Reference no: EM133252056

Assignment - Lawrence Sherman and Richard Berk Study Discussion Questions

Answer three (3) of the following five (5) questions.

Q1. Lawrence Sherman and Richard Berk conducted the first study to use random assignment of cases to treatment conditions in criminal justice and criminology. Referred to as the Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment, it was discussed extensively in class. Discuss this study. In your answer, be sure to address:

a) the three ways that police responded to domestic violence cases;

b) the two ways that the researchers measured outcomes;

c) its results;

d) policy implications (that is, how did the results lead to changes in how domestic violence cases were dealt with); and

e) the need for replication and generalizability to other times and places (in your answer, discuss if subsequent studies similar to Sherman and Berk's were conducted elsewhere, and if so, what were their results?)

Q2. As emphasized in class, improvements in the quality of research methods can lead to changes in how well a criminological theory explains what causes crime, as indicated by the study conducted on Shaw and McKay's social disorganization theory by Robert Sampson and Byron Groves, published in 1989. Discuss this study. In your answer, be sure to address:

a) the weaknesses, or limitations, in research on social disorganization theory from the 1940s to the late 1980s (name four);

b) specifically how Sampson and Groves improved on the research methods of previous studies that evaluated social disorganization theory;

c) the results obtained by Sampson and Groves and how it improved the explanation of crime provided by social disorganization theory;

d) the results of any replications.

Q3. When research proposals are submitted to government and other agencies for funding, they are not only reviewed for their scientific rigor, but also the extent to which the potential benefits outweigh potential harm to the humans or animals being studied.

A researcher intends to ask people who agree to be research subjects about their past use of drugs and crimes they have committed. Discuss any ethical concerns that may arise, if any. In your answer, be sure to address: a) information that must be presented to potential subjects; and b) what adverse consequences may happen to subjects because of their participation in the research; and c) how those adverse consequnces can be minimized.

Q4. Describe, in the correct sequence, each section of a research proposal and the material contained in each of these sections.

Q5. Researchers in the 1980s found that crime is concentrated in particular offenders, places, and victims. Perhaps the most notable of these studies was that by Sherman et al. (1989), who found that among about 323,000 calls to Minneapolis police, 3% places, or "hot spots" accounted for 50% of crimes. Subsequent research by Weisburd et al. (2019) in Baltimore has found that hot spots of crime are also areas in which physical health and mental health problems are also disproportionately concentrated. What does this latter finding say about how to intervene in such areas?