Evaluate

• People’s memory of events is not always reliable


  participants interviewed 5 weeks after the event (retrospective data). Their memories of the event might have faded or been distorted by talking to others about the event or by seeing media coverage of the riots.
• A distrust of authority may have affected participant’s honesty


  many of the young people involved in the riots had an intense distrust of those they see as authority figures. The data relied on self-report they may not have been honest about their involvement or the reasons behind their involvement.
• Participants might have been affected by social desirability when responding to the interviewers


  they might have been given the answers that they thought made them sound good. A person with a criminal background could exaggerated their involvement or someone who did not get involved who recited reasons such as believing it was wrong when the real motivation might have been a lack of opportunity.
• Difficulty recruiting participants

  • Made it hard to generalise the results
• Researchers did not have time to build relationships with the community


  • Wanted the memories to be as fresh as possible
• Many young people did not want to disclose their involvement


  • Researchers had to recruit participants from those who had been sent to prison for their involvement
• The sample of prisoners may not have been representative of all the people that took part in the riots
• Prisoners may have been in trouble with the police before, their motives could have been different to people who had not been in trouble before