Introduction
In the world that we are living in, there are a lot of issues that affect the manner in which individuals of different age groups, gender, culture and backgrounds interact with each other. It is due to this fact that laws have been designed to ensure that the rights of every individual within the society are respected. In this respect therefore, this essay shall analyze two research papers that have been conducted in the United States.
The first paper, ‘The Effect of Enforcement on Merchant Compliance with the Minimum Legal Drinking Age Law,’ written by Richard Scribner and Deborah Cohen focuses on the effects of Minimum Legal Drinking Age Law in the United States.
The second paper, ‘Button Down Terror-A Metamorphosis of Hate Movement,’ written by Barbra Perry focuses on the effects of hate movement in the United States and the impacts hate movement has on discrimination, gender equality and politics.
This essay shall discuss, compare and contrast these two papers based on their research designs, methodologies, experimental designs and variables, sampling formats, concepts and theories presented and their ethical considerations.
An Analysis of the Papers
The theme of these two papers focuses on contemporary issues that affect the social welfare of the United States. The paper that was advanced by Scribner and Cohen (2009) focused on the impacts that general deterrence of intervention in a bid t increase the compliance of Minimum Drinking Age Law (MLDA) in USA. New Orleans, USA was the case study of the research.
According to Scribner and Cohen (2009), the effects of MLDA should always be felt within the society whether the laws are enforced or not. However, Scribner and Cohen (2009) asserted that for MLDA to be implemented effectively and efficiently, the law should focus on the retailers rather than the youths and adolescents.
This is due to the fact that focusing on retailers will result to a decline in the availability of alcohol by the youths hence reduce the consumption of the substance by the individuals of this age group altogether.
On the other hand, the paper that was advanced by Perry (n.d) focused at the manner in which the hate movement in USA has taken a new direction in the modern era.
The changes in the composition of the society, politics and the advancements that have been experienced in the communication industry have brought about drastic changes in the hate movement within the USA. Despite the fact that individuals can have ideological indifference with regards to gender or politics, Perry (n.d) asserted that the main factor that steered the hate movement in USA was the element of white supremacy.
In the process, several hate groups have been formed in the United States that aim at regaining the white supremacy that the country had before the civil movement of the 1960s and ensure that the voice of the minorities is not heard (Perry, n.d).
Research Methodologies
For a research study to be successful and effective, it has to adopt certain research methods that will ensure that the results and inferences that shall be made from the data collected correspond to the research questions and objective. In research, there are qualitative studies and quantitative studies. In qualitative studies, the researcher tries to identify a phenomenon that is not known to man.
Quantitative studies on the other hand require the researcher to manipulate data in order to get the desired results. With regards to the papers at hand, the paper that was presented by Scribner and Cohen followed a quantitative research design while the paper that was advanced by Perry followed a qualitative design approach.
However, the study that was conducted by Perry (n.d) used information that had been collected from previous studies in order to explain a new phenomenon (hate movement on a modern face).
To collect the data that is essential for their studies, the authors of these two papers employed a number of methods. The main method that was used in the study conducted by Perry (n.d) was literature review. Perry (n.d) reviewed literature from a variety of sources in order to present the status of hate movement in USA.
The information that she managed to gather from her sources was essential in determining the status of hate movement within the United States in the past, present and the direction that it may take in future. Literature review is an essential method of collecting data especially with regards to contemporary issues such as the case of Perry (n.d).
Since this study was based on literature review, it did not have either independent or dependent variables. As a result, there was not conceptualization or operationalization of data. However, to support her arguments, Perry (n.d) used a mixture of concepts and theories. Her paper was mainly based on the theory that the individuals who advocated for hate movement in USA wanted to ensure that white supremacy is achieved in USA.
To support her arguments, she used the concept of group and movement mentality that support such initiatives. The main problem that Perry (n.d) faced in her study was to identify all groups and each and every individual in USA who was involved in hate speech.
To solve this problem, Perry (n.d) focused on white supremacy in USA and analyzed the groups that advocated for the initiative. This included groups such as the Ku Klax who have been advocating white supremacy for decades and recent groups such as the skinheads.
Scribner and Cohen (2009) used a quasi-experimental approach in their study. They used the random sampling approach to collect relevant data for their study. In addition, they had a baseline for their study from which they would detect the changes of their subjects with time. In this study, compliance rates of MLDAs formed the independent variable while the sale of alcohol was the dependent variable.
To conceptualized their data, Scribner and Cohen (2009) used alcohol outlets. To operationalize this variable, Scribner and Cohen (2009) analyzed the sale of alcohol form these outlet with regards to the baseline for eight months. The study tried to identify the rate at which retail stores in New Orleans complied to MLDAs and the impact that this compliance had on the sale of alcohol to minors.
To advance this, several concepts and theories were put in place. The main theory that the paper advanced was that deterrence strategies have a lower impact when social and psychological factors influence the behaviour of the target group. Therefore, the concept that Scribner and Cohen used on their paper was that the MLDAs should target alcohol retailers rather than under aged individuals.
From their study, it was found that MLDAs were more effective when targeting retailers rather than under aged individuals since after the compliance laws were passed, there was an increase in compliance to the law from 16-34 stores out of the 143 that were used in the study.
In addition, road accidents and injuries declined drastically within that period. However, the main problem that the study faced was lack of relevant literature to support their argument. Not so many studies had been conducted to compare the effects of MLDAs targeting under aged individuals and retails stores.
However, to overcome this problem, Scribner and Cohen (2009) used historical information on cases of accidents and injuries in New Orleans where MLDAs had only targeted under aged individuals before 1995 and compared the same construct after MLDAs started to target alcohol outlets.
It was identified that the rate of accidents and injuries had tremendously reduced after the introduction of the law. This proved that MLDAs were more effective while targeting alcohol outlets than teenagers.
Ethical Considerations
The Zimbardo experiment is viewed as one of the most unethical studies conducted in USA. The study tried to identify the psychological effects that individuals had while being either a guard or a prisoner. This study was unethical on the grounds that it violated human rights by taking away the individuality of the participants who acted as prisoners.
The study also had racial discrimination since most of the individuals who were chosen to be guards were white. However, both of the studies that have been presented in this paper had ethical considerations.
They were all conducted in a manner that eliminated the interference of the culture and morals of the United States community. In addition, both of these studies were conducted to ensure a better community that is free from hate movement and alcohol abuse from the under aged individuals.
Conclusion
Research studies are conducted in a systemic manner in order for them to achieve their goals and purposes. These studies adopted various research approaches and techniques. Some of these techniques were similar (such as ethical considerations) while others like the research design were different. This was due to the fact that each one of these studies had different objectives hence their different design.
References
Perry, B. (n.d). Button Down Terror: A Metamorphosis of Hate Movement. Historical and Comparative Research, 2 (1), 247-261
Scribner, R. and Cohen, D. (2009). The Effect of Enforcement on Merchant Compliance with the Minimum Legal Drinking Age Law. Journal of Drug Issues, 31(4), 857-866