2. •Qualitative interview is an interaction between an
interviewer and a respondent where the interviewer
has a general plan of inquiry, including topics to be
covered.
•The interviewer might not have a specific set of
questions to be asked in a particular order
•Can be thought of as a purposeful conversation.
•Allows researchers to study more complex
processes or the “hows” involving human
perspective
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3. •Qualitative interviews can be the sole way of
gathering data in criminal justice studies
•Allows the research to understand the subjects’
perspectives
•Can gather first hand accounts of their impressions
and their lived experience.
•Can also be used to understand how people feel
about their roles and identities
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4. •Interview schedule: The structure of the
interview that may have predetermined
questions or topical areas to be discussed.
•The interview schedule will influence how in-
depth and interactive your interviews should be.
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5. •A structured interview schedule consists of
predetermined questions and answer sets.
•Structured interviews created standardized
responses so respondents are given the same
stimulus, allowing for responses to be compared
•Semi-structured interview schedules have
standardized questions but allows the interviewer to
explore themes that emerge during the interview
•Researcher can probe for additional information.
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6. •Unstructured interviews are the most open style
interviewing
•Provides the most breadth, depth and natural
interaction with participants.
•Two main approaches: conversations and
interview guide
•Conversations is an informal “chat” where
conversation flows organically
•Interview guide includes a list of topical areas that
you want to cover in the conversation
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7. •6-12 people brought together to engage in guided
group discussion of some topic
•Focus groups can be used to generate hypotheses, or
combined with other types of data gathering such as
participant observation
•Can show how opinions are produced, expressed, and
exchanged in everyday life.
•Can be either natural groups or artificial groups
•Natural groups have an existing connection
•Artificial groups are made up of individuals selected
according to some criteria and are brought together for
research purposes
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8. •Interview questions can assume different forms.
•The branch approach involves having a main topic with
branching questions.
•The river-and-channel approach involves many streams
of questioning that lead into the main channel, with
some streams diverging.
•Must also decide what order to tell the story.
•A diachronic delivery of material starts at the beginning
and progresses chronologically.
•A synchronic framework does not depend on time.
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9. •Best to create an outline of more categories of
information you want to obtain before you start writing.
•You can create categories and nested sets of topical
areas.
•How a question is worded can affect the response.
•Be sure the questions encompass the overall subject,
that there is a good flow between questions, the order
makes sense, and the language is appropriate.
•Avoid double-barreled questions, complex questions,
difficult language, and affective words.
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10. •Prompt participants to elaborate on responses
by filling in more detail and depth.
•It is important to have built in prompts in case
you have quiet respondents.
•You can use an attention probe (e.g., lean in), a
continuation probe (e.g., nod), clarification probe
(e.g., ask the respondent to clarify), or follow-up
questions.
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11. •Establish your role: determine if you are an insider or
outsider.
•To gain access to a formal organization, you will need
identify yourself as a researcher and make a formal
request and receive formal approval.
•Best to use a four step process: sponsor, letter, phone
call, and meeting.
•To gain access to information subcultures researchers
can gain access using a sponsor or hang out where
subjects hang out.
•Compensation might be necessary to encourage
participation.
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12. •Qualitative interviews can be in-person, on the phone,
online, or a survey.
•Face-to-face are most common.
•Reflexivity refers to your subjectivity and the meaning
you give to information.
•It is important to remain critically conscious of your
reflexivity when conducting qualitative interviews.
•During interviews you will need to develop a rapport
with respondents.
•This can be done through informal conversations or
finding something you and the respondent have in
common.
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13. •Might need to conduct several conversations with the
respondents.
•Active interviewing is a social exchange that allows for
natural conversation and spontaneity.
•The respondents answers determine the subsequent
questions.
•During an interactive interview, you are purposefully
interactive.
•The researcher must put on a social performance where
he or she must be the actor, director and choreographer.
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14. •Must decide whether to have a natural or artificial
group, what the physical arrangement of the group
should be, and the appropriate length of the interview.
•Need to be aware of groupthink and dominant group
members.
•If you are gathering data on a sensitive topic, you must
realize that participants can be upset by having to share
such information and that you cannot ensure
confidentiality.
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15. •After recording information, researchers must transcribe
the dialogue verbatim.
•After returning from interviews, you must write up field
notes no later than the morning after.
•Memoing involves writing about your research process
and is important to recognize subjectivity.
•Operational, coding and analytic are three types of
memos.
•Operational memos are steps that you took in the research process
•Coding memos allow you to document how you coded data
•Analytic memos provide ways to explore relationships in the data.
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16. •Data is managed through tables, charts and
other visual displays.
•Data reduction involves putting aside
information that seems irrelevant.
•Thinking units can also be used to sort stories.
•Lofland and Lofland (1995) suggests the
following thinking units: meanings, practices,
episodes, encounters, roles, relationships,
groups, organizations, settlements, social worlds
and lifestyles.
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17. •Coding assigns meaning to data.
•Process of organizing raw data into categories.
•Open coding involves exploring all possible meanings
before assigning conceptual definitions.
•Microanalysis involves going deeper into the data and
challenging your original frame of reference.
•The next step is to form categories and assign data to
these categories.
•Data will have higher-level themes and lower-level
categories.
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18. •To enhance the quality of qualitative analysis,
researchers should have an established audit
trail.
•An important check is to look for negative cases
that contradict the emerging themes.
•Also perform member checks where other
researchers read the descriptions and verify the
accuracy of the work.
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