The Cruel And Unusual Punishment Of Prison Life, And Julian V. Roberts And Michael Jackson Essay

Research, no matter what field, is often conducted and analysed in accordance with two basic approaches: quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative approach aims to test a hypothesis and examine the relationship through generating numerical data or other information that is than converted into numbers, whereas the qualitative approach is more exploratory, aiming to gain a deeper understanding of the research subject. Through breaking down and examining the key features in each of these approaches it is evident that although they both begin with a problem the researcher aims to understand they fundamentally differ. The table below shows side by side comparisons, highlighting the differences that can be used to differentiate these approaches, described broadly across three main categories.

Capital punishment and the practice of the death penalty is an issue that is passionately debated in the United States. Opponents of the death penalty claim that capital punishment is unnecessary since a life sentence accomplishes the same objective. What death penalty opponents neglect to tell you is that convicted murders and child rapists escape from prison every year(List of prison escapes, 2015). As I write this essay, police are searching for two convicted murders who escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility in New York on June 6th, 2015. The ONLY punishment from which one cannot escape is capital punishment.

Quantitative research is research that has been conducted for the purpose of obtaining the attitudes, behavior or performance of people in numerical form. It is designed to generate projectable numerical data about a topic.

Quantitative research methods are objective as it uses measurements and analysis of statistical data to answer the study question. The researchers’ opinions do not affect the outcome of the study, ensuring that the study is unbiased. Another advantage is quantitative research uses numbers and statistics which is understood universally (Houser,2008).

A quantitative study has objective stances, logic, and numbers focusing on unchanging data and details (Babbie, E.R., 2010). The aim of quantitative research is to classify features, count the features, and construct statistical models to explain what was observed (McNabb, D.E., 2008). It has eight characteristics:

Inmates held in the United State’s prison system face critical exposure to numerous violations of their basic human rights. Abuses of power present themselves in a myriad of ways, including; the unregulated approach in which prison facilities enforce solitary confinement, the misuse of “compassionate release” policies and the judicial system’s wrongful imprisonment of individuals suffering from mental illness and, or mental disability. In most cases, prisoners will experience at least one, if not all, of these disparaging interactions during incarceration. Without federal regulations demanding system accountability, the unjust applications of physical violence, non-lethal weaponry and and needless use of excessive force will continue to take place.

In defining quantitative research the term can be dichotomized. Firstly, research refers to creative, systematic work with the intention to increase the knowledge of man and thereby devise new applications (OECD, 2002). In addition Gray (1997) stated that research should improve performance and that the results should be

The complaints that were brought up were that confinement in cells in the isolation unit of the Farm amounts to cruel and unusual punishment as prohibited by the eighth amendment. They were also denied adequate medical attention, and that penitentiary authorities have failed to take adequate steps to protect inmates from assaults by other inmates. They also say that the Farm is depriving them of their fourteenth amendment rights. The court defines cruel and unusual punishment as such: a flexible and expanding one, and that punishment or system of punishment is unconstitutional if it offends concepts of decency and human dignity and precepts of civilization which Americans profess to possess, or if it is disproportionate to the offense, or if it violates fundamental standards of good conscience and fairness. They needed to show that the prison authorities had “abandoned elemental concepts of decency by permitting conditions to prevail of a shocking and debased

Quantitative research involves collection of data using a survey technique from human participants. Major benefit of human participants is that a researcher will be able to collect valid and reliable

Since the late 1970s, roughly 1500 prisoners were executed in the United States. A capital punishment, also known as death penalty, refers to the execution of a perpetrator convicted of any capital offense, such as murder or treason. Ratified in 1791, the Eighth Amendment, which was originally concerned with the criminal on death row rather than the process of execution, constitutionally bans cruel and unusual punishments. Yet, like any other amendment or constitution, the interpretation of the cruel and unusual punishment clause today differs immensely from the interpretation during the early 1790s, due to the changing standards of society, hence the increase in questions about the moral and ethical issues of death penalty, and what constitutes

By maintaining important research modalities - neutrality, transparency and empiricism - quantitative research can as be robust and valuable as its qualitative

Quantitative research: In quantitative researches, surveys are conducted to collect numerical data. Most of the surveys include close-ended questions which are less time consuming. It is quite easy to collect such data as consumers tend to be more co-operative. The collected data is further analyzed for a proper conclusion.

There are many benefits of utilizing quantitative methods in research. The benefits are precise numerical data, previously constructed theories can be tested and validated, results can be generated from sufficient random samples sizes, and less time is needed for data analysis. The weaknesses of quantitative methods are that due to the focus of the theory used the researcher may miss phenomena occurring, or the information gained may be too general to be applied to the individuals. The other weaknesses are colleagues may not understand the categories used, and colleagues may not understand the theories used by the researchers. (Zikmund et al, 2010) Qualitative Methods

William E. Martin, Krista D. Bridgmon (n.d.) Quantitative and Statistical Research Methods: From Hypothesis to Results, : Jossey

Quantitative research involves collecting data, which can be expressed numerically. The design is well structured with pre-determined outcomes. It frequently involves testing a hypothesis, which then can be analysed from the data deductively using statistical methods. Using numerical data is easier to analysis mathematical, so larger sample sizes can be utilised compared to qualitative research, therefore giving a better representative of the population; along with simplifying the process of making a generalisation. Another advantage is that studies can easily compare to similar findings (Kruger, 2003). The disadvantages are the results are limited and might not provide a proper understanding of the topic. Also, statistics and leading questions can be used to give a false representation of the data when summarising.