Boozhoo or hello, and welcome to the exciting journey of learning about criminological research methods. We could think of the specific methods covered in the following chapters as distinct types of trees, each with a main trunk but many varied ways to branch out; still, we should probably step back and look at the forest as a whole first. We should think about what science is, what we are trying to achieve when we conduct research, and if there might be more than one right path to travel as we go through the forest. In fact, different paths may emerge as we continue on our journey.

In this introductory chapter, we will begin by distinguishing between the natural and social sciences. We will also distinguish between Indigenous ways of knowing and Western ways of knowing. The concept of Two-Eyed Seeing will also be introduced in this discussion. Lastly, an overview of what to expect in the coming chapters will be provided.

Social Science

Criminology as a field or discipline is considered a social science. Typically, the word “science” refers to knowledge or understanding, and this understanding is typically gained by following a systematic process. For instance, science is usually grouped into two broad but distinct categories: natural science and social science.

Natural science is the science of things that naturally occur, such as light, a tree branch, a rock, the sun in the sky, or even our own bodies. Natural sciences can be further classified into physical sciences, earth sciences, life sciences, and others. Physical sciences consist of disciplines such as physics (the science of physical objects), chemistry (the science of matter), and astronomy (the science of celestial objects). Earth sciences consist of disciplines such as geology (the science of the earth). Life sciences include disciplines such as biology (the science of living organisms) and botany (the science of plants).

Social science, on the other hand, is the science of people or collections of people, such as groups, societies, and economies, and their individual or collective behaviours. Social sciences can be classified into disciplines such as psychology (the science of human behaviour), sociology (the science of social groups), and criminology (the science of crime and criminals). While these are distinct disciplines, they often overlap and create interdisciplinary fields such as the field of criminal justice studies.

Ways of Knowing

While dividing science or knowledge into these two broad categories of natural and social may initially make understanding the fields easier, perhaps they should not necessarily be separated. From an Indigenous standpoint or spiritual worldview, we as humans are all interconnected, not just with each other but with all things around us (the animals, birds, and trees), above us (the sky, clouds, and stars), and beneath us (the ground, rocks, and water). According to this Indigenous way of knowing or worldview, if we separate ourselves from these other entities, we will actually understand them and ourselves less. It is only through honouring the important role these entities play in shaping our existence and the role we play in shaping their existence that we can reach an understanding.

You might be thinking, “Wait, what just happened here? Are we learning about science and questioning it at the same time?” In short, the answer would be “Yes.” While it might be easier to teach and to learn the typical concepts of science and research, this text will attempt to present more than the usual Western ethnocentric and often exploitive descriptions of research. We will go beyond the typical majority-biased way of explaining how research should be conducted and instead make visible what is often hidden (Smith, 2021). We will reveal issues that might seem “disruptive” because addressing these issues in a classroom environment can enhance learning. Rather than continuing the erasure and disregard of ethnic and minority contributions to knowledge and understanding (Lambert, 2014), we will strive to blend Western and Indigenous content. By combining both Indigenous ways of knowing and Western science or Western ways of knowing, we can develop a deeper and broader sense of understanding. The ability to see the two ways of looking at knowledge and research and weaving them together is often referred to as Two-Eyed Seeing (Bartlett et al., 2012). Seeing the world from both vantage points allows us to discuss the issues before us and perhaps weave between the worldviews to learn the most from each and to use the strengths from each, depending on the circumstances.

You may be wondering why this is important. Well, research has often been a source of distress for Indigenous people. Researchers have benefited in many ways from findings about Indigenous Peoples, but they often do not work with Indigenous communities in developing the research project and do not share the grants or other sources of funding obtained for the research. Early unethical research has led to a significant distrust of researchers, and treating Indigenous Peoples as a problem to be solved by outside experts only furthers this distrust (Cochran et al., 2008). To improve how we acquire our knowledge, it is important to understand the underlying assumptions of Western research and the ways in which this may maintain oppression. It is also important to involve Indigenous communities in the research design and include Indigenous knowledge in the formulation of research protocols, the methods used, and the conclusions drawn. In this way, we can bring together the different ways of knowing so we can grow our understanding, and together we can help make the world a better place for the next seven generations.

Textbook Overview

Ethics forms the foundation of all research projects and must factor into decisions made at each step of the research process. This open education resource begins by introducing the main ethical principles that must be considered when conducting social science research, with particular attention paid to conducting research on or with Indigenous Peoples in Canada. In chapter 1, core ethical principles are reviewed as well as the role and responsibilities of research ethics boards. The differences as well as overlaps between Western and Indigenous approaches to ethical research are also examined.

In chapter 2, we begin by discussing some abstract philosophical concepts, such as ontology and epistemology, and learn about how we operate under a paradigm that guides our thinking about the world around us and ultimately our approach to research. Our paradigmatic stance also guides the types of topics we are interested in learning more about. The critical Indigenous paradigm is discussed in this chapter, with particular attention paid to the calls made by scholars to decolonize our approach to research. The connections between paradigm, theory and policy are highlighted in this chapter.

In chapter 3, the various purposes of, approaches to and methods of engaging in social science research are reviewed. Deductive and inductive approaches are compared, as are quantitative and qualitative methods. While these approaches have been traditionally described as competing with one another, it is our goal to demonstrate in this chapter that they can actually be complementary to one another. The question you seek to answer at the end of your research study and the data available to answer that question are ultimately what ought to guide your selection of approach and method.

In chapter 4 and chapter 5, you will learn how to formulate your specific research question and how to conduct a review of the existing literature on your topic of interest. These are crucial steps in not only the planning stages of your research but also throughout many stages in the research process. After all, one of the main obligations we have as researchers is to help those who come after us to continue to contribute to knowledge in the area and to share it with others. We look to what others have studied to see what has worked, what has not worked, what theories have been referred to in those studies and the hypotheses they may have set out to test. Now you can ask yourself what questions remain to be answered.

Using Two-Eyed Seeing, you will also want to understand what the communities to be researched already know and have. This culturally relevant information can improve understanding between the researcher and the subjects, and it can provide a good context for research in these early planning stages that can help the community. Collaboration with Indigenous knowledge holders and communities in the planning stage to co-design the study and co-frame the research questions is an important improvement over many previous studies.

In chapter 6a, chapter 6b, and chapter 6c, more technical terminology relevant to research design is introduced. As you envision and start to become clear on the key question(s) for your own research project, you are engaging in conceptualisation and creating a mental picture of what the concepts of interest are. You should be very specific about what these concepts mean in your project. For example, if you want to study the fear of crime, what exactly do you mean by “fear” and what kind of crime are you referring to? Are you interested in whether people are afraid to walk alone at night or are you interested in whether they are afraid that their identity will be stolen? You should continue to review existing literature that can help shape your image of your research project and identify what gaps exist in the literature, which you may choose to address in your own project. You may also consider what theories or other ways of knowing, such as Indigenous ways of knowing, suggest about potential relationships between variables. In these chapters, you will also learn how to ensure our research is reliable and valid and how we can determine whether something caused something else.

Whatever way you choose to conceptualize the research project moving forward, you will want to avoid using only a rigid Western view of the scientific method and be certain to learn from the Indigenous or other communities helping you with the research and to include relevant cultural components. You also want to be careful not to marginalize the Indigenous or other subjects you are studying. Most research in the past reflected the dominant Western cultural framework in an almost invisible way. Rather than representing a neutral view of reality, the research shapes reality first by how the research questions are conceived and second by how the data are collected and interpreted. Typically, the research efforts lean towards a documentation of not only differences between Western and minority cultures and communities but also conclusions about deficits and dysfunction in the minority cultures. Input from those cultures in how you design your project will help minimize this bias.

In chapter 7a and chapter 7b, the core principles of sampling as well as the various specific sampling techniques available to social science researchers are introduced. Sampling decisions are important and essentially deal with how we go about choosing who or what will take part in our research study. It is crucial to be aware of power dynamics and the principles of inclusion here. We must be sure to ask members of the community who the knowledge keepers are and how we can reduce barriers and facilitate participation.

After this groundwork has been established, the textbook shifts to a discussion of specific methods of collecting data. For instance, determining a smaller group of people’s opinions or asking a small number of individuals about their lived experiences might best be accomplished by using face-to-face qualitative interviews or focus groups (chapter 8), whereas learning about actual behaviours may best be documented through observations in field research (chapter 9). Analyzing content found in newspapers or other media formats is best done through content analysis (chapter 10), and asking questions in a more quantitative fashion to a much larger number of individuals would be best done using a survey (chapter 11). If you want to determine cause-and-effect relationships, though, experimentation is best (chapter 12). It is not the method you like most or are most comfortable with that you should rely on; rather, the method you select must be based on the research question you want to answer and the data available to answer it. Looking at what methods were used in other studies on the same topic or a similar topic may be helpful here.

Typically, the techniques and methods taught and discussed in other texts are based on and advocate for only the use of Western research. While it might seem that the approach does not really matter because research is scientific and objective, hopefully you now understand that power relations are present in the research process. Once an understanding of the importance of the overall research framework has been achieved, we can explore the basic research methods typically used and choose whatever seems most appropriate. This choice should be guided by a consultation with knowledge holders, including other experienced researchers, practitioners in the field, and knowledgeable members of the community who have contributed to and may benefit from our research. Each of these methods of collecting data stems from our worldview and the topic at hand, the question we want to answer and the data available to answer that question. They all have strengths and weaknesses and should not necessarily be seen as independent from one another; in fact, in many projects, different methods are combined to gain a more holistic understanding of the issues at hand.

In the final chapters, we examine how to go about analyzing the data we collected using our chosen method(s). Analysis can be grounded and/or thematic in a qualitative project (chapter 13) or statistical in a quantitative project (chapter 14). These analytic techniques can also be combined in the same project.  Either way, the goal of analysis is to make sense of the data and to synthesize and summarize the findings in a way that can be communicated to a larger audience. Graphs, tables, and charts are typically used to visually present data that have been analyzed. While all the different statistical or other analytical methods are beyond the scope of this introductory methods text, it is important to understand that a poor research design will lead to poor data. If you run an analysis on poor data, the program will deliver a calculation, but any conclusions drawn on that calculation will be faulty. If you have set up your research project correctly, you can have faith in the conclusions drawn from the analysis.

It is important to be aware of the translation-like process through which any knowledge shared with us is converted into conclusions by those of us in the academy. There may be important differences between “community or elder” and “academic” knowledge that need to be identified so Indigenous viewpoints and knowledge can be acknowledged rather than silenced, even if they wrote something or answered questions in ways other than what we expected. In the analysis stage, we often refer to the literature again to connect what we have found in our own research to the existing body of knowledge.

Woven throughout the entire text are case studies, examples and discussion questions that encourage the reader to critically engage with the material and to consider how research ought to consider the positionality of the research participants. While the task of decolonizing all research methods for criminology is beyond the scope here, this text will aid the reader in assessing the various methods, including Indigenous ways of knowing. Moreover, it will highlight the importance of considering the ethics of applying the chosen technique in the field, particularly when working with Indigenous and other minority participants. In the end, it is hoped that this text will provide unbiased quality learning opportunities that lead to valid results produced by future cohorts of informed researchers.

References

Bartlett, C., Marshall, M., & Marshall, A. (2012). Two-Eyed Seeing and other lessons learned within a co-learning journey of bringing together Indigenous and mainstream knowledges and ways of knowing. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 2, 331–340. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-012-0086-8

Cochran, P. A. L., Marshall, C. A., Garcia-Downing, C., Kendall, E., Cook, D., McCubbin, L., & Gover, R. M. S. (2008). Indigenous ways of knowing: Implications for participatory research and community. American Journal of Public Health, 98(1), 22-27. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2006.093641

Lambert, L. (2014). Research for Indigenous survival: Indigenous research methodologies in the behavioral sciences. Salish Kootenai College Press.

Smith, L. T. (2021). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples (3rd ed.). Zed Books.

AI Declaration Statement

Artificial Intelligence Tool: ChatGPT 4.0 (OpenAI); Conceptualization: ChatGPT was used to revise some proposed discussion questions.