Process-Tracing: Case Study and Method

Abstract

The primary aim of this book is to explore and explain the nature of criminal justice policy development and decision-making, with a particular focus on how the preventive order model rapidly spread into criminal legislation. A case study approach has been adopted in the research design, to examine the genesis of one selected case of a preventive order, namely, the SCPO. This case study embodies a method of ‘process-tracing’ and has drawn on a diverse range of documentary sources and interviews conducted with ‘elite’ decision-makers. Past researchers who have employed a similar methodology, particularly elite interviewing, have often failed to reflect on their experience and the processes and issues involved (Berry 2002: 679; Duke 2002: 39; Smith 2006: 644). Consequently, this chapter provides a reflexive account of the case study approach undertaken, and the multiple methods of data collection and analysis that were employed. This chapter begins by providing the reasons for selecting the SCPO as a case study and then turns to some of the key considerations embedded in the design of the research. The chapter concludes with an outline of the two key methods employed — documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews — providing justification for their use, and an explanation of the various steps involved, including sampling and coding procedures.