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the PhD programme. Notwithstanding the “internal” nature of the enquiry where a
sentencing judge went about interviewing his fellow judges on the topic, the requirements
of confidentiality and anonymity were applied with the same degree of care as if the study
was conducted byan external researcher. The writer gave undertakings to his colleagues to
preserve the anonymity of each respondent and to destroy the tapes of the interviews and
transcripts at the conclusion of the research. The writer observes that the guarantees
offered by him combined with his familiarity with the respondents allowed for the
emergence of frank observations by the respondents on the operation of the sanctions
which might not otherwise have emerged.
Despite the active moderating role adopted by the writer in the focus groups, the
sometimes strident disagreement between the participants gave reassurance that the
elevatedlikelihoodof bias in the study(Morgan 1988) was significantlycurtailed.
The entire group of respondents, whether individually interviewed or collectively in focus
groups, comprisedan elite group with significant empowerment. While access to this group
did not present a difficulty for this researcher, it is acknowledged that this may not be so
for others. The designation of the respondents as a “power elite” becomes important in the
analysis stage of the study where their responses are deconstructed. In particular the
responses may disclose a perceived challenge to the limits or curtailment of their powers
which they may be reluctant to relinquish. In the event this was detected and is reported
upon.
By combining focus groups and semi-structured interviews with the quantitative data sets
as methods of enquiry, this allowed for a degree of triangulation to facilitate the emergence
of understandings which can be usefullyanalysed for internal consistencyor inconsistency.
Morgan has argued that in the spectrum of naturalistic enquiry the focus group is located
between the participant observation and the individual interview (Morgan 1988:23). In
commentingon its unique characteristics he states:
“Substantively, the strength of focus groups comes from the opportunityto collect
data from group interaction. The point is not, of course, to tape-record just any
interaction but interaction that concentrates on topics of interest to the researcher.
When all goes well, focusing the group discussion on a single topic brings forth
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