For this exercise, you will read through five different research scenarios (see below. You must identify at least two ethical issues that you find problematic within the scenarios and discuss what ethical consideration they violated and how you might fix them. You will complete this assignment in a Word format to be uploaded using this assignment link.
Proposal #1 -Effectiveness of afterschool mentoring
The research generated from this project will assess whether the “Join the Club” program operated by City Kids, Inc. is effective at reducing recidivism in 13-15 year olds who have been charged with two property offenses. The project will follow 13-15 year olds who enter the program in January 2012 for one year. Participating kids will be given an informed consent form to sign to participate in the research program. Participants’ school and court records will be monitored to assess behavior and compliance with the law.
Parents will be surveyed to assess changes in their kids. Teachers will be notified that kids are in the program and will be asked to comment on the kids’ behavior too.
Proposal #2 – Sex Offender recidivism
A new drug, Clonopatromine, has been said to be very effective in chemical castration. This project will explore the effectiveness of this drug on recidivism of sex offenders, specifically, those who have been convicted of sex crimes on children between the ages of 4-12. The study will begin in January 2012 and all convicted sex offenders fitting this victim category will be placed in a control group or experimental group. The sex offender does not have a choice to opt out of this experiment as this is a very important study. Sex offenders in the experimental group will be given the Clonopatromine in a
controlled environment once a week by one of the researchers. All study participants will be required to submit to having a GPS microchip implanted in their left shoulders so that researchers can be aware of their whereabouts at all times. Interactions between sex offenders and others (including children) will not be interrupted to assess the ability of Clonopatromine to be effective or not.
Proposal #3 – Boot camp for female juvenile violent crime offenders
The purpose of this project is to assess the effectiveness of boot camp on female juvenile violent crime offenders. All females between the ages of 12 and 16 who are adjudicated delinquent on a violent crime will be required to attend boot camp either as the sentence or after incarceration. Both the female participants and their parents will be given informed consent forms to sign, but they must sign them. All participants will be listed in the local newspaper to keep them accountable when they end the boot camp.
Proposal #4 – Drinking and driving
The purpose of this project is to assess how many people drink heavily at bars and nightclubs and choose to drive home so we can have a better understanding of how many drivers on the road are potentially under the influence of a substance. A team of 5 researchers will spend 3 nights a week at a series of bars and nightclubs for a period of 6 months. Researchers will spread out so it does not look like they are all together.
Researchers will record on their Blackberry devices how many drinks people have had over the course of an evening and tally that number when they walk out of the bar. Two people from the research team will stay in a parked car and record license plate numbers and car details for each person who leaves the bar/nightclub. Researchers from inside the bar/nightclub will text the researchers outside to let them know how many drinks each person has had, as the subject leaves the bar/nightclub. Researchers outside the bar/nightclub will alert law enforcement to potential impaired drivers if a subject has had more than 3 drinks. Researchers outside the bar/nightclub will inform law enforcement
of the license plate numbers and car makeup. Law enforcement will pull over potentially impaired drivers and take a breathalyzer. Law enforcement will share breathalyzer results with researchers.
Proposal #5 -Prison life
The purpose of this research project is to assess what prison life is like on a daily basis. The researcher will pose as a prisoner and remain incarcerated in a maximum security prison for six months. Prison guards will let it leak that the researcher-prisoner is a known gang member in a particular gang. The researcher will be allowed to carry mace with him at all times in the event that he gets attacked. At the end of the six months ONLY, the researcher will be released and will alert the Warden of the institution to any criminal misconduct occurring within the prison population.