Paper Example on Strategies to Curb the Increased Crime Rate

Introduction

From the case scenario and the objectives of the Senior Citizen's Service Organization program, there are three main variables that will be essential in assessing the efficacy of the proposed strategies to curb the increased crime rate to the elderly. These variables include the escort and crime watch group, which represents the independent variables, and the crime events representing the dependent variable.

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Possible Variable Indicators

For the crime events variable, the rate or the number of purse-snatching cases recorded in a specific period of time will be a perfect indicator of the impact resulting from the independent variables. On the independent variables, the number of teenage escort recruits and crime watch group will be a good indicator of how the size of the escort could affect the rate of crimes to the elderly population. Additionally, the number of hours that each both the teenage escorts and crime watch group work in a day would be a good measure to evaluate how the reported number of snatchings correlate with these variables.

Appropriate Experimental Designs

There are two experimental designs that could successfully achieve the objectives of this study. The first is the true experiment design, which involves random deployment of the escorts and crime watch group to the participants and then recording the findings. The second design is quasi-experiment that involves the use of abstract data collected from the participants on their opinion regarding the effectiveness of the program implemented (Gribbons & Herman, 1997). However, although the true experiment would be the ideal design because of its ability to show the truest correlation of the variables during an impact evaluation, its feasibility is limited due to budget and time constraints of the study. Therefore, the most feasible design option for this study is a quasi-experiment because, though the conclusion is based on the findings from a portion of the population, when it is done correctly, the findings can yield high reflection levels regarding the variables at low budgets and within a limited time of study (Ross & Morrison, 1996).

Possible Interventions Combination

The ultimate decision regarding what program to adopt for solving the increased rate of crime depends on the outcome of the independent variable and their combination. While a test on how teenage escort and crime watch group, independently, will show the effectiveness of the individual approach, a combination of both variables is a possible intervention approach. An examination of how this combination performs vis a vis the individual variable could produce critical information that can assist the decision makers in adopting the most efficient action.

Assigning Participants to Experimental and Control Conditions

Escort Service

In a true experiment, the theory of research methods dictates that the assignment of participants should be done randomly (Creswell & Creswell, 2017). Therefore, for treatment conditions, the escort should be assigned to the random elderly population that is vulnerable to snatching cases. During this assignment, the size of the escort should be varied among the participants in order to evaluate the impact of the escort size on the number of crime events. For the control condition, a location with the neighborhood but free from the influence of the escort services should be identified and marked as the baseline to test the efficacy of the escorts in solving the snatching events.

Ethicality of the random assignment depends on the pre-experiment practices of recruiting the participants of the study. Just like other studies involving human participants, the best way to overcome the ethical concerns is by allowing the identified random participant a voluntary informed consent before the actual study (Shahnazarian, Hagemann, Aburto, & Rose, 2013). An informed consent means that the participant has understood what the research is about and all the risks that he or she is exposed to by agreeing to take part in it. Therefore, if the participant is presented with fully disclosed information regarding the study and agrees to participate, then the random assignment would be ethical. However, if they are provided with sufficient information about the particulars of the study and in a manner that they understand to facilitate an informed consent, then the random assignment would be unethical, which is against ethical codes and regulations framework for research practices (Renik, 2015).

Crime Watch

Before developing an experimental and control conditions in the mentioned case, it is important to outline the assumption. For the 50-block area given, it should be assumed that the area covering the blocks is large enough to allow the experimental and the control studies to be carried out concurrently without the interference of the former's crime watch intervention to the latter. One of the ways of achieving this is by introducing crime watch program to one of the extreme ends of the block area and leaving the other extreme area as the control study area. By adopting this approach, it will be possible to collect data simultaneous on both control study and experimental study consequently saving both time and research expenses.

Another way of establishing a control and an experimental study would involve collecting and analyzing the existing data of the 50-block area regarding criminal activities to act as the control study, then introduce the crime watch program and then compare the data of the before and after. The only limitation of the approach is that it will not show the mirror outcomes of the two studies that are essential because it enhances the accuracy of the findings by capturing the real-time data.

Control Variables

There are two control variables that could assist in making causal inferences in this study. they include the police patrols and the rate of employment. This study will be carried with an assumption that the number of police patrols in the area of interest is constant before and during the experiments. The same is expected for the rate of employment among the youth in the area. These two variables are important because they have a potential of affecting the rate of criminal events and by assuming that they are not changing, it will be easier to deduce the real impact of the independent variables to the dependent variables.

Methods of Data Collection

Depending on the type of experimental design adopted for the study, there are several methods of data collection that could be employed. For the true experiment, the dominant method would be observation and recording of the impacts the escort and crime watch interventions. For the quasi-experiment, a combination of the analysis of the existing data, mailed questionnaires and personal interview methods would suffice in the collection of quality data regarding the subject. For instance, existing information on the rate of crime could derive from police reports while the opinion data regarding the impact of the interventions from the area residents is collected through the interviews and questionnaires.

Quasi-Experimental Study Design

Assuming that the effect of the intervention strategy results to substantive and substantial results that are distinctive, the design for this project would involve preparing a question and interview questions that focus on collecting data on three areas. The first section would allow the respondent to highlight which intervention approach works or not works for them. The second would allow the participant to give an opinion on the use of both strategies and finally, the third section would capture the quantitative data on the before and after the interventions, individually and as combined through a Likert scale instrument. The study will employ a random sampling method during the recruitment of study participants where the size of the sample will be determined by the total population of the area and ensure it achieves an over 90% confidence level. The existing data on the rate of crime before intervention will be the baseline for judging the efficacy of the strategies. The existing data will also augment that collected from interviews and questionnaires.

Limitation of a Quasi-Experiment

Unlike a true-experiment, it is difficult to manipulate the independent variables to test the efficiency each strategy. For instance, with quasi, the study will have to assume the participant is able to substantiate the impact of each approach.

Threats to Internal and External Validity

The internal threats to the validity of a study compromise the confidence in correlating between the dependent and independent variables (Michael,2002). For this study, the paramount internal threat is associated with lack of distinctive indicators for the independent variables, which makes it hard for the respondent to ascertain that a given intervention was the most effective in reduction of the crime rate. External threats to validity, on the other hand, limits the confidence of amplifying the findings of the study to the larger population (Michael,2002). One major external threat involves the selection of the study participants. As mentioned, the study would employ a random sampling method. However, the fact that crime events only affect a relatively small percentage of the general population, the probability of getting the actual victims through random sampling will be low. Consequently, most of the opinion findings will be based on the general feeling in the neighborhood and this will lead to a skewed conclusion that lowers the confidence of applying the results to the entire population. As such, the mentioned threats should be taken into account when applying the findings to decision making.

References

Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2017). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications.

Gribbons, B., & Herman, J. (1997). True and Quasi-Experimental Designs. ERIC/AE Digest.

Michael, R. (2002). Threats to internal and external validity. Strategies for educational enquiries, Y520.

Resnik, D. B. (2015, December). What is ethics in research & why is it important. In ideas.

Ross, S. M., & Morrison, G. R. (1996). Experimental research methods. Handbook of research for educational communications and technology: A project of the association for educational communications and technology, 1148-1170.

Ross, S. M., & Morrison, G. R. (1996). Experimental research methods. Handbook of research for educational communications and technology: A project of the association for educational communications and technology, 1148-1170.