Resources Needed for Date Rape - Essay Example

?Running Head: Rape Rape [Institute’s Rape METHODOLOGY Aims & Objectives The research should aim to collect a sufficient and relevant amount of data concerning date rape, within the available resources. This data should pertain to one main factor: the frequency of occurrence in different areas and in different socio-economic groups in society. This will bring the researchers one large step closer to determining which factors are correlated with the occurrence of date rape incidents. This is an important aim for the researchers to focus on, as it will help them keep the acquisition of information limited to valid and relevant data. Another aim of the research should be to ensure that the data collected is of high validity as well as responsibility, as these two characteristics are major determinants of how valuable the collected data is to the research. The methodology can ensure this through the careful selection of sources, highly skilled researchers and the use of comparison groups, the latter of which is essential when determining correlations (Kumar, 2005). These tactics will be explained in further detail in the latter part of this paper. Finally, the researchers will aim to conduct the research within the time and resources allotted, since this is a proven challenge concerning primary research. Resources Needed The research will require time, financial funding, and a team of experienced researchers. As time is a large constraint when it comes to primary research, the researchers will have a total of three months to conduct their research. If the research goes as planned, this will be an ample amount of time for the researchers to collect and assemble the data, so that the researchers can embark on the following stages of the research, such as statistical analysis of the data as well as the textual analysis of the gathered facts. The researchers will also have to adhere to the financial plan that the researcher will choose once the funding is secured. Finally, the research team should consist of four to five experienced and skilled researchers, who will be conducting the surveys, interviews as well as any other forms of research necessary. According to the plan for research, this number of researchers will be sufficient for completing the research within the allotted time. Sample In order to gather sufficient and reliable evidence, the researcher will need to use a broad sample. The sample in this case will be the north side of the city of Houston (you may change it). Within this sample, the main sources of information will be police stations, hospital records, prison records and, if possible, members of support groups for rape victims, all of which are available in comparatively higher quality documentation as opposed to other areas of the Texas. The research will focus on rape cases reported within the previous year, whereas the victims interviewed will be those relevant to cases within the last two years. This is because, one year’s records of reported cases will be accessible the researchers without much difficulty, and will thus be enough. However, the researcher anticipates that finding rape victims who are willing to be give interviews will prove to be a very difficult task, not just because of the highly traumatic nature of the crime, but also the cultural factors relevant in this situation. People do not openly discuss the sensitive topic of rape, where the victims are more likely to hide away instead of actively confronting the happening of such an incident. Thus, victims will be hesitant to be give interviews about their incidents, which will result in a very small number of interviews from this source of research. Thus, it would be more practical to take into account, the victims of more than one year. This sample size will roughly draw around a hundred cases, which is the minimum number expected from one year’s data. The sources of surveys and checking criminal records will be for extracting enough data to run statistical analysis on. This will provide a quantitative nature to the research, as the result will help identify correlation coefficients and other numerical trends. This will help the researchers determine the relation of some factors to the occurrence of date rape (Scruggs & Mastropieri, 2006). Whereas, the information extracted from the interviews of the victims will aim to provide a qualitative approach to the research, as it will explore the finer details which will not be covered in the criminal records available at police stations and prisons. This mix of qualitative and quantitative data will allow for a rich collection of data and will be greatly beneficial to the researchers when they are embarking on the analysis stage of their research. Procedure The researchers should ideally carry out the following procedures be carried out within a period of ten weeks, so as allow the two other week in the three-month period for any delays, which are likely, due to the sensitive nature of the research (Breakwell, Hammond and Fife-Schaw, 2000). The researchers will carry out the procedure by splitting into two. One group, of at least two people will work on accessing the criminal records, which contain details of incidences of date rape. For this, they will have to visit prisons as well as police stations. The radius they will be covering will include around a dozen police stations and two prisons. They will thus divide their work in the given time by visiting around two such institutions every week, so that they are able to include all of the chosen places in their research. When gathering information from the records they gain access to, they will specifically have to record the frequency of these occurrences over the year. Other details they will have to pay attention to are the location at which the crime happened, and the frequency with which one offender repeated the crime. Thus, this group of researchers will be focusing on finding out the frequency of date rape cases, as well as their location and the number of repeat offenders involved. The other group of researchers must also consist of at least two members. They will be responsible for approaching victims for possible interviews or surveys. To find such victims, the researchers will approach centers, which provide emotional and psychological support for rape victims. There are only a few such centers in Houston; thus, the research anticipates that it will be difficult to access more than two or three for the research. In addition, to find victims out of these, whose cases occurred in the past two years, would further narrow down the search. Finally, the hesitance that most victims will have in taking part in such surveys will further decrease the number of subjects available for interview. Thus, the researchers will perhaps not be able to interview more than ten to fifteen victims who fit all these criteria. Thus, the researchers will have to dedicate the first week of the allotted time to design the interview format, which would be appropriate given the sensitive nature of the research, as well as informational to the purpose of the research. After this stage is complete, they will interview the victims for a few basic points. These include questions regarding socio-economic class of victim and the offender, and whether she is aware of similar cases within own or other strata of society. These will be the main qualitative facts, which this group of researchers will aim to find. Anticipated Issues One highly anticipated problem is the one mentioned and tackled above, pertaining to the difficulty that the researchers will face in finding interviewees. The researchers will tackle this by broadening the sample size to the whole of Houston instead of only those victims residing in the northern area of Houston. Another problem would be to determine the reliability of the data, which refers to the consistency of the data (Breakwell, Hammond, & Fife-Schaw, 2000). For this reason, the researchers will attempt to base their observations on at least two different socio-economic groups, which will allow for proper comparison in trends of the groups as well as a wider base for observation. Validity is also a large issue, especially when it comes to interviews, as their results are often distorted due to experimenter bias (Kumar, 2005). Due to this reason, the interviewers have around eight weeks to conduct their interviews, so that they may spend a certain amount of time getting to know the subjects, which would put them at ease and would discourage the fabrication of answers. Finally, the problem of possible delays is also possible, if the first group faces any problems in accessing the records of any prison or police station. For this reason, the researcher will have the last two weeks of the three month to fall back on, so that the progress of the research is not delayed. All these precautions will decrease the effect of any problems on the quality of research. References Breakwell, G. Hammond, S. and Fife-Schaw, C. (2000). Research methods in psychology. SAGE Publications Ltd Kumar, R. (2005). Research Methodology. APH Publishing. Scruggs, T. E., Mastropieri, M. A. (2006). Applications of Research Methodology. Emerald Group Publishing. Read More