LCRM301 Researching criminology
Worksheet 1
This worksheet will be disseminated to students in Week 3 and will assist them in the planning and development of the second assessment task: literature review.
PART 1: Refining your topic
The topic I am interested in is:
I am interested in this topic because:
This is an important topic to study because:
I am interested in research that is: descriptive/exploratory [select 1] (see Table 2.1 on p. 51 of your textbook and the Week 2 and 3 Tutorial Slides as useful reference points)
If you are struggling to identify a topic, the following prompts might be useful:
- workplace violence among retail workers
- attitudes on the new social media ban
- how survivors of violence use online communities to disclose their experiences
- experiences of and/or responses to technology-facilitated abuse (might like to pick a specific form of abuse)
- how social media hashtags (e.g., #BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo or another hashtag of interest to you) are used to share information and promote activism in Australia
- criminology undergraduate students’ perceptions of online learning during COVID-19
- young people’s use of online communities and how they navigate online misogyny
- attitudes towards the implementation of a new law or policy
- alternatively, you might like to focus on legal responses to an aspect of law or policy e.g., image-based abuse or sextortion
- experiences of sexual harassment on university campuses
- experiences of migrant women in immigration detention
- if you’re interested in a particular issue (e.g., joy riding or gendered violence) and cohort (e.g., young people) you might like to focus on victims, perpetrators or those at risk of engaging in these behaviours.
- If you’re seeking to understand more about victimisation, you might focus on: experiences, help-seeking, responses, prevention.
- If you’re interested in perpetration you might focus on: motivations, circumstances around involvement, desistance, deterrence.
Drafting your research question:
Using the Week 3 Tutorial Slides as a guide, have a go at writing your research question (remember this should be a descriptive or exploratory question. You will continue to refine this question as you move forward in the unit)
Evaluate your research question:
We will continue to work on refining our questions in our tutorials, however, you might like to try the following:
Go to the ACU Library’s AI Tools website – navigate to Text Gen-AI – select Claude (sign up)
- Ask the following question: Provide feedback on this research question: [write your question]
Using this feedback and the evaluation criteria discussed in the Week 3 tutorial consider how you could refine your question.
PART 2: Finding literature on your research topic
Now that you have an idea of your topic, it’s important to review the relevant literature. Remember that doing so will help you refine your topic and question.
As discussed in the Week 3 lecture, scholarly literature governs the choice of research topic and the research problem that will be investigated by a researcher. There are several different ways that we can go about finding scholarly literature on a topic.
- A good place to start is by undertaking an initial search for literature using an electronic database. At ACU, our library provides a useful search function, where you can find journal articles, books, book chapters, and other print materials about a range of research topics.
- You can also search specific databases or journals that are relevant to your discipline
| Useful Databases for criminology and criminal justice students | Useful journals for criminology and criminal justice students |
| You can search ‘criminology’ in the ACU Library database search tool (see image below). This will show a list of recommended databases, including: Criminal Justice Abstracts with Full Text ProQuest Criminal Justice Database Informit | You will find work by Australian criminologists published in the following journals: Journal of Criminology British Journal of Criminology Current Issues in Criminal Justice International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy Other journals include: European Journal of Criminology Annual Review of Criminology Policing and Society Criminology & Public Policy The Journal of Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society Criminology and Criminal Justice Punishment and Society: the international journal of penology American Journal of Criminal Justice Crime & Delinquency Criminal Justice and Behavior Criminal Justice Review Criminology Criminology & Public Policy Feminist Criminology Homicide Studies Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice Journal of Crime and Justice Journal of Interpersonal Violence Journal of Quantitative Criminology Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency Justice Quarterly Psychology of Violence Punishment & Society Sexual Abuse Violence Against Women Violence and Victims |
- Another common database used by researchers is, Google Scholar. Google Scholar is like the Google Search Engine, but allows you to find scholarly sources (e.g., book, journal articles) about a range of research topics. It is accessible via the ACU Library
- When you search Google Scholar on ACU computers, or through ACU Wi-Fi, you are automatically connected to library resources. This means you get instant access to the full-text if it is available.
- If you are off-campus (at home, away from campus or using a device not connected to ACU Wi-Fi), this does not happen.
- You will need to do a one-time connection of Google Scholar to ACU Library to continue to get access to library subscribed full-text content. For directions on how to do this see: https://library.acu.edu.au/research/search-tools/google-scholar
Helpful resources
- On our unit Modules page under Assessment Skills you will find a useful video the library team has put together for you, which gives you tips on how to undertake a search on your chosen topic
Identifying search terms for articles
One of the most common issues experienced by students when reviewing the literature is not being able to find relevant sources on their topic.
1. When first starting to read literature, use databases such as Google Scholar and the ACU Library to find a variety of sources. This will help to identify how much literature on a topic exists.
2. Use key words, not sentences in your searches! When searching for sources, make sure you are using keywords that are critical to a topic. Full sentences are not going to be as effective when searching for articles.
3. When identifying keywords, consider synonyms and other differences such as spelling (e.g., organisation vs. organization).
Brainstorm some of the key words or phrases that are relevant to your topic. Note: The Week 3 lecture gives you some helpful tips and tricks on how to do this.
| Key words | Phrases |
Now you’re ready to start searching!
First, you might like to go to Google Scholar and type in your keywords. In the space below, describe how effective they were in returning articles.
- Some things to think about: how many articles were returned from this search, how relevant are the titles to the topic?
If you are finding that there are not many articles about your topic, that is okay! Some research topics are newer than others, and therefore may not have a large amount of literature. This means that you need to consider varying your keywords and databases before determining whether this is a shortcoming in the literature. On the flip side, if you are finding that there are a lot of articles about your topic, then you need to critically reflect on the most important and relevant articles.
Determining Journal Article Relevance
Now that you have returned some articles on your chosen topic and problem, let’s explore some of these articles in more depth. It is important that you make sure that articles are relevant to your chosen topic.
Unfortunately, identifying article relevance, isn’t as simple as reading the abstract of an article.
The first step should be to identify what type of article you have found. Below is a general list of common types of articles that you may come across in literature searches on your research topics:
| Type of article | Useful When | Use Caution |
| Empirical study: This type of article involves the researchers collecting and/or analysing data. The word “empirical” refers to the authors observing a concept, construct, relationship, or phenomenon in their data. Empirical studies may also be testing or expanding on a theory using data. | you are trying to see concepts, constructs, relationships, or phenomena in action. | it’s important to identify the context, quality, and limitations of empirical studies. |
| Theoretical article: This type of article presents a range of concepts, constructs, and relationships, but does not collect or analyse data. Instead, definitions are provided for how these concepts, constructs, and relationships should best be defined and measured. | there is not an abundance of empirical studies testing a theory, you are thinking about making predictions or hypotheses, you are interested in exploring how a theory can be used in different contexts. | it’s important to remember that theories need to be tested and that building arguments based on theoretical papers requires careful thought. |
| Review of literature: This type of article analyses prior literature on a topic. The authors will present trends in ideas, methodologies, theories, and general conclusions of previous research. This type of article will suggest future directions for research to fulfil gaps in the literature. | trying to identify conceptual, theoretical, and/or methodological gaps in the literature and how the topic has changed over time. | Do not rely solely on reviews of literature! It’s important that you engage with literature on your topic to gain an in-depth understanding of the ideas, methods, and limitations. It’s also important consider whether the literature review is up to date (how recent is it?) and the scope of the literature cited (is everything here or is it only certain types of articles?). |
Dissecting Journal Articles
Most journal articles follow a similar structure, as outlined below:
- Abstract: Provides a summary of what the research is about, and the general structure of the article.
- Introduction: Provides information about the significance and scope of the article.
- Literature Review: Contains the current state of knowledge about the topic and research problem, as well as the gap this will be addressed by the research.
- Methodology: Contains the framework, tools, participants, data, and justification of research method and analyses.
- Results: Provides a detailed breakdown of the results of data analysis.
- Discussion: Summarises the research findings/conclusions, provides meaning to the results. Identifies limitations and implications of the research.
As you review the literature on your research topic, think about the following questions:
Why is this research topic important?
What is the current state of knowledge on my topic and problem? Are there some consistent findings in the journal articles you are reading about your topic? If so, what are they? What are the general conclusions being made?
Document your key sources in the literature table template provided below.
Important note: it’s important to read widely on your chosen topic. In the second assessment task, you will be expected to include a minimum of 8 reputable sources in your literature review. These should be the most relevant studies you have found on your topic. These do not all need to be Australian sources; be directed by those that are most relevant to your research question. Remember that your research question guides the research process, including the study’s purpose and how you go about collecting and analysing data. Research questions help to narrow down a broad topic to a specific area of investigation.
| Citation | Aims and research question | Methods | Findings | Notes to self (i.e., key themes, limitations, relevance to your research question) |
