EXPLORATION OF THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF INTERVIEWS AND FOCUS GROUP IN QUALITATIVE CRIMINOLOGICAL RESEARCH

Abstract

This paper explores the strengths and weaknesses of semi-structured interview and focus group as methods of data collection in qualitative criminological research. It began with descriptions of both, and then goes ahead to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses as well as the measures to mitigate some of these weaknesses. It sometimes discusses the strengths, the weaknesses as well as the mitigating measures of the weaknesses of these methods collectively since they share many features. Interviews is used in this paper to refer to semi-structured and unstructured interviews. In conclusion it submits that semi-structured interviews and focus group would serve as veritable research methods for carrying out qualitative criminological research. This submission is because interviews and focus group as qualitative methods develop understating of criminal offending by laying emphasis on comprehending the different ways through which criminal offending occurs and how the respective agents, structures, and methods of responding to crime operate through the acquisition of accurate information about the phenomenon in culturally grounded contexts. Furthermore, the understanding of crime, criminals and justice system operations and handling offered by statistical studies applied in quantitative methods cannot give the type of insight offered by the in-depth, holistic, authentic, exploratory, and descriptive data provide by both interviews and focus group based criminological research.