Gathering Research Data-Police Officers and Job Hazards Essay

What is the goal or purpose behind your proposed research? The purpose of this study is to identify the degree to which quality of performance by police officers is affected by actual hazards in the execution of their jobs. What type of interview structure would you use? Why? The interview will be structured to answer the two main questions; what hazards police officers are faced with? How does it determine the way an order is executed? Obviously, the interviewing questionnaire would consist of three parts. The first section will ask basic biographical questions pertaining to gender, length of time in the service among other items relevant to the study. Sections two and three would embody responses pertaining to the research hypothesis. It would be so designed to offer scope for comparative an analysis between the variables quality of performance on the jobs and hazards affecting execution of duties. It is important for it to be structured in this way to excluded biases in the study. As such the research would create a balance. This is expected to expose transparency and validity. What would be some questions you would ask? Why? Biographical data— Age, sex, marital status, length of service, educational back ground and rank. Questions pertaining to work performance— The likert scale could be used here to solicit responses. From a scale 1-5 five being the highest, rate the extent to which you love your job; what tasks you like performing best? (A list of duties will be offered to be circled); what are do you feel you perform best? A list of tasks will be offered as a selection) Questions pertaining to hazards—A likert scale could be adopted for the first responses. Rate using the scale 1-5 five being the highest; how likely are you to proceed with the order of arresting a harmed criminal? How would you react if instructed to conduct a investigation in a know drug infested community (a list of options will be designed for selection). What is your perception of hazards in the execution of you duties? This would be an opened ended question without a structured response. These are the questions which would most likely offer the basis for a comparative analysis of the research. What are some distinct advantages of a qualitative data-gathering strategy, such as participant observation, over more quantitative approaches? It is a mater of subjectivity as against objectivity. Respondents during a quantitative research believe that they are expected to behave in a particular way so they act it. This violates internal validity. In a qualitative analysis the sampled populations do not know that they are being researched. Therefore there is no compromised behavior. Hence the criteria of validity can be precisely evaluated. The only subjectivity to the research are those influenced by the researchers’ paradigms. When conducting survey research, how important is informed consent and confidentiality? From the perspective of both the police as a public offer and the police as a researcher the question of informed consent and confidentiality borders on professional ethics; be it a professional researcher or police officer. It is therefore pertinent that legal rights to privacy be maintained at every level of institutionalized practice. The real importance lies in the fact that the legislated right to privacy must be adhered to. It spreads across vey discipline. Information derived from studies such as these are used to redesign public policy. As such the participants must give written or verbal consent for the information to be used for what it was intended. It must also be confirmed that information would not be shared to jeopardize their future.