Sociocultural artifacts as data in Criminology and Criminal Justice (CCJ): using the trustworthiness framework to map a path toward transparent, methodologically and analytically sound qualitative artifact collection and analysis (QACA)

Trustworthiness in qualitative methodology addresses concerns analogous to internal and external validity, reliability, and objectivity in quantitative research, while recognizing the distinct nature of qualitative inquiry. It provides methodological guardrails that help advance qualitative research in fields such as criminology and criminal justice, which are often dominated by quantitative norms. Prior evaluations of published qualitative work suggest that studies frequently lack sufficient transparency, limiting readers’ ability to assess how qualitative data are collected and analyzed. This study employs manifest content analysis to examine how published articles report qualitative data collection and analysis in research using sociocultural artifacts. Analysis focuses on the ‘current study,’ ‘methods,’ ‘results,’ ‘findings,’ ‘discussion,’ and ‘conclusion.’ sections of articles. Both deductive codes, informed by trustworthiness principles, and inductive codes generated during analysis are applied. Unlike prior work emphasizing qualitative studies involving human subjects, this study examines research using social products or cultural artifacts. Results identify and expand indicators of trustworthiness, including constant comparison, code definition and elaboration, theme development, data triangulation, findings block text, the use of tables and figures, and discussion of future research. Findings are compared to prior assessments of qualitative reporting, with implications for improving transparency and methodological rigor in artifact-based criminological research.