Self report studies are often carried out on who? Focusing on what?

Sociology is an independent discipline that uses several scientific methods and statistical tools to carry out the research. A research problem is formulated in the initial phase, and a research design is chosen. An appropriate methodology is selected in order to carry out the research. The acquired data undergo reliability and validity tests to make the data authentic to come out with the final findings for formulating the theory.

Sociology of crime is the sub-branch of sociology that focuses on the criminal activities that society performs. It studies the social factors surrounding the individual who is committing the crime and how they influence him to commit the crime. In order to find out the statistics about the proportions of the people committing the crime, self-report studies are used. These studies are often carried out on the youth populations in society. In the united states, there are some surveys where self-report studies are used, like the National youth survey, National household survey in the drug abuses. These surveys are mostly carried to study deviant behaviors like crime with respect to society's young population. These studies possess a unique methodology like confidential face-to-face interviews. Let's take the example of a national youth survey concerning American society. It uses the face-to-face interview method to collect the data related to the number of times an individual indulges in criminal activity in the past calendar year. These studies in the United have revealed the several dimensions of crime that has been committed by the youth populations, which are not reported in the official statistics. But there are drawbacks to this study. The data that is acquired is subjected to the problems of reliability and validity. The respondents may give incorrect and irrelevant answers. the answers that the respondents even give will change from time to time because this method involves collecting the data periodically.