Ibarra Et Al Week 4 Discussion Cynthia Edwards
Respond to Cynthia as if you’re having a conversation with her. Respond to Cynthia who was assigned a different article than me by further supporting her critique or respectfully offering a differing perspective. $5 post one question and a few sentences
Evaluating the Purpose Statement
The purpose statement of a study summarizes the specific topic, goals, and objectives of a study. The researcher uses this statement to announce the objective/objectives, scope, and direction of the paper (Babbie, 2017). In the paper Surveillance as casework: Supervising domestic violence defendants with GPS technology, for example, Ibarra, Gur & Erez (2014) maintain that prior studies on Electronic Monitoring (EM) have not addressed the surveillance processes that this method brings out. As a result, their study would like to compare how different community correction officers employ EM as a method of surveillance.
Their purpose statement reads “The purpose of the current study is to examine “styles of surveillance” among community corrections officers using EM, employing a specific and comparative analysis (cf. [30]) of how the tools of surveillance are integrated into local agendas and routines, variegated traditions and ideologies, and legal and extralegal considerations associated with social control and rule enforcement” (Ibarra et al., 2017 pp2).
As it can be seen above, the statement begins with signaling words, mentions some of the participants, and is framed in way that is consistent with the problem. Also, the researchers note that they will apply the comparative analysis approach, but it is not clear if they will use the quantitative or qualitative comparative analysis. The intent of the research and the research site are clearly indicated in the next sentence “…Specifically, we examine how a “second generation” [52] EM technology—GPS—is implemented through interactive surveillance with domestic violence (DV) defendants in three U.S. jurisdictions” (Ibarra et al., 2017 pp2).
Although the researchers do not explicitly state that they will apply a qualitative comparisons analysis, the fact that they will study only one phenomenon (how GPS is implemented through interactive surveillance) indicates that it will be a qualitative study. Also, the action verb “we examine” is used, a definition of GPS is provided, and the language is neutral.
Alignment among the theory, purpose, and research problem
The problem statement and the purpose of the study are aligned to show the audience the direction in which the researchers are heading. In the problem statement, the researchers inform us of how “styles of surveillance” as relates to EM have not been studied before despite their significance. Thereafter, they indicate how they plan to study a specific aspect of EM and where the study will be conducted.
Research and Social change
Social change is largely dependent on well-conducted research. If organizations, researchers, and members of a community collaborate to formulate relevant research questions, they will definitely come up with studies that will improve their welfare. However, more effort should be geared towards making academic research more accessible to all the stakeholders so that everyone appreciate research and why more studies need to be conducted (Greenwood & Levin, 2006). A good example is how various stakeholders in the medical field have collaborated to come up with studies that have helped to find better ways of dealing with cancer.
References
Burkholder, G. J., Cox, K. A., & Crawford, L. M. (2016). The scholar-practitioner’s guide to research design. Baltimore, MD: Laureate Publishing.
Greenwood, D. J., & Levin, M. (2006). Introduction to action research: Social research for social change. SAGE publications.
Ibarra, P. R., Gur, O. M., & Erez, E. (2014). Surveillance as casework: Supervising domestic violence defendants with GPS technology. Crime, Law and Social Change, 62(4), 417-444. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10611-014-9536-4