Research Paper Example on Juvenile Delinquency

Juvenile delinquency is an extensively discussed topic as it is classified as a social problem that affects every community but at different levels. The prevention of juvenile delinquency is a priority to the society as correctional facilities and programs provided in the criminal justice system have failed to contain the problem. Statistics indicate that at least a total of 58 percent of kids that develop juvenile delinquency end up being criminals in their adult life (Basurto, et al. 58). This statistics is a clear indication that if juvenile delinquency is not addressed in the childhood, it will progress into full borne crime epidemic in the near future. Juvenile delinquency cannot be rectified through children incarceration but by addressing risk factors that contribute to this social menace. It is a responsibility of the community to look into issues surrounding criminal justice systems in regard to juvenile delinquency to develop methods and ways of preventing such issues (Basurto, et al. 58).

Proposed Argument

Though there is an extensive research on the issue, there is still a research gap on the hierarchy of the risk factors that contribute to the prevalence of Juvenile delinquency. The research currently available on juvenile delinquency and risk factor only generalizes the factors without providing a ranking system based on the prevalence and significance of the contributing factors. The research will be instrumental in providing a hierarchy of the risk factors enabling policy makers, social services and parents to narrow down their scope of cover the topmost factors.

Research Question

The top most research question is What are the contributing factors that led to juvenile delinquencies? After answering this question the research will answer the question What are the most prevalent factors among the sample group?The research will finally answer "How the factors rank based on prevalence and weight?

The answers to these questions are highly relevant when addressing the issue of juvenile delinquency. The answers will identify the root cause of the problem. The answer will provide criteria to rank the factors and provided a recommendation on factors that policy makers will prioritize.

Relevance of Research

The research will be highly critical especially to policy makers and parents. Parents can use the research findings to ensure that they limit the exposure of their kids to topmost factors that may result in delinquency behavior. Policy makers have to factor in resource constraints when coming up with policies (Ayugi et al. 19). The policy makers will thus use the findings of the research to narrow down their scope to the top ranked factors thus combating juvenile delinquency efficiently.

This research proposal will be important to public agencies, monitoring programs involving the youth and criminal justice studies with an intention of improving policy framework for the provision of community services related to youth (Ayugi et al. 19). In this case, the findings of this start will be relevant to parties that are involved in community awareness campaign and policies that help reduce cases of juvenile delinquency in independent units such as the extent of indolent of family members before the inception of juvenile delinquencies. This will further help minimize juvenile delinquency with a combination of community and government. Juvenile delinquency prevention involves a wide range of policy measures to enhance community services (Ayugi et al. 19).The prevention is important in bridging the gap between juvenile delinquency prevention and existing justice systems.

Research Design

Main Method for the Study

The research methodology will be broken down into two subsections. These sections are an observational methodology and survey method. The survey will be aided by qualitative and quantitative research tools.

Qualitative research will employ an explorative approach to identify the factors that contribute to juvenile delinquency. The qualitative method will be profoundly employed unstructured methods to provide the sample group to provide unstructured and raw data on the factors that contribute to their delinquent behavior. These qualitative methods will include face to face interviews and focus groups discussions (Yilmaz 313). These two techniques will be employed at the beginning of the research so as to provide an overview contextualization of the factors that contribute to juvenile delinquency. After exploration of the qualitative method, the research will analyze the data collected through interview laddering to provide a trimmed focus area of factors (Yilmaz 313). This stage will be followed conducting a quantitative research.

The quantitative research will be employed to quantify the weight that each factor contains (Yilmaz 317). The quantitative research will be critical in providing a hierarchy among the factors. The hierarchy will be instrumental in providing a recommendation as it will aid policies makers and readers of the research to prioritize the factors to address in case of limited resources or time. The quantitative methods will include structured questionnaires and interviews (Yilmaz 314).

Variables

The main variables in the research are divided into micro and macro factors. Macro factors include family factors and social factors. Micro factors are factors that involve personal factors. Personal factors include ages, drug abuse, childhood maltreatment, perinatal and prenatal factors. Family factors include family influences, family structure, family interaction, psychological state of parents, level of parenting, economic status of the parent, and drug abuse prevalence (Ayugi et al. 19). Social factors include social setting, neighborhood disadvantage, cultural attitude of the community towards the law and authority, peer pressure, and economic status of the home neighborhood (Ayugi et al. 19). It is critical to understand that these factors are pre-anticipated and other factors might be included based on the result of the qualitative survey.

These factors are quantifiable and unquantifiable factors will be ranked based on a scale provided in the quantitative survey. Quantification is an important aspect of the research as it will provide a basis for ranking the factors thus enabling drafting a conclusion and recommendation.

Hypothesis

Juvenile delinquency is the independent variable in the study. It is anticipated that prevalence of the dependent factors will result in increased cases of the delinquency. The independent and dependent variable interact on a positive linearity. For examples, it is anticipated that a high level of child maltreatment is expected to result in a high probability of the kids developing delinquent behavior. If this expected hypothesis is proven to be wrong, then all factors that do not fit into the hypothesis will be discarded as they are not risk factors to development juvenile delinquency.

Sampling

Sampling will be a crucial element in determining results of the research. Due to resource and time constraints, the research will use a small sample of relatively 25 kids under the juvenile system. These are kids that have been sent to local correctional services. Probability sampling will be employed to ensure that the sample maintains objectivities (Omair, 145). The research will employ both judgment and stratified sampling (Omair, 145). Stratification will be done on basis of various factors. These factors will include the age of the kid, number of repeat offenses, the severity of the offenses committed and family background. Severity will focus on violent and non-violent crimes. The kids will be clustered into four age groups. These age groups include 8-11years, 11-13 years, 14-15years and 16-17 years. The juveniles will be clustered based on the number of offenses they have committed. These clusters include first time offenders, second-time offenders, third fourth-time offenders and those who have more than four offenses. Stratified sampling is employed to ensure that the sample group contains a high level of objectivity and avoid unnecessary sampling errors (Omair, 145). Judgment sampling is employed to shives out errors not constrained by the stratified sampling technique (Omair, 145).

Resource

The research is a solo project and will be conducted by one individual alone. The research will receive assistance mainly from social services officials. The official will be instrumental in the provision of a sampling group. The official will also be crucial in gaining consent for participation as all participants are minors and thus according to the law, a parent or care giver is required to provide consent for their participation in any research (Klitzman, 131). The research will require the preparation of at least 25 questionnaires. The research will require a tape recorder to record interviews. The research will seek a partnership with correctional services systems. Since the kids are in correctional services, it is required that the permission has to be requested from relevant authorities. The research will require a computer installed with sampling and data analysis software programs.

Institutional Review Board (IRB) Issues

IRB issues are ethical aspects that may arise when conducting research especially when using animal and human sample and experimental subjects. Several IRB issues might arise during the study. These issues mainly involve elements of consent, and psychological exposure. The major IRB issue is using minors as subjects in the research. One of the core ethical IRB issues that may arise in the project is gaining informed consent. This issue can be overcome by seeking consent from parents and relevant authorities (Klitzman, 131). These consents will be written and signed. IRB issue may also arise due to the nature of the questioning as the juveniles are required to provide highly sensitive and confidential information (Klitzman, 131). The sample participants will be allowed to skip questions that they are unconformable in answering. Privacy of sample participants is another IRB ethical issue that the research may encounter. This issue will be maneuvered by omitting the names of all participants to protect their privacy.

Time frame

The research is likely to take a period of 8 months. This time frame will include data collection, data analysis and presentation and then a report on the findings.

Friday, September 9: Completion of drafting the research proposal

Thursday, September 14: Presentation and defense of the research proposal

Wednesday, September 20: Due date for revision of research proposal

Friday, September 22: Selection of the sample group

Thursday, October 12: Mid semester presentation

Monday, 30 October: Collection of consent forms and conducting of interviews due

Thursday, November 2: Hand in of the draft for the written research argument

Friday, November 3: Due date for a five slide research presentation

Wednesday, November 15: Rehearsals of in class presentation.

Thursday, November 20: Proof reading of the research presentation and making of relevant corrections.

Friday, November 21: Research Presentation before the panel (This presentation could extended to additional sessions on November 23 and 24)

Thursday, December 7: Reflection and review of presentation

Monday, December 11: Hand in of the final revisions of the written Research argument.

Proposal conclusion

Crime is a menace that affects everyone in the society by detrimentally reducing the quality of life in the community. It also reduces the competitiveness of any region to attract investors and workers thus contributing to a cycle of poverty. It is profoundly alarming to find out that the number of juvenile delinquents has risen drastically...