Social research on the law

Red. cz. 2.: Anna Okrasa

The development and application of law relating to local safety present a number of challenges that are of both practical and theoretical significance. This is particularly true with respect to these institutions that have not yet been researched. Difficulties connected with preparing and conducting research are usually compensated by results. This arises not only out of the scope of findings, but also out of the fact that the results lead to findings that can be further analysed in the future. Such research usually establishes directions for future research that are of both cognitive and practical nature. Exploration is of primary significance when it comes to moving through subsequent stages of empirical research. Exploration makes it possible to gather previously unknown data allowing for analysing a given phenomenon during the second stage (description) and ultimately for proposing a thesis that explains the observed relations. When research is conducted on the issue that has not been analysed before, difficulties arise with respect to these three main stages of the research process, i.e. with respect to exploration, description and explanation. It is necessary to make references to general statements that can be found within a particular knowledge domain that includes the issue under research. Furthermore, it is not possible to offer any hypothesis using the results of previous research or to compare the obtained results with findings arising out of such research. This research model turned out to be fully applicable with respect to the analysis of actions relating to ensuring safety and order at a local level. The publication presents actual actions taken by safety and order committees, as well as the functioning of district crime prevention, citizen safety and public order programmes on the basis of exhaustive results of empirical research, whereby the data collected while analysing the reports (in total 972 reports from 2007 to 2009 were analysed; 85%) and programmes (in total 250 programmes in force in 2011 were analysed; 66%) were compared with the results of questionnaires sent by mail (in total 176 completed questionnaires were received; 46%) and in-depth interviews (in total 148 interviews with 178 persons in 52 districts were conducted).