ABSTRACT
Criminology is a subject that excites people, many of whom have strong
views about topics including whether we should restore capital punish-
ment in the UK or whether prisoners have too ‘easy’ a life in custody. It
is perfectly right that in a liberal democratic system of government we
should be able to make our opinions known on subjects that interest
us – but when studying a subject academically, we need to be aware that
arguments must be supported by evidence. How we collect this evidence
is the subject of this chapter.
