Assignment 1: Conducting Survey Research: Hiring Ex-offenders in the Workplace

The City of Centervale’s Department of Labor has proposed a plan to learn whether employers in the region are willing to hire ex-offenders. The department requests that a professional research report be prepared to obtain any quantitative and qualitative research findings addressing the use of ex-offenders in the workplace.

Several issues influence this decision, including public safety concerns, ethical issues of hiring outside of the law-abiding community, cost effectiveness, and type of ex-offenders who would be eligible for hire. Specifically, the hiring of an ex-offender would require screening each job candidate. Essentially, no violent or sexual offenders or offenders involved in arson would be eligible for this pool of future applicants. It is envisioned that the most meaningful way to obtain objective insight would be to conduct a form of web survey research. In essence, survey research typically embraces exploratory, descriptive, explanatory, and evaluative research designs.

This type of survey research captures attitudes, behaviors, beliefs, opinions, characteristics, policies, knowledge, expectations, and self-classification issues. Therefore, web-based survey research would be the desired type of research for investigating and deciding whether ex-offenders should be hired.

Locate and read at least two authoritative articles about using a web-based survey for data gathering associated with hiring ex-offenders in the workplace. Use the Argosy University Online Library resources, the National Institute of Justice Data Collections, or the National Criminal Justice Reference Service Databases.

Submission Details:

By Saturday, September 20, 2014, in a minimum of 300 words, post your responses to the following topics to this Discussion Area.

• Describe the advantages and disadvantages of using a web-based survey (or other measures) for data gathering.
• Discuss the type of research questions appropriate for survey research.
• Discuss what sample size would provide sufficient data.
• Cite the resources you used in the APA style.

By Wednesday, September 24, 2014, respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts. Consider commenting specifically on research questions appropriate for survey research.

Discussion Grading Criteria and Rubric

All discussion assignments in this course will be graded using a rubric. This assignment is worth 40 points. Download the discussion rubric and carefully read it to understand the expectations.