Money Laundering and Tax Evasion - Research Paper Example

? Money Laundering & Tax Evasion School Describe how the scientific inquiry differs from nonscientific inquiry. A scientific inquiry aims to provide information about the natural world and natural processes by collecting data, investigation and testing. A scientific inquiry will provide evidence either for or against the thesis that has been suggested before starting the inquiry. A non-scientific inquiry is one that attempts to gather information about the non-natural world. These can include questions about belief systems or about hierarchy. Attempting to gain information about money laundering and tax evasion from a sociological perspective would be a non-scientific inquiry because it attempts to discover information about a non-scientific entity that is not related to the natural world. For example, the question “does Earth have a moon” leads to a scientific inquiry. The question “are money launderers part of the same sociological system as tax evasion” is a non-scientific inquiry. However, following a non-scientific line of inquiry does not mean that the evidence gathering will not follow the scientific measurement. Information on sociological variables to support or disprove the questions could be gathered in a scientific way. 2. Nave five Sociological variables and their attributes. There are a wide number of sociological variables, all of which can be quite difficult to measure in some ways. The first is gender – whether an individual is male or female. This can have a wide range of effects on how the individual interacts with their world and this factor also plays a more or less important role depending on the culture of the religion. Another sociological variable is religion. A religion can be classified as any organized belief system that encourages believers to follow set patterns that are deemed important to religious leaders. There are several large religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, for example) and these often have smaller denominations or sects (Sunni, Orthodox or Episcopalian, for example). This can be difficult to measure because some people will answer that they follow a certain religion but actually deviate in a lot of ways to how the religion is “supposed” to be followed. Another sociological variable is the socioeconomic status of an individual. This can mean a combination of factors including the individual’s perceived place in society and their income. Income is fairly easy to measure (information can be gained from pay slips) but socioeconomic status is harder to define if there is no strict hierarchy in the society. Another sociological variable is age. This can be measured in different ways in different societies but generally refers to the time elapsed since an individual is born and is usually measured in years. The final sociological variable that will be mentioned here is occupation. Occupation often gives people structures to follow that are important in understanding their sociological status. Occupation can be a broad category (insurance) or specific (sociological researcher into money laundering and tax evasion). This will often have an effect on the socioeconomic status of the individual and can be affected by gender, religion or age. 3. How are theory and research linked? Give example. A theory is an idea that can be proven (or disproven) using scientific inquiry. An example of a theory could be “money laundering is linked to tax evasion” – it does not necessarily have to be true in all cases but is generally supported by the research. In this sense, research is something which is done to prove or disprove a theory. Research can be done in many ways. The first is to use several other pieces of research that have already been done on a topic and to group them together to come up with an overall idea or theory that is supported by this literature. Research can also be done by experimenting – setting up two situations which differ in variables and comparing them. An example of this could be that male and female tax evaders avoid paying tax for different reasons. Data could be collected from males and females convicted of money laundering and then the results compared. The variable used here is gender/sex and the results collected could be used to support a theory about the differences between men and women. 4. Discuss the three purposes of research; (academic, policy, and Personal). There are three main purposes of research. Academic research is done to provide information to a field. For example, the field of sociology may require information about sociological concepts relating to tax evasion and money laundering. In this sense, some research has already been done on the topic but research can be undertaken to inform the field further and enrich the existing knowledge base. This type of research is usually funded by interested organizations (whether this is universities or companies wishing to use the information for financial gain) but can also be personally funded in some cases. Research can also be used to inform policy. For example, sociological research could be undertaken about the reasons why people turn to money laundering. This information could be used to change the way that money launderers are treated by the legal system – i.e. if people are money laundering for drug money it may be better that their punishment is more severe than those doing it to help their family. This type of research is generally funded by governments or institutions that provide this information to the public and lawmakers. Finally, research can be undertaken on a personal basis. This type of research is usually undertaken because the individual has a specific interest in a field but there are not already mechanisms in place to investigate this field. It can also be undertaken because an individual has a personal interest in the outcomes, such as having a family member involved in money laundering. 5. How would you measure each of the following variables, or even better some from your study, using two different levels of measurement? (age, income, and family size)? There are many levels of measurement that can be used to gain information. It is interesting to know an individual’s age when taking part in a sociological study. One of the most common ways of measuring age is to use an interval scale with each year since birth representing an equally spaced interval on the scale. It could also be measured using groups of intervals, with each interval representing five years or ten years. It could also be measured nominally, by giving each of the grouped ages a value, so 0-10 years of age would have a value of one, 11-20 years of age would have a value of two and so on. Income could be measured in intervals. Pay grades representing $5000 for example could be used to group individuals. It could also be measured in a ratio fashion, e.g. money earnt in the past year could be zero or higher. Family size may also be measured in a number of ways. Intervals representing one individual (or more) could be used. Additionally nominal values could be given to family size, such as large = 1, medium = 2 and small = 3. This could provide information about how an individual perceives their family size as well as their actual family size, a bigger piece of sociological information. Read More