CJ 260. Research Methods in Criminal Justice This is HOMEWORK #1. Each of these assignments offers a real-world scenario of criminal justice research efforts.
There is no hard-and-fast length requirement for the assignments. In providing your responses, use your good judgment. While we are not looking for extremely detailed and lengthy responses, neither
are we looking for superficial answers comprised of several sentences. The key is to provide enough detail in your responses to demonstrate you have mastery of the subject.
A helpful summary of the key components of a typical research process is contained as an Appendix to these assignments. You can find the Appendix below the assignment.
Instructions:
A criminal justice researcher conducts a research study and finds that individuals who were raised by both parents throughout childhood report greater levels of career success later on in life than
individuals who were raised by only one parent throughout childhood.
Here is how the researcher conducted his study: He places an ad online on the internet in a local ad website. The ads says that he is seeking volunteers for his study, and that he is looking for
people who were either raised by one parent or both parents to participate. He pays the participants $10 each. He has them answer a series of questions about their later career success in life. His
data show that individuals who were raised by both parents, on average, had higher career success scores than individuals who came from single-parent homes. A Virginia Times reporter learns of the
study by reading an academic journal and writes a newspaper article entitled “Raising a child with both parents will do wonders for your child’s future career success!”
(no specific length requirement for your answers)
a. From the perspective of research methodology, what is wrong with the newspaper reporter’s title? Explain your answer.
b. Critique the methodology the researcher used to collect data. In doing so, describe both strengths and weaknesses. In providing you response, be sure to touch on concepts covered in this
course, including: external validity, prediction, randomness of sample, causal links, and biases of self-reporting.
c. Let’s say the researcher identifies 600 people who express interest in participating in the study. He determines that having a sample of 300 participants is adequate to give him valid
results, so he can winnow down the number of participants. What criteria should he establish in identifying who should be included in the study?
d. Propose a hypothetical longitudinal cohort study (p. 66 of text) to properly test the question: “Does being raised by two parents cause career success?” Would a researcher be able to
conduct this study? Why or why not?
What would you (an informed research student) conclude about the researcher’s study on parental status while growing up and later career success?
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