Jane Fielding

Triangulation and integration: processes, claims and implications

Researchers who advocate the use of multiple methods often write interchangeably about ‘integrating’, ‘combining’ and ‘mixing’ methods, sometimes eliding these descriptors with ‘triangulation’, which itself encompasses several meanings. In this article we argue that such an elision is problematic since it obscures the difference between (a) the processes by which methods (or data) are brought into relationship with each other (combined, integrated, mixed) and (b) the claims made for the epistemological status of the resulting knowledge. Drawing on the literature for examples, we set out different rationales for using more than one method, then we develop a definition of integration of methods as a specific kind of relationship among methods. We also discuss different places in the research process where integration can occur: for instance, data from different sources can be integrated in the analysis stage, or findings from different sources at the point of theorizing.

Distinguishing traumatic, vicarious and routine operational stressor exposure and attendant adverse consequences in a sample of police officers

Problems in studying occupational stress within the police service are identified and the paucity of work on operational duties as potential stressors are discussed. The present study reports the results of a factor analysis of operational stressors (N = 601 serving British police officers) that revealed three factors: exposure to death and disaster; violence and injury; sexual crime. These were demonstrated to be reliable scales and were included in logistic regression models together with a range of demographic and psychological variables. Models were applied to men and women separately, which showed there to be different predictors of the likelihood of suffering distress (measured by the General Health Questionnaire, GHQ) in terms of the officers gender and operational role. Overall the model for women officers was better at predicting psychological distress than that for men. These findings are related to aspects of the police occupational culture. Further discussion is offered that conceptualizes po...

Black and blue: an analysis of the influence of race on being stopped by the police

This article addresses the debate over the disproportionate representation of black people in the criminal justice system, with particular reference to the link between a persons race and the process of being stopped on the street by the police. On the basis of a participant observation study of routine police patrol in inner city London, the article explores the influence of race in relation to citizen and officer demeanour, and on the actions taken by police in initiating, processing and terminating a stop. Demeanour and process variables are derived from quantified observational data recorded on codified observation schedules from 213 police stops involving 319 members of the public. Among the findings reported, blacks prove over two and a half times more likely to be stopped than their presence in the local population would suggest, with a higher disproportion in the case of young black men. However, blacks and whites prove equally likely to be calm and civil to police at contact and during processing, and there are scant differences in police demeanour and action toward the two groups.

Qualitative differences in men and women police officers' experience of occupational stress

Abstract Gender differences in exposure to sources of occupational stress and experience of adverse consequences are explored in a study of 358 male and 139 female police constables engaged in uniformed patrol or detective duties from one large provincial English police force. Stressors were divided into those arising tiom police operational duties and those deriving tioni organizational and management issues. Women uniformed constables are less likely to be exposed to police operational stresson involving the potential for violence, but ifexposed they report more severe adverse reactions than uniformed policemen. Women unifomied officers and women detectives are more likely to be involved with victims ofviolence or sexual offences and the former report higher levels ofassociated self-perceived stress than their male counterparts. There are relatively few differences in exposure to organizational stressors except that women detectives and uniformed officers report higher rates of sex discrimination and pr...

Resistance and Adaptation to Criminal Identity: Using Secondary Analysis to Evaluate Classic Studies of Crime and Deviance

Qualitative data offer rich insights into the social world, whether alone or in tandem with statistical analysis. However, qualitative data are costly to collect and analyse. Moreover, it is a commonplace that only a portion of the data so labouriously collected is the subject of final analysis and publication. Secondary analysis is a well-established method in quantitative research and is raising its profile in application to qualitative data. It has a particular part to play when research is on sensitive topics and/or hard-to-reach populations, as in the example considered here. This article contributes to discussion of the potential and constraints of secondary analysis of qualitative data by reporting the outcome of the secondary analysis of a key study in the sociology of prison life, Cohen and Taylors research on the long-term imprisonment of men in maximum security. The article re-visits Cohen and Taylors original analysis and demonstrates support for an alternative, if complementary, conceptualisation, using archived data from the original study. Among the methodological issues discussed are the recovery of the context of the original fieldwork and the role of secondary analysis in an incremental approach to knowledge production.

Environmental inequality and flood hazard

Abstract This paper reports findings from research conducted for the Environment Agency1 investigating the social distribution of the risk of flooding in England and Wales. Following a broadly outcome based analysis, and using socio-geographic modelling techniques and the 1991 Census, the social class characteristics of the population at risk from flooding were explored and compared with the population considered not at risk as a means to uncover any evidence of social inequality. The Environment Agency indicative flood plain maps (1 in 100 year return for fluvial and 1 in a 200 year return for tidal flooding) were used to identify at risk areas. Two different methods of capturing the at risk population were employed; one based on census enumeration districts and the other using surface population models which redistribute the area population over a grid surface of the area of interest. The two methods provide completely different results. The enumeration district method indicates that those in higher social classes are the most likely to be exposed to flood hazard while the grid method indicates that it is those in the lower social classes who are most at risk. We suggest that the grid method provides a more accurate analysis but highlight the significant effect that the choice of areal unit and spatial analysis can have on conclusions about the extent of any inequality in vulnerability to flooding.

Women and the Sciences in Britain: Getting In?.

Abstract We address here the issue of girls and women entering the sciences, both in terms of education and employment, focusing on the occupational outcomes of science, engineering and technology (SET) graduates. We observe that compared to other professions such as the law and medicine, womens and girls’ entry to the sciences has been slow, although we point out that the differences between the sciences in terms of numerical feminisation are considerable. We show that women and men SET graduates use their human capital in different ways in the labour market and that there has been rather little change in these patterns over the past 15 years. Women translate their scientific degrees into professional scientific jobs less than men do and also show higher levels of overqualification in the labour market. We consider the policy implications of our findings, arguing that labour market policies, not just education policies, need to receive attention.

A comparative minority: Female recruits to a British constabulary force

The article examines the place of women constables in a British constabulary force, with particular reference to a comparison of male and female police recruits’ views on the suitability of women for police work. The article is empirically‐based, drawing on both qualitative and quantitative data from a study of police recruit training and socialisation to the occupation. In light of the similarities and differences in male and female occupational attitudes, and the key emphasis on physical strength, there is a discussion speculating on the latent potential for radical change in the delivery of routine police service.

Environmental Injustice or Just the Lie of the Land: an Investigation of the Socio-Economic Class of Those at Risk from Flooding in England and Wales

An outcome-based analysis using surface population models and logistic regression analysis shows that significant inequalities exist between the middle and working classes, and also between the middle classes and the inactive (the unemployed and unclassifiable classes, not the retired), in risk factors associated with flood emergencies in all Environment Agency Regions of England and Wales except the Midlands region. This analysis demonstrates overall inequality is reproduced in both the fluvial and tidal flood plains, although that within the tidal flood plains is especially significant and more pronounced in some areas, especially, in the Eastern regions of England. The paper then discusses whether this inequality is unjust or discriminatory, and considers that further, more process-driven, analysis would be necessary to explore this issue, especially looking at neighbourhood generation processes with respect to migration into and out of areas.

Integrating Information from Multiple Methods into the Analysis of Perceived Risk of Crime: The Role of Geo-Referenced Field Data and Mobile Methods

This paper demonstrates the use of mixed methods discovery techniques to explore public perceptions of community safety and risk, using computational techniques that combine and integrate layers of information to reveal connections between community and place. Perceived vulnerability to crime is conceptualised using an etic/emic framework. The etic “outsider” viewpoint imposes its categorisation of vulnerability not only on areas (“crime hot spots” or “deprived neighbourhoods”) but also on socially constructed groupings of individuals (the “sick” or the “poor”) based on particular qualities considered relevant by the analyst. The range of qualities is often both narrow and shallow. The alternative, emic, “insider” perspective explores vulnerability based on the meanings held by the individuals informed by their lived experience. Using recorded crime data and Census-derived area classifications, we categorise an area in Southern England from an etic viewpoint. Mobile interviews with local residents and police community support officers and researcher-led environmental audits provide qualitative emic data. GIS software provides spatial context to analytically link both quantitative and qualitative data. We demonstrate how this approach reveals hidden sources of community resilience and produces findings that explicate low level social disorder and vandalism as turns in a “dialogue” of resistance against urbanisation and property development.