Part 1
You are a probation officer and have a client, John Smith, who is a registered sex offender. One of the obligations of a probationer is to keep in close contact with his probation officer. This particular probationer failed to do that for a period of 4 months. You later found that John was involved with a woman who has three children, ages 6, 9, and 14. You felt compelled to contact this woman and find out whether she knew why John was on probation. During the conversation, she was appreciative that you had concerns but explained that John told her that he was involved with a 16-year-old, but that the girl had lied to him about her age. She said his conviction was the fault of the girl's parents, who convinced the daughter to press charges as a way to keep him away from her. She said it was not a big deal because the girl lied to John about her age. You want to tell her about John's past of being involved with molesting two girls, ages 4 and 7.
What is the most ethical way to handle this situation?
The most ethical way is to comfort her first by telling her that it might have been a mistake for the girl to lie to John. This will pave way for talking to the woman regarding the basis for convicting John of his past involvement in molesting the two girls. In which case, by first agreeing that John might have been on the right side allows the woman to ask for more question regarding John’s probation (Foreman, 2010).
What are some unethical decisions one could make in this case?
The most unethical decisions could have been to use harsh words regarding John’s case. For instance, by directly telling the woman that his husband is a criminal who ought to face charges. Another instance, is by telling the wife to leave her husband because of the things facing him.
Making sure to uphold ethical and moral values/concepts, what other options do you have in this situation?
One of the major options is to maintain a proper conversation to ensure that the wife can provide the needed information. Poor conversation styles, such as ridiculing during this type of conversation could lead to stop of the conversation.
Part 2
Give 3 examples of qualitative data and 3 examples of quantitative data that would be found when researching any of the following criminal justice topics:
Victimology
quantitative
The age of the convicts
The number of offenses committed
The number of years for jail sentence (Oliver, 2010).
Qualitative
The race of the convicts
The gender of the convicts
The profession of the convicts
Give an example of a question that might be found on a survey, poll, or questionnaire that could lead to incorrect or confusing results.
How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the quantity and quality of the product?
Graphs are very useful in visualizing data. Give an example of a type of data that would be appropriate for each of the following:
pie charts – qualitative data
bar charts – qualitative data
line charts – quantitative data
Foreman, Gene. 2010. The ethical journalist making responsible decisions in the pursuit of news. Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell.
Oliver, P. (2010). Understanding the research process. Los Angeles: SAGE.
