¶ … criminological research surpasses the mere act of searching and viewing material on a topic and writing an expressive paper. Before research is conducted, it is important to fully grasp and comprehend what it is that needs to be research, why it would be researched, why if it at all it has been researched, and how it may be performed. Types of research that can be performed are basic, multipurpose, or applied. The purpose for research is usually to gain information or knowledge. This information might be predictive, explanatory, intervening, or descriptive in nature. All research follows basic steps. These steps can be interpreted in a variety ways, but normally follow the same structure, form hypothesis, state hypothesis, collect data, review and record results or conclusion. Fitzgerald, Cox, & Fitzgerald, 2002, p. 124). Different methods of inquiry help gather the data for the research. Reasoning, causal (observation), deduction, induction, and the scientific method are all ways to conduct scientific methods of research inquiry (Graziano & Raulin, 2013, p. 12).

Reasoning based inquiries use logical order and establish methods to solve real world problems such: "People want the streets to be safer, what are police and law enforcement doing to decrease criminal activity?" Using the reasoning that police and law enforcement are responsible for public safety, the method helps establish an order of what causes or does what through reasoning and then establishes how to prove it. Causal inquiry utilizes observations and generalization to formulate and construct theories....

An example would be a police officer seeing a woman crying in near a man. He might observe and assume she is a domestic abuse victim. Continual observance or interviewing can help confirm or dismiss the hypothesis.
Inductive methods of inquiry involve the researcher observing an event, making empirical generalizations concerning said activity, and then constructing a theory based on these observations. An example of this would be a police officer observing illegal immigrants shoplifting and then making generalizations of shoplifters being illegal immigrants and constructing a theory that illegal immigrants shoplift because they do not fear criminal action against them from the United States.

Deductive inquiry is the opposite in that the hypotheses is created first and then observations help to form generalizations. These generalizations help form conclusions and help in modification of the original theory. An example would be Probation officers appear to have high rates of reoffenders. Then after observing a working parole officer / probation officer, the theory can change to parole officer's choices often affect whether or not a criminal reoffends. Lastly, the scientific method of inquiry attempts to gain information objectively and attempt to perceive a need or an issue to form a hypothesis. An example would be:

The Scientific Method

1. Identify the problem or research question. This could be anything from as broad as racial profiling to as specific as crime rates of re-offenders. The question or problem should be identified as some information…