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The Interface between the Scottish Police Service and the Public as Victims of Crime: Victim Perceptions

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY

This research, although qualitative, was designed to include a sufficiently large number of participants so that the impact upon victims of crime of factors such as geographical location, offence type, age and gender could be explored. There were two stages of interviewing: focus group interviews, which allowed the main themes to be explored, and individual interviews, which allowed relevant issues to be discussed in greater depth.

ACCESS

Access to respondents was obtained through HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and individual police forces, which identified potential participants from their records. Forces were asked to contact a random sample of victims who fitted the research criteria to establish whether they were willing to take part in the research and for their details to be passed to the researchers. Participants were then contacted directly by the researchers and invited to attend focus groups or to take part in individual telephone interviews.

SELECTION OF STUDY AREAS

Five of the eight Scottish police force areas were chosen as study areas. After examination of the existing, official victim satisfaction data, these five areas were chosen to reflect a range of levels of recorded victim satisfaction, and to ensure geographical spread, that is, a mixture of city, town and rural locations.

DATA COLLECTION: FOCUS GROUPS

Following discussion at the Research Advisory Group it was agreed that a total of twelve focus group discussions would be facilitated in five forces. In each of these forces this would include two focus groups involving individual victims of housebreaking and vehicle-related property crime. In two of the forces an additional focus group discussion would take place with corporate victims of volume crime. Seven focus groups were actually run, as follows:

Strathclyde - two individual focus groups, one of men and one of women (two participants per group) and one corporate focus group (four participants, all male), all involving respondents from Glasgow and held in Glasgow city centre. Two of the corporate participants worked for car companies in a managerial position, one worked in a large retail store in a managerial position and one worked in a convenience store which was part of a large franchise. This man worked as a supervisor of part-time staff.

Grampian - two focus groups in the more rural area of Aberdeenshire, held in Peterhead (women) and Inverurie (men) (three participants per focus group).

Fife - two individual focus groups, one of men and one of women, both held in Kircaldy, with participants from the towns of Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy (one participant per focus group).

The attendance and respondent numbers were lower than had been anticipated. A topic guide was used to direct the discussion throughout the focus groups. However, the discussion was allowed to develop and have a natural progression.

Focus groups were used because this method offers an economical way to gather rich data, and the social dynamics developed during such group interviews can contribute to the collection of rich data (Bradley, 1998; Kreuger, 1994; Walklate, 2000). People talking in groups can, if the discussions are ably facilitated, stimulate one another towards disclosure and discussion of a greater depth than in individual interviews. Police forces selected potential focus group participants in order to include the two main different crime types, and both first time and repeat victims. For householders, victims were also selected to give a range of socio-economic circumstances and age groups. For corporate victims, the sample was chosen to include a mixture of large and small businesses. In each force area one male-only and one female-only focus group was conducted. This was because the research team considered that women might find it difficult to discuss potentially sensitive issues in the presence of men, and vice-versa. In order to maximise consistency across focus groups, and increase the validity of analysis, each group was co-facilitated by two members of the research team.

Focus groups were conducted in neutral venues, principally hotels. Focus group discussions lasted between one and one and a half hours. Except where there were only one or two participants, in which case full notes were taken, the discussions were tape recorded with participants' consent, and later transcribed. Semi-structured schedules, which had been approved by HMIC, were prepared for focus groups and individual interviews.

ETHICAL ISSUES

It was made clear to all participants that their involvement was voluntary and that they could withdraw from the interview at any point. The research design was considered in detail and approved by De Montfort University's human research ethics committee. Respondents' confidentiality was carefully protected, and no identifying details were kept with the interview transcripts.

REVISIONS TO PLANNED METHODOLOGY

It had been the intention also to run groups in Northern (two individual focus groups in a rural part of the area and one corporate victims' focus group in Inverness) and Lothian and Borders (two individual focus groups in Edinburgh city). Following the experience of the first seven groups, it was decided not to proceed with the groups in Lothian and Northern.

It had been anticipated that between eight and twelve participants would attend each group; however, between one and six participants took part, with most groups including only two or three participants.

There were insufficient participants from minority ethnic backgrounds to allow for a dedicated focus group for this sub-sample in Strathclyde, as had been proposed initially.

Based on previous experience, in the opinion of the research team, there were several reasons for the lower than expected participation in focus groups. One was the short lead-in time, due to the tight timescale of the research and the difficulties in finding suitable venues for meetings at short notice. For many participants, and not only in rural areas, attendance at a group involved travelling a considerable distance, and the groups took place in winter. Although travel expenses were offered, no provision was made for compensation for participants' time. Some potential participants expressed unwillingness to travel on the grounds of personal safety. Finally, some participants had moved away from the addresses given or were otherwise unobtainable.

INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEWS

Individual telephone interviews were employed because this method was likely to elicit richer data and a higher response rate than postal questionnaires (Maguire and Bennett, 1982). The flexible, semi-structured format used allowed new issues which arose during the discussion to be followed up immediately in a natural way. The design of the semi-structured interview schedule built upon the data gathered during the focus groups.

It was originally proposed to conduct 48 individual interviews in each of three research areas. Due to the lower than anticipated number of focus groups, the target number of individual interviews was increased to 60. Of the original 60 potential respondents whose names were provided by police forces, some had moved away or were not contactable. Further names were obtained and fresh attempts were made to reach the target number of interviews. The time constraints imposed by the inspection timetable made it impossible to continue contacting fresh groups of individual victims, and by the end of the study 39 people had been interviewed individually and 16 in focus groups, making a total of 55 respondents. The sample of respondents was chosen to represent different offence types, each sex, and different age groups.

In order to maintain a fair representation of the study group involved it was important to maintain a balanced sample in terms of the geographic location, age, gender, and ethnic background of the respondents, and the type of crime that had been committed against the individuals.

Summary breakdown of the interviews conducted with individual victims

All 28 respondents described their ethnic origin as white. The age range was 19-79 years.

Gender breakdown:

Case resolution figures:

Type of crime:

Geographical location:

Individual semi-structured interviews were carried by telephone. Interviews were recorded, using hand-set recording equipment, with the consent of participants, and transcribed.

Summary breakdown of the interviews conducted with corporate victims

Eleven telephone interviews were conducted with the corporate victims of volume crime (aged between 26 and 56 years). Given the fact that the respondents were from businesses, and as such, were subject to repeated crimes committed against them, it was very difficult to ascertain any reliable quantitative data from such a small sample. However, some respondents stated that some crimes against them were solved. Similarly, the majority of respondents reported that they had been victims of several types of crimes. It is important to note that the figures recorded do not reflect the reality or the volume of the crimes that are committed against corporate victims of crime.

Type of crime:

Gender breakdown of respondents:

Ethnic group

Geographic location

Type of business

Respondent's position within the company

Again, respondent numbers were lower than had been anticipated. Here, too, a semi-structured interview schedule was used to direct the discussion throughout the focus groups, but the discussion was allowed to develop and progress naturally.

DATA ANALYSIS

Analysis of focus groups and interviews was done manually by coding relevant themes. The data were pooled for analysis to enable the relevance of different variables to be examined, but where issues arose that were specific to individual forces the analysis process was flexible enough to allow these to be highlighted. To ensure greater validity, the analysis of each interview was carried out by two researchers, one of whom was the interviewer. The research team also had the opportunity to discuss emerging themes, having all read the transcripts.

An initial analysis of the themes arising from focus groups was presented to the research advisory group before individual interviews commenced, allowing emerging findings to be included in the inspection report.

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