Going into my 2nd year of phd study in criminology; focusing on the relationship between 'the family' and youth crime. Heavily immersed within the social constructionist framework, and very interested in the construction of certain terms and how it enables us to understand the complex relationship between 'the family' and youth crime. However, have been told I now need to be seriously thinking about how I intend to research this topic, and start working on my methodology chapter of my thesis.

Problem being - I have never conducted any fieldwork before (serious case of imposter syndrome going on right now!)

I would very much like to conduct focus groups as I think this could be an interesting way to discuss topics with young people, surrounding 'the family' and family life.

However, it feels like my tutor is trying to warn me away from this, and into individual interviews. Personally, I'd feel more comfortable in the focus group situation as I have skills applicable to this - having been a Scout leader for several years and having run group discussions with the young people age group (10-14) similar to that of my intended participants (10-17)

Any advice from people that have successfully conducted focus groups with young people on what could be considered sensitive topics?

So, your current idea is to get 4-6 young offenders or grey-area cases into one room and ask them to discuss the role of their family in their encounters with crimes? What type of data will the focus group interview yield and does this data help answer your question? What kind of questions could you ask to explore whether 1) your constructionist framework rings true with your participants and 2) your thesis (theory, idea, argument) works and the data match your hunch?

In no order of priority, I would base this decision on:

1) Which format are you most comfortable with?
2) How much are you willing to come out of your comfort zone?
3) What does the evidence say? If you notice that most of the evidence has been individual interviews, you could either go with that for the sake of consistency, or you could be the one to say "well, individual studies have found XYZ, but let's see if focus groups can bring anything else to the table". Perhaps there is research to say that focus groups are actually more engaging for young people? That would work in your favour.

But definitely definitely definitely do consider your own comfort level and how much you are willing to come out of it a tad. As you rightly pointed out, they require different skill sets but they are also not worlds apart!

I hope you manage to figure this one out soon.

A large part of doing phd, involes learning new skills.
There are entire books devoted to the art of qualitative interviewing : and many qualititative research books have chapters devoted to it....i.e. should the interview be structured or semi structured ect. (Depends a lot on you theoretical framework).

Also , I have never been in scouts but I have done focus group work and I imagine they are two very different things. Focus groups can be useful, but a problem is group conformity (so a ring leader can set the tone for entire group...this can happen very naturally in groups. And then a second issue is that without anonimity people can shy away from saying thier true feelings. I would imagine that this could be an issue for juvenile offenders talking about family.

There are other pros of course. But I would ask your supervisor why she wants interviews and not focus groups...she may well have good reasons.

I actually think in your situation interviews might be easier to manage.

If you do the reading and even use one or two of your sample as practise you should be fine. There is an art to it, when to probe, when to let participant go off on a tangent ect....but it's a learn able skill....probably one you need to develop going further as a qualitative researcher.