Sociological Investigation
Name:________________________________
America has the world’s largest prison population, costing millions of dollars a year. Most of these
prisoners will be released. We assume that prison deters people from further crimes, but does it?
Is prison an effective deterrent?
Does it deter some types of crimes and not others?
Under what conditions will prison deter people?
Are other people deterred from committing crimes by seeing others go to prison?
Does prison deter better or worse than other methods such as house arrest?
Please choose one of the questions above, or write your own question dealing with prison deterrence
and develop a research study to answer your question.
My question:
A general description of the study I propose:
How can I do a literature search for my study?
The hypothesis:
The dependent variable:
How will I operationalize the variable (operational definition)?
Is it valid? Why?
Is it reliable? Why?
The independent variable:
How will I operationalize the variable (operational definition)?
Is it valid? Why?
Is it reliable? Why?
What research design will I use for my study? Why?
What is my population?
What is my sample?
How will I draw my sample?
Can my study determine if one variable caused a change in the other?
Is my study a correlational study? Why or why not?
How can you determine if your correlation is spurious or not?
PS:
Use your text and class presentation information to help you understand how to create this study.
“Recidivism” is the percentage of people that return to prison after a certain period of time.
Here is my reply to a student’s email, which I hope will help you understand how to do this activity.
First, read Ch. 2 on research, listen to the recorded class presentation on that chapter, and see if you can
answer the study guide questions (these questions do not need to be written out or handed in) . The
"How To Study" guide in the syllabus should help you understand the most effective way to do this. Pay
attention to the items you will need in the activity while you are listening to the recorded presentation and
reading the chapter.
Second, after you understand the concepts such as dependent and independent variables, research
design, correlation, etc., use this information to design a research study to answer one of the several
questions dealing with effectiveness of prisons in the activity. You may want to make the question you
chose to study more precise. For example, for the question, "Does it deter some types of crimes and not
others?", You can make your research question more specific. For example, your research question
could be, " Does prison deter white collar crime (e.g. embezzlement) more than drug related crimes such
as selling drugs? Your population, sample, research design etc. will vary based on the question you
chose to research ( at the top of the activity).
Finally type your answers into the form provided, print it out, and bring it to class. Do the best you can,
and try to at least have an answer to each question based on applying the class information to the
research question you chose. If you have no clue how to answer a question, simply say you do not know
how to answer it, discuss what you did to try to answer it, and why you are still confused. In class we will
discuss and give examples of each of these items. You may then add to your own answers before it is
actually handed in at the end of the quarter.
I will also post this answer to help other students.
Dr. Atkins