Research Article Analysis

Research Article Analysis

The selected article for this analysis is a study conducted by Phelan Wyrick and Kadee Atkinson. The article’s title is “Examining the Relationship Between Childhood Trauma and Involvement in the Justice System.” The purpose of this paper is to examine a study that was conducted on the connection between traumatic experiences in childhood and participation in the legal system. This document discusses the objectives of the research project and the issues and problems that were investigated throughout the course of the investigation. It will explain and identify the methodology, populations, sampling methods, and return rate while also providing a summary of the study’s findings, including the statistics and details that show the applications of the findings. It will describe the study’s design and determine whether the research is quantitative or qualitative. The author’s conclusions and recommendations will be discussed in the final section of the paper.

Purpose, Problems, and Questions

The selected article’s objective was to determine the connection between early trauma and court involvement. The issue under discussion is the trauma that children who are involved in the criminal justice system may experience. This article examines the possibility of a child experiencing something that permanently traumatizes them and the physical, mental, social, and behavioral effects it may have (Wyrick & Atkinson, 2021). The questions about the various degrees of violence seen and their corresponding effects on young people were answered in the article.

Study Design

The main goal of the study was based on what was learned in earlier studies. It focused on the investigations of six more study groups. Researchers at the University of Maryland looked at information that had been collected for the Pathways to Desistance research, which “analyzed multiple phases of interview recordings collected between 2000 and 2010 from 1,354 males and females involved in the criminal justice system” (Wyrick & Atkinson, 2021). They reportedly looked at how often and in what ways people were exposed to trauma and how that affected their mental health. They were able to find and describe the timeline of trauma exposure and signs from adolescence to early adulthood because of this. The researchers put the participants into four groups: those who hadn’t seen much violence, those who had seen both gun violence and violence that didn’t involve guns, those who had seen violence that didn’t involve guns, and those who had seen both types of violence. Researchers at Loyola University Chicago paid more attention to how young people in residential and correctional facilities were treated. The authors looked at how often children in the facilities were exposed to violence. They looked at young people who had been mistreated by the criminal justice system and the people who worked at the facilities. As part of their research, they did interviews every six months over the course of three years.

Qualitative or Qualitative Design

The study utilizes both qualitative and quantitative research designs. In order to gather the various numbers required to examine the number of children affected in each group, the study employed a quantitative design. The information they acquired, which was qualitative, provided more information on the child’s exposure to violence. By examining the trauma that a child may have encountered, the study keeps breaking down the information by the mental and physical traumas they might still be experiencing. The University of Maryland study analyzed the records to determine the real witnesses to shootings and fatalities. The Loyola University Chicago study also dissected the number of witnesses to violence between residents and staff, the number of victims, and the number of people who claimed to have been physically assaulted by staff using quantitative data. Therefore, the study can be said to have utilized both qualitative and quantitative design.

Methodology

The 1,354 female and male participants from the “Pathways to Desistance study,” which examined data from several rounds of interviews conducted between 2000 and 2010, provided the study’s population. Serious young offenders aged between 14 and 17 who committed their crimes in Maricopa County, Arizona, and Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, participated in the Pathways to Desistance project. The methodology only sampled various traumas and the ailments the person experienced as a result. There is no description of the sampling technique or methodology employed in the study. The Pathways to Desistance research served as the source of the population for the study, which concentrated particularly on people who had “experience to violence within residential and correctional facilities as well as persistent interaction with community violence” (Wyrick and Atkinson, 2021).

Study Findings                                                                        

The study findings revealed that the two groups under study are different in significant ways. For instance, all other groups performed better than the less exposed group in terms of melancholy, anger, psychoticism, and paranoid ideation. Over time, the average exposure to violence and psychological discomfort dropped modestly among all research participants (Wyrick & Atkinson, 2021). Wyrick and Atkinson (2021) claim that the survey’s findings also reveal that 75% of study subjects reported seeing violent incidents between other residents in residential and correctional institutions, and 17% claimed to be a victims of other inmates. Nearly two-thirds of respondents witnessed violence between residents and staff, and 5% of participants said they had been physically assaulted by personnel. 83% of the study’s participants reported having encountered community violence more than once, and 43% reported having experienced it directly more than once.

Study Findings and Conclusions

The author’s conclusions and findings in the Maryland study hinted at the idea that the average amount of exposure to violence and psychological discomfort gradually decreased. This pattern, nevertheless, was not the same for all individuals. For instance, whereas African American adolescents did not see this reduction in violent exposure, white and Hispanic youth did (Wyrick and Atkinson, 2021). According to the results of the Loyola University Chicago study, repeated rearrests were necessary for the majority of situations where violence persisted. Particularly for those who displayed harsh, emotionless tendencies, this was true. In that instance, adult reoffending was more likely for adolescent offenders who experienced prolonged exposure to trauma and displayed a lack of feeling and empathy or who adopted detachment as a means of self-defense from trauma (Wyrick & Atkinson, 2021).

Conclusion

This essay has examined a study that looked at the connection between traumatic experiences as a youngster and justice system involvement. This paper explained the study’s design and determined that it was both quantitative and qualitative. It also explained and identified the methodology, populations, and sampling techniques. Finally, it summarized the study findings and conclusions, including details that demonstrated the implementation of the findings.

References

Wyrick, P., & Atkinson, K. (2021, April 29). Examining the Relationship Between Childhood Trauma and Involvement in the Justice System. National Institute of Justice. https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/examining-relationship-between-childhood-trauma-and-involvement-justice-system

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Select 1 recent criminal justice research article from a recognized, peer-reviewed, professional journal or government publication that discusses a research study. Note: Non-peer-reviewed newspaper articles or articles from popular magazines, such as Time or Newsweek, are not acceptable for this assignment. For assistance determining what constitutes a professional, peer-reviewed resource, contact your instructor.

Write a 1050-word paper using the article you selected in which you address the following:

Identify the purpose of the research study, problem, and questions.
Describe the design of the study.
Identify whether the research study is a quantitative or qualitative design. Explain your answer.
Explain and identify the methodology, population, sampling methods, and return rate, if applicable.
Summarize the study findings, including the statistics and details that showed the application of the findings.
Describe the author’s conclusions and recommendations.