Analysing Police Decision-Making: Assessing the Application of a Mixed-Method/Mixed-Model Research Design.

To examine the organizational processes that occur in police decision-making, one needs to uncover what, when, how, why and to what extent some decisions are made over others. This paper suggests that the most appropriate research design for this research is a fully integrated mixed model - that is, this research uses not only quantitative and qualitative data but also analyses the qualitative data both statistically and through a grounded theory approach. Consequently, the description and explanation of police decision-making adopts a pragmatist approach incorporating analyses that are both quantitative - showing the factors which are associated with outcomes - and qualitative - showing the ways in which police officers' understanding of their occupational world conditions their behaviour. This paper highlights the conceptual issues involved in conducting mixed-methods research through a review of the technical and epistemological issues involved, the appropriate use of statistical methods and the presentation of an empirical example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]