Research Methods for Criminology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Research Methods for Criminology - Essay ExampleSeries of measurements ar taken to make sure that the experiment is able to measure varied sets of conditions under which the person or the instrument has to work.Now the question arises how to make sure that the series of measurements are not only reliable but validated as well. Or can we make use of a measurement which happens to be reliable but low on dependability or vice-versa. This canvass cannot be an area specific but it cannot be generalized for all experiments as well. T here(predicate) might be some areas where we can use much(prenominal) measurements, but there might be areas where we need to be doubly sure that the measurement is both reliable as well valid. It is worthwhile here to mention that while rigor can be tested and can be termed as an objective parameter, it is difficult to do exact calculation for reliability as it is subjective in nature. Reliability is therefore estimated in order to come to the nearest perfection point. Four general classes of reliability are1While theres no doubt that a measurement with high validity and high reliability is the most sought after type of measurement, a measurement with low validity and low reliability is never used for making any calculations. Measurements low on validity and high on reliability imply that we are consistently measuring wrong values, which in a way defeats the very purpose of carrying out the research. In such cases we continue to get incorrect information quite a consistently. Therefore, we seldom use such measurements. Quite often it so happens that the repeated measurements fail to show consistent patterns, but for a group of parameters, the measurements hold good. In this case, though on an average we do get the valid results, the consistency is not there. In such cases, the measurements can be useful depending upon the criticality of the usage. For example, if we are to make use of these measurements for the operation of