Qualitative Research Methods Forensic

Another point on the difficulties of qualitative research is that the criminals may offer broken linguistic skills, therefore giving the researcher a hard task in formulating this information into something credible or simply a severe lack of it. Snow & Powell (2005) highlighted this issue, by finding that 50% of young male offenders suffer from clinically significant language impairment. This is perhaps an isolated issue associated with the qualitative approach, rather than a

Despite these criticisms, it is important to understand and appreciate the balance the qualitative method holds in the wider context of the research field of the discipline. If a researcher wishes to explore the criminal mind in depth, it would be naïve to suggest detailed research could be obtained from using a quantitative structure alone. Applying this approach gives the discipline triangulation, which is extremely significant in making explanations of criminality. This is so important because not every criminal explanation can be made using quantifiable approaches, as some answers won't simply fit in a tick box. Attaining information such as life stories of criminals gives the criminal acts a wider context of the criminal's lives, and the potential links and reasoning to suggest why they committed such acts, and thus helping to explain them. Consequently this information can be used in the future and used as a tool to develop therapy and counselling techniques to help future victims or criminals.

Of course the qualitative approach also has many hindrances in its methodologies. As discussed, an account of only one individual, trusting a highly perturbed person, and small sample sizes with time constrains have to be viewed as the approaches' limitations. However some can perhaps be perceived as a positive, adding value to the approach. The work of Snow & Powell was previously explored, expressing the language impairment of male offenders.