How does growing up as an adolescent in a violent environment make you become cruel to animals? – LAY SUMMARY


 


            Newark, New Jersey will be the location of this research specifically South Ward. Newark is the largest and second most diverse cities in New Jersey. People of various descents populate the neighborhoods including African Americans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Italians, Jamaican, Haitians and Ecuadorians among other. Newark is divided into five political wards by which these people generally identify themselves with although there are specific neighborhood names as well. South Ward was chosen because of the fact that among the five wards this ward comprises poor and crime-ridden areas and low income districts. Although hard to admit, the prejudice is that in this kind of violent environment, juvenile delinquencies are observable, making it a suitable location for the study. The gatekeeper for this research is identified as the closest (in proximity) Juvenile Detention Center. New Jersey has 17 juvenile detention centers spread across the state and are being administered by county boards/commissions, county executives/managers and local sheriffs/police chiefs, while few counties share detention center services. It was also reported that approximately 900 male and female juveniles are being held in detention daily (Detention, 2006).


 


Approval of the juvenile center will be accomplished. It is through the center that names of juvenile will be retrieved. If possible, list of juveniles who commit violent acts against animals will be collected and among this list interview will be conducted. Interviews will include personal questions as well as hypothetical, reflective and probing ones. I will also conduct a focus group interview about the subject and participants will be also taken from the list retrieved from the center. If the center will allow me, I wish to interview the parents of these individuals in order that I could confirm the legitimacy of their claims and also to build up on the responses of the persons I will be interviewing. A representative of the juvenile center will be contacted to assist me with these undertakings while also to avoid personal bias, prejudice and subjectivities that I may directly or indirectly impose. Written documents will be accomplished including participation consent forms of both adolescents and their parents. I will hold responsibility in the entirety of this research which will be conducted at approximately three months to do all the activities.  


 


As originally planned, thematic analysis will be used for interview. Analyzing by theme, this type of analysis is highly inductive as the themes emerge from data and are not imposed by the researcher or evaluator. Background reading can form part of the analysis process. Thematic analysis is always accompanied by comparative analysis. For the qualitative analysis of the responses, content analysis will be used, a process which is more mechanical where analysis takes places after data has been collected. In this evaluation, there are two approaches to content analysis as the questionnaire will include open-ended questions. The first is through preparing a list of categories and the second is letting the categories emerge from the data, enabling the researcher and/or evaluator to quantify the responses (Boyatzis, 1998, p. 25). In the latter part of the research, decision analysis method will be implemented with the help of the juvenile center. Decision analytic methods are primarily used in health care research towards the development of sound clinical interventions, policies or programs. It is of my best belief that it is in this sense that this research will contribute and benefit the gatekeeper which is to design policies and intervention programmes which are evidence-based, basically.


 


I will also hold the responsibility of communicating results which I will accomplish in three ways. First is through written reports. The final report will be divided into three sub reports including the program antecedents, program implementation and program results. In addition, summary tables and technical appendix documents will be provided. Prior to final reporting, prerelease reviews of drafts and feedback workshops will be conducted with the help of the juvenile center representative. The final written report will be published in medical journals accessible to users and electronically via putting the findings on a database or dissemination network accessible to both users and other stakeholders. There will be also informal discussions of the findings with relevant stakeholders. Hopefully, the findings can be also reported in local newsletters especially that of the law enforcement in order that more audience will be reached. Through this way, I would be able to convey the message of the necessity of making our environments more livable specifically for the children during their development stage.


 


The research will abide by the regulations outlined in the University’s ethical approval process as well as those will be imposed by the gatekeeper which is the juvenile detention center. Ethics approval will be sought for all interview questions that I will be using for the respondents. The research will include primary data but will not include any personal information on individuals. The respondents of the survey will be able to choose whether to identify themselves or remain anonymous. Before doing interviews, I will check them with my instructor and the center representative and before getting interviews recorded, I will ensure if it is acceptable by person to be interviewed. Participation consent forms and interview consent forms will be also accomplished. I will ensure that the data will be kept confidentially. I will establish with the data providers the use of my data and will ask their permission in case of publishing data. Further, care should always be given so that the interviewees can be comfortable and is in an excellent condition when doing an interview. As a researcher, my prime role is to make the respondent feel at ease during the interview, refraining from pestering him/her with regards to answers. The interviewer must also see to it that confidentiality is fostered between the researcher and the respondent. I will make save the findings of the research in Thumbnail retrievable only by me and my instructor and after 6 months all materials will be destroyed.


 


References


Boyatzis, R. E. (1998). Transforming Qualitative Information: Thematic Analysis and Code Development. UK: Sage Publications, Inc.


 


Detention. (2006). State Juvenile Justice Profiles (SJJP). National Center for Juvenile Justice. Pittsburgh, PA: NCJJ. Retrieved on 20 January 2009, from http://www.ncjj.org/stateprofiles/profiles/NJ06.asp.



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