The Ethical Issues And The Limitations Of The Data...

Introduction This chapter presents the methodology used for this study. The research design and details on how participants are recruited are included, followed by a description of the data collection tools and data analysis. Finally, the chapter ends with a description of the ethical issues and the limitations encountered in this research. Research Design: A qualitative research design was deemed appropriate for this study because by using qualitative research one can explore different types of questions such as, what, why and how, rather than how many or how much. Additionally, qualitative methodologies help one understand the reasons behind an individual’s thoughts and behaviours (Keegan, 2009). Poovey (1995) believes that†¦show more content†¦Moreover, open-ended questions were used because they provide in-depth information and give participants the opportunity to express themselves freely, thus acquiring greater variety of information (Kumar, 2011). Questions were planned carefully prior to the interviews, whereby an interview protocol was established in which questions or topics that needed to be addressed during the interview were added. This guides the interviewer in collecting the data in a systematic and focused manner (Lodico, Spaulding Voegtle, 2010). Sample The sampled population is made up of intervention facilitators, who have been working with male sex offenders for at least two years. The reason I chose a requirement of two years worth of work experience is because I wanted my participants to have gained experience in working with male sex offenders. My sample was chosen through snowball sampling, a non-probability technique where the population is located through other individuals (Babbie, 2011). After gaining ethical permission from the prison and school boards, the recruitment procedure was initiated by first calling each of the nine prisons that are classified as a category C prison and who offer the SOTP treatment to male sex offenders. Admin provided me further instructions as to how I will able to recruit participants. My sample was made up of twelve participants, consisting of six females and six