The research methodology is a technique that I will employ to ascertain, select, process and evaluate any information regarding my topic. The method will answer two of my main questions which are; how data will be generated and analyzed. The methodology to be embraced is inclusive of; research technique, interviews, publication research, surveys, historical and present information. Data collection methods are essential and crucial for any research analysis. The choice of how data is collected determines the accuracy and depth of the study.

Accuracy can be judged by the availability of diverse perspectives that agree with the final argument presented by research. That is why it is essential to choose the most effective ways of collecting data, best tailored to the project. The main data collection methods are questionnaires, direct observations, registration, interviews, and reporting. For this project, accuracy and relevance of the content will be of great concern, and the most effective methods of collecting data will be chosen; especially the ones that will borrow multiple points of view, to give different perspectives that can be compiled and analyzed to come up with a solid argument.

Research Methods

This research will be qualitative, which means that that the methodology techniques that will be used to collect information on true crime will be aimed at gaining understanding of the reasons for true crime, the opinions of the people that will be interviewed and finding out the actual motivation behind the rising trend in the popularity of true crime. The research will, therefore, be exploratory, digging into people’s feelings, beliefs, and attitudes. This is one of the reasons why the self-report method of collecting information is the most appropriate since people are more likely to give in-depth responses when they are given the freedom to answer without distruption. Another reason why this research will be qualitative and not quantitative is the fact that it will be aimed at providing insights and aid in the creation of hypotheses for future research.

The self-reports will be employed under this research. The use of Self-reports will be necessary for this research since respondents will have a chance to give their thoughts, beliefs, and feelings about the issue of real crime. This will be attainable since self-report study methods give respondents the freedom of expressing things from their perspective without interruption from the researcher. Self-reports also embraces many essential methodological matters ranging from response rate concerns, participation, sampling options, and validity problems which cover memory effects, criminal involvement, and respondent characteristics. Some examples of self-report study methods include interviews and questionnaires, all of which will be used for this research in an attempt to gather information about the real crime.

We will engage respondents through the interviews. These are personal and unstructured interviews that we will use to find the interviewee’s feelings, emotions, and opinions concerning real crime. Interviews will be conducted to choose individuals who are likely to have experience or knowledge about real crime. Respondents will be motivated to be open and honest in their responses to correct credible information. This will be done by assuring them of their confidentiality and making them feel at ease. However, according to Gill and Johnson (2002), “it is possible that the interview may differ from the pre-specified research aims and objectives.” To help minimize the number of untrue or farfetched responses, We will dig in and identify more facts about this topic in online articles and journals as well as archived books and other reading materials. We will then compare the data from other relevant materials related to our research with that of our respondents, to determine what could pass as honest answers.

We will also attempt having interviews with people who have been involved in crimes. It will be imperative to have substantive findings from the people who have been into criminal gangs and others involved in criminal activities. This, however, will be very risky on the side of the researchers and we will first promise the interviewees that their names, locations and their information will be kept confidential. This will be an attempt to find out whether true crime is really behind any real criminal activity in society. We will also include interviews and interactions with other civilians to hear their opinions. Hearing an opinion directly from a person being interviewed carries a weight that reading articles cannot have since they speak what they consider to be the truth without having to refer anywhere for answers. Understanding how people think about true crime and the real motivation behind its probability is the best way to find out ways to avoid or fight any adverse outcomes of this trend.

Questionnaires will also be used. Questionnaires will be handed out to members of the public for a self-report study that will be used for this research. The questionnaires aim to determine the view of the public to real crime. The questionnaires will be given randomly over a given set of population. After responding, their responses will then be analyzed the same way as the interview responses and honest responses will be picked.

This research paper will equally make use of secondary data collected early and analyzed. The research paper will consult books from libraries and other archives to compare their findings from the internet with those from the books. This will in verifying the information obtained from computer searches and to eliminate false remarks from the online posts. Historical content such as book archives and articles will be embraced. It is possible to get the history of real crime, and how its trend has changed over time. It is, therefore, possible to track the changes in the concept, perception, and motivations behind the rising trend of the issue from a historical point of view.  It is therefore essential that more and more researchers try to base their knowledge accumulation of various topics being investigated from this angle. This is because it helps them get a broader perspective of the whole issue; from where it started to the point it is currently. For instance, in the case of real crime, it is essential to study how first cases were reported and the reaction they received, in contrast to what is witnessed today. An understanding of how the crimes of “Jack the Ripper” managed to capture media attention will also help us understand why some people commit crimes in a desperate attempt to gain the attention of the public and why so many people still love reading such stories and watching stories based on true crime.

After data has been collected, the next step will be analyzing it to come up with insights and other valuable information about the issue of true crime. The first step will be validating the data collected to make sure it is free of fraud and incompleteness as well as screen for any irregularities during the process. After that, the data will be edited to correct errors such as emissions and grammar mistakes that might be misunderstood. The last step of data analysis will be data coding, where responses from the research will be grouped and values assigned to them. This will help researchers deal with simplified data such as percentages and averages instead of dealing with massive responses.

References

Armstrong, J. S., & Pagell, R. (2003). Reaping benefits from management research: Lessons from the forecasting principles project, Interfaces, 33, 89-111. AO

Hagan, F.E. and Hagan, F.E., 1997. Research methods in criminal justice and criminology (pp. 129-41). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Murley, J., 2008. The rise of true crime: 20th-century murder and American popular culture. ABC-CLIO.

Wright, M., & Armstrong, J. S. (2008). Verification of citations: Fawlty towers of knowledge. Interfaces, 38, 125-139.AO