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Journal Article 1: Clark, J. J., & Walker, R. (2012). Research ethics in victimization studies: Widening the lens. Violence Against Women, 17, 1489-1508.

Abstract: Research ethics, especially the protection of research study participants, has been an enduring concern of investigators and scholars of victims of violence. Previous work has analyzed the overt and hidden risks of harm to study participants through poorly designed and implemented protocols, cross-cultural insensitivity, unjust exclusion of certain victim types, and neglect to ensure safety of research staff. This article extends this work by calling for greater attention to exploiting participants and victims as a class of persons. The need for this wider view derives from concern about the academic research environment with its emphasis on research, publication, and extramural funding. The authors argue that compliance with federal regulations and IRB directives is necessary but insufficient to conduct truly ethical research. Recognition of the unique pressures that researchers face in the context of the economically competitive university is required to delineate and manage exploitation risks. Such pressures have sometimes led to the rush from print to practices and policies with unintended harmful results for victims of violence as a class of persons. The authors suggest a number of strategies for researchers to define and manage the dangers of engaging in this type of unethical conduct.

Journal Article 2: Cromwell, P., & Birzer, M. L. (2012). The curious case of George: A case study of a career criminal. Criminal Justice Review, 37, 512-526.

Abstract: This research is a case study of a “semiretired” career criminal. The subject, George, an 82-year-old career offender admits to over 200 arrests and numerous convictions between age 16 and the present. He has served over 20 years in state and federal prisons for racketeering, arson, burglary, and other serious offenses. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with George regularly over a 6-month period. Despite his openness regarding his criminal career and attachment to the criminal subculture in which he flourished, he readily made use of techniques of neutralization and despite his reputation as a local criminal godfather, considers himself a good person. George was unusual in that he was proud of his criminal reputation but also thought of himself and wished to be perceived by others as a good person. The use of neutralizations allowed him to maintain these two diametrically opposed perceptions of self. The authors conclude that due to over 60 years of cognitive distortions through the use of techniques of neutralizations, the subject has compartmentalized his diametrically opposed perceptions of self to the point where he believes them both. The authors borrow the term doublethink from George Orwell’s book, 1984, to describe this phenomenon.

Journal Article 3: Jarvis, J. (2015). Examining National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) data: Perspectives from a quarter century of analysis efforts. Justice Research and Policy, 16, 195-210.

Abstract: The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) has been a repository for crime data for almost 25 years. This work explores the uses and applications of these data to shed light on a variety of crime and policing issues since the data became available in the early to mid 1990s. Specific attention and discussion is devoted to some of the advances that NIBRS data affords as well as some of the limitations that have been discovered. Documenting both the challenges and opportunities that NIBRS data have provided was the aim of this work. Both the research and practice communities can profit from further data collection and analysis of this important source of information relative to crimes that become known to the police.