Assignment: Research Designs

A research design is a plan for conducting research. As with sampling methods, choosing a research design depends on the topic and population being studied. For example, suppose you want to determine whether juvenile offenders are likely to commit crimes as adults. You could use a fixed-sample panel research design, which allows you to study the same group of juvenile offenders at two points in time—as juveniles and as adults. On the other hand, suppose you want to determine whether neighborhoods with high poverty rates also tend to have high crime rates. You could use a cross-sectional research design, which allows you to study a variety of neighborhoods at one time. In this Application, you will consider the strengths and limitations of various research designs. Knowing the strengths and limitations is important when choosing which research design to use. In this Assignment, you explore how each research design could be used to address a research question related to the criminal justice system.

To prepare:

• Select two research designs to use for this Assignment that could apply to the research problem you identified in Week 1.

By Day 7

In 500 words, address the following:

• Describe two research designs that you could apply to the research problem you selected in Week 1.
• Explain at least one strength and one limitation of each research design.
• Explain how you would use each research design in your criminal justice research.

Be sure to use the information found in the Learning Resources to support your responses.