Introduction
In order to understand the current status of police reforms and their impacts, a survey was conducted to study the role of International Police Advisors (IPA) in promoting reforms of the domestic police forces in post-conflict settings by discussing the challenges of IPA in imposing police reforms, changes to policing through training by drawing from the case studies of policing reforms in various jurisdictions. “Survey method is a descriptive research method, useful when a researcher wants to collect data on phenomenon that cannot be directly observed and should be just as rigorously designed as any other research method” (Turnbull, 2008). For this research, questionnaires and short interviews were used as they could effectively cover people’s opinions and suggestions
When using questionnaires, it is important to design questions carefully as poorly designed questions renders the research useless. Items should be clarified while avoiding use of double barred questions. Also, the respondents should be competent to answer and the questions should be relevant, short and positive (Yin, 2006).
Development of Research Questions
The research will study the role of international police advisors in reforming national policing in the context of a third world country (Yin, 2006). In achieving this central aim, the study will extend to achieving the following objectives:
- To study the challenges faced by international police advisors in reforming the domestic police forces in developing countries.
- To study and report on the ways in which the International Police Advisors can meet the challenges in reforming the national police forces.
- To study the impact of training in improving the performance of the national police force to meet the challenges.
The influence of different aspects like the leadership capabilities of IPA, motivation and mentorship in improving the performance of local police forces will be studied as a part of the research.
By undertaking an extensive review of the available literature and based on case studies of previous efforts of national policing reforms in countries like Kosovo, East Timor and Sierra Leone the research will try to find answers for the following research questions:
- What are the challenges faced by the International Police Advisors in the process of reforming the local police forces in third world countries?
- What are the ways in which the IPA can meet these challenges and improve the performance within a short period?
- What is the impact of on the job training on performance improvement?
Quality research
Developing quality research entails studying the important things with the view to benefiting people through both education and training by contributing to practise, knowledge and theory. Selection of a preferred methodology is dependent on the function of the investigation and the nature of the study questions. For instance, quantitative research allows the generalization, prediction and testing of hypotheses; while qualitative research can serve exploratory purposes and provides deep knowledge by providing interpretation of meaning, complex phenomena and dynamic processes. The research methodology is designed in a manner that gives its findings enough confidence by incorporating and accounting for vital factors that influences the issues or variables being studied (Zikmund, Babin, Carr, & Griffin, 2010).
Case Study Approach
According to Yin (2003), there are particular instances when a case study design should be used. These include when:
“the focus of the study is to answer “how” and “why” questions; the researcher cannot manipulate the behaviour of those involved in the study; the researcher intends to cover contextual conditions because of their relevance to the phenomenon under study; or the boundaries are not clear between the phenomenon and context” (Baxter & Jack, 2008).
For instance, a study of the role of international police advisors in reforming the national policing in the context of a third world country is aimed at determining the activities carried out by international police officers with regard to national policing. In addition to this, the setting for the study should be in a third world country, in order to obtain the desired results. A case study is ideal since it looks at the case of reforms in national policing as a result of international police advisors (Baxter & Jack, 2008).
Unit of Analysis
In finding the unit of analysis for the case study indicated above, there are a few questions that the researcher must answer, including: “do I want to “analyze” the individual?; do I want to “analyze” a program?; do I want to “analyze” the process?; and do I want to “analyze” the difference between organizations” (Baxter & Jack, 2008)? The study evaluates the process of reforming police forces and the challenges faced by the international police advisors in their endeavor. The case study also analyzes the effectiveness of the job training program on performance improvement.
Binding the Case
After determining the items that will be considered in a study, the researcher also identifies factors that should not be considered in the study. According to Yin (2003), placing boundaries on a case prevents researchers from attempting to answer questions that are too broad or that have many too many objectives. Binding a case study can be achieved by considering factors such as: time and place; time and activity; and definition and context. Binding the case is beneficial since the study remains reasonable in scope.
In the of the study of the role of international police advisors in reforming the national policing in the context of a third world country, established boundaries would need to include a concise definition of national policing. It would also be important for the researcher to select a particular third world country in which to focus the study on, and include elements from other third world countries as well. It would be unreasonable for the research to examine reforms in national policing in other countries that are not third world. The boundaries indicate what will and will not be studied in the scope of the research project. The establishment of boundaries in a qualitative case study design is similar to the development of inclusion and exclusion criteria for sample selection in a quantitative study. The difference is that these boundaries also indicate the breadth and depth of the study and not simply the sample to be included (Baxter & Jack, 2008).
Methodology and Research Design
There have been previous studies of many cohorts of people; however, research on the role of international police advisors in reforming the domestic police forces in developing countries has been diverse in the attributes under study. The theoretical framework for this study will be drawn from previous studies that have used questionnaires to determine their learning styles. There is no extensive past literature on the police and justice reform, from which much information can be drawn on best practices. This is because most of the police prior to the 1990s focus more on comparative criminology (Bayley, 2006).
There has been a continuing growth in expertise and authorities pertaining to police reforms, and this is attributable to human rights activists’ and civil military scholars’ hitherto interest and revived involvement in issues of police reforms (Bayley, 2006). Consequently, there is only scarce literature available on police reform, from a developmental perspective. It is important to perceive that police assistance in a society extends to several areas other than the traditional economic development programs (Bayley, 2006).
The research design will use a quantitative approach and descriptive statistics to analyze the data. This will be beneficial in determining how factors such as the late recruitment of mid-level officers affected the increase in crime levels, as well as the role of tasks performed in peace operations in the post-conflict scenarios in ensuring cohesion (Turnbull, 2008).
The specific research method for this study is the descriptive survey approach. The surveys are used to study, to describe, to explore, and to analyze relationships among geographically gathered subjects. Surveys are the most appropriate method to capture and compare the probable effects that IPA may have in government reforms and democracy in the said areas (Bayley, 2006).
Sampling design
A quantitative approach is useful since it can be used to assess the socio-economic, political and cultural parameters using empirical data (Yin, 2006). The quantitative approach is the best suited approach in meeting the research objectives, as it aims at gathering, analyzing and measuring data from a large sample to test the relation between different variables.
Stratified and simple random sampling procedures will be used in selecting the study sample in order to ensure subgroups in the population are proportionally represented, while simple random sampling will be used to select respondents within the subgroups entirely on the basis of chance.
Data collection procedures
Primary and secondary data will also be collected in this study. Primary data will be collected by questionnaires, which include structured and unstructured questions, and interviews, which will be used to collect data immediately. Secondary data will be collected through a review of published and unpublished materials, such as articles, seminar papers, government policy papers, conference proceedings, business journals, textbooks, statistical abstracts, newspapers and periodicals. Secondary sources will be useful as the suggestions of different authors on the research topic could be adopted and/or modified to recommend the way forward for IPA influence in the said field (Creswell, 2009).
Data Analysis
Descriptive statistics will be utilized to analyze the data collected. The Pearson Chi-square test for categories will also perform on the data set. This test is a statistical test to identify whether a sample set of observations has a different distribution from a hypothetical or population set of observations. Pearson Chi-square determines whether the given distribution differs significantly from the population distribution. These statistical applications yield information that gives a description of the data set. The patterns and general tendencies of the statistical information help to describe each of the variables (Sarantakos, 2010).
The use of this set of statistical information will be helpful is deciding if the relationship is real or just a chance fluctuation. In addition to the Pearson Chi-square, simple descriptive statistics will be utilized to analyze the data set. Percentages among the variables will be calculated and listed, as well as the counts for each variable. The counts and percentages will be listed in tables for visual comparison to each other. The interpretations of the data will be complete once the data has been analyzed using SPSS software (Sarantakos, 2010).
Limitations of other research methods
Qualitative Research
Qualitative research design can also be used for this study, though there are a few limitations that limit it from being the design method of first choice. Some of these limitations include: knowledge produced may not generalize to other people or other settings, which would limit the findings of the study to only the study group involved; it is not easy to make quantitative predictions; it is more challenging to test hypotheses and theories than quantitative research; it may have lower credibility with some administrators and commissioners of programs; it generally takes more time to collect the data when compared to quantitative research; the process of data analysis is usually time consuming; and the results are more easily influenced by the researcher’s personal biases (Yin, 2006).
Mixed Research
Mixed research designs incorporate the advantage of both quantitative and qualitative design methods. While quantitative research is best for this study, mixed research would be a good alternative, though there are some weaknesses that make it unsuitable for the study. Some of these limitations include: difficulty for a single researcher to carry out both qualitative and quantitative research, especially in cases that require two or more approaches to be used concurrently; it may require a research team; researcher has to learn about multiple methods and approaches and understand how to mix them appropriately; methodological purists contend that one should always work within either a qualitative or a quantitative paradigm; more expensive than either qualitative or quantitative research; more time consuming; and some of the details of mixed research are unclear for the researchers, such as problems of paradigm mixing, how to qualitatively analyze quantitative data, and how to interpret conflicting results (Yin, 2006).
Conclusion
Research is conducted since patterns in society are not random, and everything that happens can be explained. These explanations can be presented as theories, which allow the researcher to collect what is relevant to the topic being studies. The process of planning a research involves: selection of the theme, based on social significance; observing previous research on the same topic; search for pre-existing data; specification of the research problem by finding questions that can be answered by the research; and planning the research process, indicating the design, samples, measures and indicators for operationalization (Turnbull, 2008).
References
Baxter, P., & Jack, S. (2008). Qualitative Case Study Methodology: Study Design and Implementation for Novice Researchers. The Qualitative Report , 13(4), 544-559.
Bayley, D. (2006). A foreign Policy for Democratic Policing. Policing and Society , 5, 79-93.
Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Sarantakos, S. (2010). Social Research (2nd ed.). New York: Palgrave & Basingstoke.
Turnbull, N. (2008). Dewey’s philosophy of questioning: Science, practical reason and philosophy. History of the Human Sciences , 21(1), 49–75.
Yin, R. (2006). Case study Research: Design and Methods (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications Inc.
Zikmund, W., Babin, B. J., Carr, J., & Griffin, M. (2010). Business Research Methods (8th ed.). Mason, OH: Thomson/South-Western.