OCR Pre-Release 2015

OCR Pre-Release 2015

1. Investigation One

   • Methods
     • Primary Methods
       • Self-Completion Questionnaire
         • Open questions
           • Qualitative data
         • Closed questions
           • Quantitative data
         • Low validity, high reliability
         • Snowball sample
           • Category B Male prison
           • 50 prisoners
         • Pilot study
           • Not relevant to study; information provided is invalid because his family aren't prisoners
       • Semi-structured Interview
         • Non-random sample
           • 2 people
         • 2 people within the prison service were interviewed
           • Too subjective; these people will be bias
     • Secondary Methods
       • Official Statistics
         • Adapted, so not valid/reliable
         • A prison sentence of less than 1 year proves prisons do not work
           • Longer you're in prison, less likely you are to re-offend
       • Media (Prison documentaries)
         • A) out of date, Irrelevant to UK prisons
           • Disproves hypothesis 'prison seemed to work'
         • B) could be sensationalised
   • Aims
     • What causes people to commit crime
     • How prisoners feel about being in prison
     • Why prisoners continue to commit crime after they have been released
   • Hypothesis: 'Prisons do not help to reduce crime'
   • Ethics
     • No details of informed consent
       • No details of study given
     • No details of the right to withdraw
     • He is protected from harm since he gives questionnaires to prison guards
     • No details of deception
   • Conclusion
     • No results presented
     • Triangulation has been achieved
       • Statistics, Questionnaire
       • Interview, Media Documentaries
     • Hypothesis has not been answered

2. Investigation Two

   • Primary Method
     • Covert Participant Observation
       • Sample size of 20
         • Opportunity sample
         • Aimed at gang members
       • Has worn 'uniform'- implies participation
       • 'I hadn't proved myself'- evidence of covert
       • High validity, low reliability
         • No Hawthorne Effect
         • Method of recording data not stated
   • Secondary method
     • Previous Sociological Research
       • The drug trade case study is irrelevant to hypothesis
         • Drug dealers are a different group of people to gang members
       • The first study is out of date
         • Invalid- written from memory
   • Aims listed are not clear; very vague
     • Find out norms of gang
     • How gang works
       • Older ones had highest status
       • Carried guns
     • There is no hypothesis
       • Don't know what it is that he wants to research
       • Possible hypothesis-'Gang culture does not conform to societal norms and values
   • Ethics
     • No informed consent
       • Would compromise validity
     • There was deception
       • Don't know he was watching them
     • Confidentiality ensured
     • He was at risk from gangs
       • put gang members at no more risk than they'd usually experience
   • Conclusion
     • Extremely poor
     • No results published