Katedra Socjologii Prawa

This desk-based method include the analysis of existing manuals, guide books, handbooks, previous research and survey results, scientific articles and reports, curriculums of police academies, a variety of internet sources, i.e. newspapers and homepages of NGOs, public and private institutions, other available documents, reported cases of police misbehaviour, social media activities. Our interest comprises all relevant types of sources. The analysis of these sources also serves the goals to identify possible interview partners and to verify which research questions can be answered by analysing existing sources, and which can only be answered by conducting the field work. The desk-based study phase also serves the purpose to thoroughly prepare the field study. During this phase we will work on research tools which are needed to conduct the field studies, particularly we will prepare a comprehensive semi-structured interview guideline and conduct necessary pilots.

For the interviews and focus-group discussions we will identify five target-groups, namely public officials, police representatives, scientists, NGOs and communities (e.g. citizens and citizens' organizations, self-government, alternative security providers, informal groups). All interviews with public officials, police representatives and NGOs will be conducted on a local and a state level. In addition we will conduct semi-structured interviews with scientists and experts (working in the region) in the field of the above named research problems. We will analyse the role scientists played and still play in COP in the framework of evidence based policing, and evaluate their experiences with regards to the implementation of their research findings in COP.  

Semi-structured interviews: For each target-group the semi-structured interview guideline will be adjusted to the specific social context of the interviewees, but we are keeping the focus of the interview the same for all target-groups. The interviews may comprise but are not limited to gather the following information:

• Trust in the police and in state institutions
• Responsiveness to community needs, in particular women's and youth needs
• Accountability of the police towards the communities
• Integrity in the police (corruption)
• Levels of violence from the police
• Respect by the police for communities and vice versa
• Self-respect and self-esteem of the police
• Necessary skills to offer a clear and relevant service to the communities in terms of fighting crime and reducing insecurities of community women, men and children
• Definition of crime by the communities and the police?
• Reporting of crime by community members
• Problem solving by communities themselves and ideas on how police can cooperate better with communities, taking into account local knowledge (culture, history, traditional practices)

Focus-group discussions: This qualitative method is particularly useful in two situations. At first, it is useful with experts  with different experiences and opinions in a certain field of interest to compare those experiences and opinions.  Secondly, this method allows studying the arguments and ideas of the interviewees who are supposed to have similar opinion and experiences.  Using focus-group discussion is a chance not only to observe group dynamics, but also an opportunity to get the multidimensional picture of the above mentioned main research problem. The focus-group discussions will be conducted in accordance to a specific problem list which would be prepared by us before the field study. The problem list will follow the structure of the guideline prepared for semi-structured interviews.