

What can you conclude from your analysis?

g) References - Remember to use supporting references from academic texts on crime statistics and secondary data in research: especially in sections a, b and e.

2. Content analysis of newspaper reporting

Chose any issue to do with crime, risk, security or fraud (e.g. the way a specific case is reported, a particular issue such as drugs or crime statistics in general) and analyse the way newspapers present the issue.

You can locate a wide range of newspapers in Nexis UK on the library website.

The following is a guide to how you might begin tO go about the process of doing content analysis. Look also at the section on content analysis on the module site and follow up on how research using content analysis has been written up.

The Sample: date or time period, names of newspapers (think about the different slants taken; audiences targeted), key words used in the search and so on. Number of articles identified.

When analysing the content of articles these are some questions to consider:

Title: What was the title given to the article? What did this suggest? Do the titles from different newspapers give the same/different messages?

Location and coverage: Where in the newspaper was this article located? (E.g. headline-front page or buried somewhere in the middle of the paper) How many column inches are devoted to the news item in each paper? How does this compare to other newspapers? You will need to adapt this part of your analysis if you use newspaper websites and databases - they indicate length of article but don't always have an Illustration or indicate location in the newspaper.

Content: Are factual details the same in each paper? Are the same or different quotes used? Is an Illustration used? Is the illustration the same / different / not used in some accounts? Would you come to the same or different conclusions about what happened/ what the issue is after reading these two accounts? What themes can you identify? Note the use of language and so on. Notice too how the issue or problem is 'constructed' by the media, consider whether this is problematic, supported by reliable 'evidence' and so on.

Analysis: Create themes or categories from your data. Alternatively you could create a few questions that will guide your analysis. Think about how you present some of your analysis in summary forms - graphs, tables, diagrams.

Don't just count up categories and describe the content. Go a stage further and identify themes that are debated as crime, justice and security issues.

Also make sure you look at the advice given about conducting content analysis in the module text, section on the module site, as well as the reading list for the module.

Write a report on your research using the following format:

Title: "Content Analysis of XXXXXX"

a) Table of contents - containing an updated fist of various headings that structure your work. You can type table of contents entries and use tabs to get the dotted lines, or dot leaders, between each entry and its page number.

b) Introduction -

What is content analysis?

Make clear whether your analysis is primarily quantitative or qualitative in nature; or, whether you are interested in both types of data in your analysis.

c) Data collection

Explain why and how the topic/case was selected.

State the timescale of the search (if relevant) as part of your explanation about the nature of the sample - why particular newspapers were used - popular and quality; political slant and so on.

Outline how the data was collated and analysed (i.e. how you used content analysis).

d) Data presentation

Present a summary of the content analysis.

Decide the extent to which any quantification of the data is important in the type of content analysis you have chosen to do.

This can be done by using graphs, tables or diagrams.

e) Data explanation and discussion

Summarise and explain what the content analysis appears to show on your chosen topic.

f) Evaluation and conclusions

Evaluate the use of content analysis as a way of researching the topic.

What did you find out about newspaper reporting on the topic you chose?

Is this 'construction' of the issue (or topic) problematic in any way?

g) References

Remember to use supporting references from academic texts on crime statistics and secondary data in research: especially in sections a, b and e.