4.2 Discussion

Resources

· Textbook: Research Methods in Criminal Justice and Criminology

· File: Chapter 2.ppt

Background Information

Please read the scenario below and determine the best possible actions the researcher could pursue so that his actions would not be deemed unethical.

Scenario:

Student Rick DeSantis (fictitious) was assigned a research paper on a topic in criminal justice that addresses a conflict in the U.S. justice system. As part of the assignment, Rick was also told to get the opinions of a sample population, using closed-ended survey questions. The goal was to determine whether a robust change in how a conflict could be resolved in specific communities would be supported by his statistical data.

Rick was asked to use a sample population of no fewer than 300 people, of whom 150 live in urban environments and 150 in suburban environments. Unfortunately, although Rick sent out surveys to a random sample of people, he only received 45 surveys back from the suburban sample population and 127 responses back from the urban sample population.

He knew that the uneven response rate would mean extra work to analyze this statistical data. So Rick decided to take some shortcuts.

First, he stated that he received 105 responses from the suburban sample population (Ethical Violation #1). Second, he performed calculations on this falsified number (Ethical Violation #2) to balance out some of his newly created, yet untrue, results. He completed his assignment and delivered his research to his professor.

One year later, unbeknownst to Rick, his professor asked Rick's classmate, Bob Smith, to conduct pre- and post-tests in the context of similar research, using the same sample population groups. Bob Smith received 43 responses from the suburban population, and 129 responses from the urban population. Bob then analyzed the results. He felt the numbers were drastically different, showing surprising opinion shifts, especially for one year's time.

Professor Thompson reviewed the results as well. He determined that Rick's original sample numbers were skewed. Needless to say, Professor Thompson and Bob agreed that Rick's numbers may have resulted from unethical practices during data collection and analysis.

Professor Thompson initiated a meeting with Rick one month before he was due to graduate. During the face-to-face meeting, Professor Thompson explained how he had determined that Rick's original sample numbers were skewed. He asked Rick to justify any possible unethical research practices.

Rick realized that his professor was displeased and his shortcuts were likely to result in negative consequences.

Instructions

1. Review the rubric to make sure you understand the criteria for earning your grade.

2. In preparation for this assignment:

a. Review Chapter 2, "Ethics in Criminal Justice Research," in Research Methods in Criminal Justice and Criminology, the textbook used for the course CRJ-467 Research Methods and Analysis in Criminal Justice.