RESEARCH PRE-PROPOSAL WORKSHEET
Facharee Jones-Broadnax
1. What is it you want to know?
• The study will attempt to identify why women and men are sentenced differently within the criminal justice system.
2. What is your working title?
• The title is “Gender disparity within the criminal justice system.”
3. What is your research question? (You may have sub-questions.)
This study will examine three research questions.
1. Is there a relationship between gender disparity and the criminal justice system?
2. Is there a relationship between gender disparity and sentencing?
3. Is there a relationship between gender disparity and recidivism?
4. From what theoretical base(s) or theoretical framework does the research question come?
• Historically men have a harsher sentencing then women even though the crime is the same. Men are also held to a higher standard than women. Women are not considered violent offenders even though most women that are convicted have committed violent crimes. Also, men have a higher recidivism rate than women. In the 1900, Braithwaite stated that crime is committed disproportionately by males.
5.Who will be your subjects and how will they be selected?
• The researcher will solicit previous data on conviction of men and women. The researcher will choose men and women that have been convicted of the same crime and focus on the difference within the sentencing. The researcher will obtain data that will compare men and women recidivism rates.
6. What variables will be examined?
• The study will examine descriptive data, men and women recidivism rates, and differential between sentencing with men and women.
7. What methodology will you utilize to answer the research question?
• The researcher will be utilizing qualitative and quantitative research. The research will interview federal, state judges, attorneys, as well as observed criminal court proceedings with men and women being convicted of the same crime. The researcher will interview incarcerated men and women. Th researcher will also interview men and women that have currently been paroled.
8. Why is this research worth doing?
• Numerous of studies have proven women are under-represented in prisons across the United States. Explaining this gender disparity, previous scholars have found that women are treated more leniently than men at various stages of the judicial process.