What is comparative research? Why is it important? What are the difficulties in measurement across contexts? (

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The limitations of examining data from a single location have encouraged many social scientists to turn to comparisons among many geographical entities. As noted in the 2001 American Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences’ Presidential Address by Richard Bennett (2004), comparative research in criminal justice and criminology took on a new importance after the terrorist attacks on September 11. Bennett described two types of comparative research:
1. Research that seeks to understand the structure, nature, or scope of a nation’s or nations’ criminal justice systems or rates of crime is descriptive comparative research.
2. Research that seeks to understand how national systems work and the factors related to their operations is analytic comparative research.
There is also variability in the scope of comparative research. Studies can examine crime patterns in single nations, make a comparison across several nations, or conduct transnational research, which generally explores how cultures and nations deal with crime that transcends their borders. Investigating terrorism is one emerging form of transnational research. Bennett (2004) notes,
One of the outcomes of the terrorist attacks in 2001 was a shocking awareness that terrorism is international and inextricably tied to transnational criminal activity.... We need to understand how criminal and terrorist organizations fund themselves and exploit our inability to link and analyze criminal activity that transcends national borders.
Although comparative methods are often associated with cross-national comparisons, research examining smaller aggregates such as states and cities can also be subsumed under the comparative research umbrella. Comparative research methods allow for a broader vision about social relations than is possible with cross-sectional research limited to one location.