Focus group moderators guide

With thanks to Dr Dean Wilkinson for this focus group guide.

Aim: To create an environment whereby recruited participants can

generate moral dilemmas that are reflective of real-life
situations or scenarios. The generated scenarios will be
specific and relevant to not only the individuals within the
group but also the target population that they represent.
Participants therefore will be required to talk about morality,
decisions, crime, different types of crimes and the level of
seriousness attached to different types of crimes. At the end
of the focus group there will be a comprehensive scenario
that is relevant and representative of the language that
would be used by the target population.

Sample: The sample population will consist of volunteer university

students from the social sciences undergraduate programmes
at Birmingham City University. Each focus group will consist
of around ten participants, as suggested by Morgan (1998), in
order to sustain manageability and control.

Equipment: Pens, flip chart paper, board (to write seriousness

Likert-scale on and to park thoughts), sticky labels (name
badges), timer (to time each section), my contact details,
help contact details (for individuals who may become
stressed or distressed) and spare written consent forms.

Conducting the focus group

I. Background/Introductions

The moderator will:

Introduce yourself and thank participants for agreeing to come.
Thank you for volunteering your time and coming this
morning/afternoon. I am [NAME] and I am [a research student based in
the Centre for Criminal Justice Policy and Research]. Ill be moderating
our discussion today. It is important that you know and understand that
you can withdraw from this research at any stage without penalty. It is
also important that you have signed the written consent form before
we continue any further. If you have not signed the written consent
form can you indicate that now?

Explain group guidelines and how long the focus group will last.
I (we) estimate this discussion group to last no longer than one
hour. During this time I (we) will be asking you to contribute in a
number of ways to our research topic that primarily focuses on
crime and morality.
I am here just to facilitate the session today and therefore you
should feel free to express your thoughts and feelings on this
chosen topic without any expectations from me. I (we) am
interested in hearing your thoughts and points of view even if it is
different from that which others express in the group. However, if at
 any point you feel distressed by anything we have/are discussing,
you are free to leave at any time and without penalty. If applicable I
will provide information of agencies who will be able to help,
although I am unable to offer personal comment and advice.
Im going to make every effort to keep the discussion focused and
within our time frame. If too much time is being spent on one
question or topic, I may park the conversation so that we can move
on and cover all of the stages and also to ensure that all
participants have a chance to give their input. If we have sufficient
time, we will revisit parked thoughts in the order they were parked.
If thoughts/conversations are parked I will write them in a list
format on the board.

Address confidentiality
We will be audio-recording the discussion because we dont want to
miss any comments. But we will only be using first names today and
there will be no names attached to the comments on the final report.
Therefore, you are assured of complete confidentiality. As the
discussion will be recorded it is best if one person speaks at a time.

Participant introduction
On that note, please introduce yourselves to one another first names are
fine. (Write names on labels.)

II. Discussion topics

Explain process:
There will be three stages/activities in which I will be asking you to
participate in today. One of these activities will require you to work alone
for a short period of time. This is to give you a chance to reflect. The
further two activities will require the whole group to participate in a
discussion.

Activity 1
Our topic of discussion today is focused on morality and criminal activity. I
(we) am going to ask you to first of all take a few moments to list or
brainstorm as many different types of moral dilemmas as you can think of.
It is important that you make the list easy to read, as I (we) will be
collecting them in at the end of this session. Please do not worry about
spellings as you will not be marked, judged or penalised for incorrect
spellings.

Activity 2
Now that you have completed your individual lists I would like you to
discuss with the rest of the group the moral dilemmas that you have
listed. If you have fewer moral dilemmas on your list or brainstorm than
other members of the group then please note that this does not reflect
badly on you and it will not be interpreted as a personal reflection of your
knowledge. So lets go around the room and begin to share our thoughts
and reflections.

Moderator note:
It might be useful to write down each moral dilemma mentioned on a
piece of card to use when participants get to Stage III.

Activity 3
In a moment I am going to ask you as a group to choose one of the
listed dilemmas. I would then like you to write a scenario that
encompasses the chosen dilemma based around characters in a
chosen situation. You can give the characters names and include any
information that you wish with regards to the situation.
Next I would like you to add additional sentences of information
regarding the scenario that would tip the balance of whether you agree
or disagree with a characters choices, actions and so on in the
scenario.

III. Closing

Offer an opportunity for any short final comments participants would

like to make.
Thank you very much for your input today. We are just about out of
time. Are there any last comments that anyone would like to make?
The information you provided will inform further research projects but
it is important to note that your identity will remain confidential at all
times.
If you should wish to contact me in relation to this research or would
be interested in taking part in further aspects of my research then
please take a copy of my contact details.