Would a case study remain the best approach to a search for any long-lasting consequences of that violent episode?

Would a case study remain the best approach to a search for any long-lasting consequences of that violent episode?

The Columbine school shootings were one of the first and most widely known attacks of violence in history. As a discrete event in time with a fairly clear beginning and end, it might be studied using the case study method.

WRITE THIS ESSAY FOR ME

Tell us about your assignment and we will find the best writer for your paper.

Get Help Now!

Would a case study remain the best approach to a search for any long-lasting consequences of that violent episode?

This question could be addressed by the case study method as depending upon the specific question could lead to the method employed.  Perhaps it would be important to focus on the “whom” or “what” when defining “long lasting consequences”.  For example, one could investigate how the lives have changed for stakeholders in this community and what factors have contributed to those changes.  I am reluctant to use superlatives such as “best’ because it excludes other possibilities and approaches that could address this phenomenon.

Why or why not?  According to Johansson (2003), a case study has certain elements that include boundaries of space and time.  Case studies approach questions when the incident being investigated is extreme, rare or unique so that the experience is bounded due to shared significance only to certain groups, individuals, or members.  Some of the data that could be collected and analyzed might be archives, documents, interviews, direct observation, participant observation and artifacts depending upon the focus of the study.

According to Zucker (2009), this type of inquiry is systematic that aims to describe the phenomenon of the event with contextual considerations as the boundary between context and the phenomenon may be blurry.  Finally, Gerring (2004) advocates for within unit cases to be considered as “the case study” that offer causal propositions rather than just one single entity such as N=1.  He cautions that this leaves too broad a topic to manage.  By calling upon individual units to create the case study intrinsic limits are set such that the investigator would remain on course investigating the phenomenon within the limits of the case study undertaking while not getting lost in superfluous data.