Research Methods in Criminal Justice Assignment 4

Running head: RESEARCH METHODS IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Please, choose one of these narrow topics (Does Incarceration Reduce Crime) or (Incapacitation effect) rather than (Criminal Justice).
Assignment 2 is to solidify your research topic, research question(s) and hypotheses. Like Assignment 1. Basically, this assignment is the start of you building a draft of your research proposal.
For this assignment, you are to address the following questions in  2-3 double-spaced pages with 1" margins (all sides) and 12 point font. Your heading should be no longer than one line, and should include the following: name, course, and assignment #. Please number each response, and submit your assignment in .doc, .docx, or .rtf format. Make sure that you follow the directions carefully. 
1.  State a problem for research. In other words, state the research question(s) you have decided upon for your research proposal. 
2.  Search the literature/Internet for information about the research question you have identified. Copy down at least 10 citations to articles and five websites reporting research that seems highly relevant to your research question. Inspect the article reference sections and the links in the websites to identify other potential sources.  
2a. After documenting your 10 citations, and looking through the articles and websites, discuss what additions or changes to your thoughts about the research questions are suggested by the sources?   
3. Propose at least 2 hypotheses that pertain to your research question stated in question 1. Justify these hypotheses in terms of the literature you had read.  
4. Discuss which standards for the protection of human subjects might pose the most difficulty for researchers on your proposed topic/to answer your research question(s). Make sure that you clearly explain your answers and suggest appropriate protection procedures for human subjects. 
You should read Assignment 1 to get the idea about the topic to start in Assignment 2 (Assignment 1 is attached and the topic was changed from Criminal Justice to "Does Incarceration Reduce Crime?" or "Incapacitation effect" you can choose on of these two topics).
There are 7 articles in attachment so you must use them to copy down at least 10 citations, and five websites reporting research that must be from (.gov).

Research methods in criminal justice

Assessing the effectiveness of incarceration in reducing crime

Name

Course

Tutor

Date

Research question

1. Incarceration is a pertinent issue in the United States of America, among developed nations; America stands out for its high incarceration rates. Statistics reveal that for every one hundred thousand Americans, seven hundred are under incarceration. The high incarceration rates in America reveal a flawed strategy to deal with increasing crime, the fact that a significant percentage of incarcerated individuals come from minority communities raises some serious issues about America’s crime fighting strategy. This paper sets out to identify the correlation between incarceration rates and crime rates; it achieves this by asking the research question, does incarceration reduce crime rates?

The issue of incarceration and crime rates is a pertinent one as trends reveal that high incarceration rates have little impact. Looking into the correlation between crime rates and incarceration enables policy makers to draft the right policies that are more effective at fighting crime. Understanding the relationship between incarceration rates and crime rates also enables America to come to terms with its bias against minority communities. Despite the fact that African Americans are a small portion of the total population, their percentage in the total prison population is significantly higher. Conducing a research on incarceration and crime rates is the first step in reforming the criminal justice system.

Sources

1. Aos, Miller, & Drake. (2006). Evidence-based public policy options to reduce future prison construction criminal justice costs, and crime rates. Fed. Sent. R, 19, 275.

2. Bhati. (2007). Estimating the number of crimes averted by incapacitation: an information theoretic approach. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 23(4), 355-375.

3. D'ALESSIO, & Stolzenberg. (1998). Crime, arrests, and pretrial jail incarceration: An examination of the deterrence thesis. Criminology, 36(4), 735-762.

4. Department of Justice. (2007, August). Evidence-Based Practice to Reduce Recidivism:. Retrieved from http://static.nicic.gov/Library/023358.pdf

5. Dhondt. (2012). The bluntness of incarceration: Crime and punishment in Tallahassee neighborhoods 1995 to 2002. Crime, law and social change, 57(5), 521-538.

6. Executive office of the president . (2016). ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES ON INCARCERTATION AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM. Retrieved from obamawhitehouse.archives.gov: https:///sites/whitehouse.gov/files/documents/CEA%2BCriminal%2BJustice%2BReport.pdf

7. MacKenzie, D. L. (2017). CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND CRIME PREVENTION1. Retrieved from National Criminal Justice Reference Service: https://www.ncjrs.gov/works/chapter9.htm

8. Ministry of Justice and Home Office. (2016). Reoffending and rehabilitation. Retrieved from GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/reoffending-and-rehabilitation

9. National Instiute of Justice . (2016). Practice Profile Hot Spots Policing. Retrieved from National Instiute of Justice : https://www.crimesolutions.gov/PracticeDetails.aspx?ID=8&outcome=396#396

10. Olson, Rozhon, & Powers. (2009). Enhancing prisoner reentry through access to prison-based and post-incarceration aftercare treatment: Experiences from the Illinois Sheridan Correctional Center therapeutic community. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 5(3), 299-321.

11. Piquero, & Blumstein. (2007). Does incapacitation reduce crime?. . Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 23(4), 267-285.

12. Stemen. (2006). Reconsidering incarceration: New directions for reducing crime. Fed. Sent. R, 19, 221.

13. Sweeten, & Apel. (2007). Incapacitation: Revisiting an old question with a new method and new data. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 23(4), 303-326.

14. Tollenaar, Laan, V. d., & Heijden, V. d. (2014). Effectiveness of a prolonged incarceration and rehabilitation measure for high-frequency offenders. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 10(1), 29-58.

15. Wermink, Apel, Nieuwbeerta, & Blokland. (2013). The incapacitation effect of first-time imprisonment: a matched samples comparison. Journal of Quantitative Criminology , 29(4), 579-600.

2. Numerous sources dwell on the subject of incarceration and crime rates in America, nearly all the research conducted on this subject indicates that incarceration has little to no impact on the reduction in crime. Better policing and community programs that offer job training have far better outcomes at reducing recidivism rates.

One unique line of thinking present in the research articles about the relationship between crime and incarceration is that long sentences actually lead to an increase in crime. Prisons offer an environment sheltered from the society with a completely new set of challenges and rules that inmates have to abide by. Because of the stark differences between prison life and life in the real world, long sentences contribute to high recidivism rates because they rob inmates of the ability to survive in the society. Inmates released from long prison terms have a hard time reintegrating in the society, because of this, they are more likely to fall in with bad company and reoffend.

The articles also suggest that another reason why high incarceration rates contribute to high crime rates is that prisons destroy the earning potential of inmates. A large percentage of job agencies in the United States of America conduct background searches and immediately disqualify a job candidate if they find out that the job candidate was a convicted felon. Research indicates that the odds of an individual finding employment reduce by twenty-four percent if the individual was once a convicted felon. The inability of inmates to find gainful employment after prison is one reason why high incarceration rates negatively influence crime rates. The harsh conditions that society and the government imposes on released convicts makes crime and incarceration a vicious cycle where incarceration makes it impossible to get a job leaving crime a as a very viable option.

The research on incarceration rates and crime rates also theorizes on the impact of diverting funding intended to support incarceration to other rehabilitation strategies such as expanding parole eligibility, mental illness programs, and drug rehabilitation among other measures. Alterative crime rehabilitation programs may fare better at preventing recidivism than incarceration.

Hypotheses

3. The first hypothesis regarding the issue of incarceration rates and crime rates is that high incarceration rates lead to an increase in crime rates. The bulk of research on incarceration suggests that a high prison population has a counterintuitive effect on reducing crime rates. Despite the fact that “tough on crime” policies led to an increase in incarceration in the twentieth century, crime also increased in the same period; this suggests that incarceration fails at deterring crime (Tollenaar, Laan, & Heijden, 2014).

The second hypothesis regarding incarceration and crime rates is that alternative rehabilitation strategies have a better outcome at reducing crime than incarceration. The counterintuitive effect of incarceration is well documented by the sources. Incarceration leads to stigmatization, which makes it hard to find a living and leaves crime as a viable alternative (Wermink, Apel, Nieuwbeerta, & Blokland, 2013). Hypothesizing about the impact of alternative rehabilitation strategies on reducing crime rates helps shed light on the effectiveness of incarceration.

Protection of human subjects

4. The research on the correlation of incarceration rates and crime rates would likely involve human subjects. One consideration towards the protection of these subjects is confidentiality, revealing the names and histories of these subjects may have a negative impact on their lives. It is very important that the researchers prioritize confidentiality in a way that does not jeopardize the research results.

Aos, Miller, & Drake. (2006). Evidence-based public policy options to reduce future prison construction criminal justice costs, and crime rates. Fed. Sent. R, 19, 275.

Bhati. (2007). Estimating the number of crimes averted by incapacitation: an information theoretic approach. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 23(4), 355-375.

D'ALESSIO, & Stolzenberg. (1998). Crime, arrests, and pretrial jail incarceration: An examination of the deterrence thesis. Criminology, 36(4), 735-762.

Department of Justice. (2007, August). Evidence-Based Practice to Reduce Recidivism:. Retrieved from http://static.nicic.gov/Library/023358.pdf

Dhondt. (2012). The bluntness of incarceration: Crime and punishment in Tallahassee neighborhoods 1995 to 2002. Crime, law and social change, 57(5), 521-538.

Executive office of the president . (2016). ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES ON INCARCERTATION AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM. Retrieved from obamawhitehouse.archives.gov: https:///sites/whitehouse.gov/files/documents/CEA%2BCriminal%2BJustice%2BReport.pdf

MacKenzie, D. L. (2017). CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND CRIME PREVENTION1. Retrieved from National Criminal Justice Reference Service: https://www.ncjrs.gov/works/chapter9.htm

Ministry of Justice and Home Office. (2016). Reoffending and rehabilitation. Retrieved from GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/reoffending-and-rehabilitation

National Instiute of Justice . (2016). Practice Profile Hot Spots Policing. Retrieved from National Instiute of Justice : https://www.crimesolutions.gov/PracticeDetails.aspx?ID=8&outcome=396#396

Olson, Rozhon, & Powers. (2009). Enhancing prisoner reentry through access to prison-based and post-incarceration aftercare treatment: Experiences from the Illinois Sheridan Correctional Center therapeutic community. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 5(3), 299-321.

Piquero, & Blumstein. (2007). Does incapacitation reduce crime?. . Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 23(4), 267-285.

Stemen. (2006). Reconsidering incarceration: New directions for reducing crime. Fed. Sent. R, 19, 221.

Sweeten, & Apel. (2007). Incapacitation: Revisiting an old question with a new method and new data. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 23(4), 303-326.

Tollenaar, Laan, V. d., & Heijden, V. d. (2014). Effectiveness of a prolonged incarceration and rehabilitation measure for high-frequency offenders. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 10(1), 29-58.

Wermink, Apel, Nieuwbeerta, & Blokland. (2013). The incapacitation effect of first-time imprisonment: a matched samples comparison. Journal of Quantitative Criminology , 29(4), 579-600.