Research Differentiation - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... In the article, “Reassessing the Association between Gun Availability and Homicide at the Cross-National Level,” Altheimer and Boswell (2012) used quantitative cross-national research to elucidate the nature of the relationship between gun availability, gun homicide, and homicide. They conducted a series cross-sectional comparative research study, where they tried to understand gun violence from a qualitative perspective too, by analyzing the role of historical and cultural context in gun violence. Altheimer and Boswell (2012) chose three groups of countries that are historically and culturally different: West, Latin American, and Eastern European nations. Authors used random sampling but they considered the availability of data in choosing countries. Sampling included 43 nations. The independent variable was gun availability, while the dependent variables were gun homicide and homicide, where the timeframe of the data ranged the year 2000 to 2005. The control variables were “economic inequality, GDP/capita, male population between the ages of 15 to 34 (young males), social support, urbanization, sex ratio” (Altheimer & Boswell, 2012, p.690). ...
Altheimer and Boswell (2012) were not able to reduce the possible reciprocal impacts of gun availability and gun homicide because they could not access an available instrumental valuable. Furthermore, they could not find out the availability of long and short guns, which may have an impact on gun homicide and homicide. After reading the article, the authors made significant measures to ensure the validity and reliability of their time-series and cross-sectional data, but they could have still improved their research design through including qualitative elements. Statistical analysis is not enough to explain why gun availability is associated with gun homicide and homicide. Phillips and Maume (2007) stressed the significance of aggressor’s violent tendencies and situation-specific elements as antecedents or causes of gun violence (p.275). Phillips, Matusko, and Tomasovic (2007) discovered the mediating effect of alcohol on male-to-male gun violence. These studies indicate that environmental and physiological factors also push people to use guns. Like Altheimer and Boswell (2012), Hoskin (2011) conducted a quantitative research to determine if gun availability affects three kinds of violent crimes: homicide, robbery, and aggravated assault. They tested this relationship between gun availability and gun violence using four different perspectives: 1) no effect, 2) instrumentality effect), 3) facilitation effect, and 4) deterrence effect. They used a county-based survey research design. To reduce the reciprocal effects of gun ownership and gun violence, authors studied these effects in their study too. Their dependent variables included gun ownership ...Download file to see next pagesRead More