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Chapter 11:
Field
Observation
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© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Learning Objectives
• Be able to describe field research as a data collection method
that involves the direct observation of phenomena in their
natural settings
• Recognize that field observation is usually the preferred data
collection method for obtaining information about physical or
social settings, behavior, and events
• Understand that field research in criminal justice may produce
either qualitative or quantitative data
• Provide examples of how observations made through field
research can be integrated with data collected through
interviews and from other sources
• Understand why field researchers may or may not identify
themselves as researchers to the people they are observing

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Learning Objectives, cont.
• Recognize what sampling techniques are best suited for
field research, and when they can be used
• Recognize the alternatives for recording field
observations, ranging from video, audio, and other
equipment to unstructured field notes
• Understand how field notes are taken, and be able to
describe different ways to combine structure and
flexibility in field notes
• Summarize how field research measures up on validity
and reliability

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Introduction
• Field research encompasses two different
methods of obtaining data:
• Direct observation
• Asking questions
• May yield qualitative and quantitative data
• Often no precisely defined hypotheses to be
tested
• Used to make sense out of an ongoing
process

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Field Research Topics
• Gives comprehensive perspective—
enhances validity
• Go directly to phenomenon; observe it as completely as
possible
• Especially appropriate for topics best
understood in their natural setting
• Street-level drug dealers to distinguish customers
• Ethnography: Focuses on detailed and
accurate description rather than explanation

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Discussion Question 1
What if your government supplied you with
$50,000 for field research? Which conditions or
behaviors would you be interested in
observing?

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Roles of the Observer
• Complete participant: Participate fully; true identity
and purpose are not known to subjects
• Participant-as-observer: Make known your position
as researcher and participate with the group
• Observer-as-participant: Make known your position
as a researcher; do not actually participate
• Complete observer: Observe without becoming a
participant

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Purposive Sampling in Field Research
• Controlled probability sampling used rarely;
purposive sampling is common
• Bear in mind two stages of sampling:
• To what extent are the situations available for observation
representative of the general phenomena you wish to
describe and explain?
• Are your actual observations within those total situations
representative of all observations?
• Consider how observations will vary by population, space,
micro time, macro time, and weather dimensions

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Recording Observations
• Note-taking or tape recording when interviewing and
when making observations (dictation)
• Videotaping or photographs can make records of
“before” and “after” some physical design change
• Field notes: Observations are recorded as written
notes, often in a field journal; first take sketchy notes
and then rewrite your notes in detail
• Structured observations: Observers mark closed-
ended forms, which produce numeric measures

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Discussion Question 2
What if you wanted to research crime in a
dangerous area? Would you use a camera?
Why or why not? Be specific.

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Linking Field Observations
• Useful to combine field research with surveys or
data from official records
• Baltimore study of the effects of neighborhood physical
characteristics on residents’ perceptions of crime problems
(Taylor, Shumaker, and Gottfredson, 1985)
• Perceptions: Surveys
• Physical problems: Observations; actual population and
crime information (census data and crime reports from
police records)

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Shoplifting
• Counted only when offense is seen; takes
place only in certain locations; crime of
stealth and not confrontation
• Prevalence defined as ratio of shoplifters: shoppers
• Subjects selected by systematic sampling, e.g., every
twentieth shopper was followed by a field observer
• Other research staff were employed as shoplifters to
measure reliability of observers’ detections
• Could adjust prevalence rate with reliability figures

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How Many People Wear Seat Belts?
• Rate of use: # of people wearing: # of cars
observed
• Stationary observers at roadsides rather than
mobile
• Placed at controlled intersections
• Sampled cars on three dimensions: Time of day,
roadway type, observation site; stratified sites by
density of auto ownership (correlated with
population)
• Emphasized marking “U” when uncertain

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Discussion Question 3
What if you could replicate one of these
projects? Which would you choose?

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Strengths & Weaknesses
• Provides great depth of understanding
• Flexibility (no need to prepare much in advance)
• More appropriate to measure behavior than surveys
• High validity: quant. measures—incomplete picture
• Low reliability: Often very personal
• Generalizability: Personal nature may produce
findings that may not be replicated by another
• Precise probability samples can’t normally be drawn