Wing SzeWence, Jampolsky and Alsbury shade light on the lifelong disability that arises from prenatal alcohol exposure in their article titled, Experiences in the Canadian Criminal Justice System for Individuals with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: Double Jeopardy? According to prior research, FASD is viewed as one of the most vital growth disabilities in Canada considering that it consumes up to five billion dollars of the nation’s budget as each individual suffering from the condition is allocated around twenty-one thousand dollars. Therefore, the researchers undertook to carry out a research on the experience of people in the criminal justice system suffering from FASD because the financial burden that it bears not only to the government but also to the individual needs to be reduced. Therefore, this paper will analyse the article by the authors by identifying their research objectives and questions, the research methodology used, the sampling method and the recommendations that have been suggested.
The study comprises of a bigger part of a research program that aims at gaining a deep comprehension of the exposure within the criminal justice department by felons who are suffering from FASD. Despite the fact that most people suffering from the FASD disorder are frequently engaged with the criminal justice system, the available research concerning the effect of this disability to the offenders is minimal. Precisely, the article was centred towards the identification of the risk issues of felons with FASD because a good comprehension of the known risk factors in a specific institution can help provide an effective and cost-efficient manner to avert or decrease the possibilities of people gaining entrance or re-entering the correctional facility. The problem that led to the research was that cases to do with FASD were on the rise within the correctional facilities in the country, which was straining the meagre available resources that would otherwise have been used to improve other sectors of the economy. The research was based on three question, which includes individuals who are primed to enter the correctional facility system, those who have been hindered within the system, and those have been strengthened within the system.
The operational definition refers to the process by which the researchers have to follow in measuring the various variables of the study; hence, may vary in terms of complexity depending on the properties of the variable and the requirements of the researchers. According to this research, the authors mainly dwells in the identification of known risk factors with the main variable of studies including the attributes that expose criminals with FASD at risk of gaining entrance into the system and those that cab prevent them from leaving the system. In the process establishing the operational definition of this research, the authors have begun by the analysing experience of FASD criminals in terms of how the feel the system is affecting them. Additionally, the wardens have also been asked the same question on how that feel felons with FASD are being affected by the present correctional facility. Therefore, the researchers have simply defined the experience of the FASD criminals by asking the wardens regarding their associations with criminals, who have been diagnosed, what they see works well with them among others. In terms of measurement, the authors have used physiological measurement to determine the feeling of the criminals and to determine how the wardens feel about the criminals.
Inductive and deductive logic are often used in the analysis of results in research papers where the former makes wide generalizations from precise observations while the latter begins with a general statement and analyses the chances of arriving at a precise goal. One instance of inductive logic that has been used in the article is where a number of respondents stated poor decision making to be the root cause of categorising criminal with FASD taking part in high-risk behaviours that lead them to conflicts with the authority. In that, criminals who were suffering from FASD among other persons had the difficulty of linking their actions to the consequences, but the fact remains that not all individuals in this category have the same feeling or experience the same. One of the deductive logic used referred to the issues that led to FASD individuals remain in the criminal system as it generalized the matters into biological factors and psychological factors. From the two factors, a further classification of the biological factors can be made by suggesting that cognitive impairments fall under biological factor with the example of limited learning, which is deductive in nature because limited learning is a biological issue.
The researchers have made use of qualitative methods, which focussed on in-depth individual interviews as a way of gaining more comprehension on the underlying experiences of people or criminal with FASD. The research was centred towards the acquiring of information in a more subjective manner considering that the research problem was described from a the point of view of the people who were experiencing it. Additionally, the research did not involve any statistical method for the analysis of data as the results were analysed based on the inductive and deductive logic of the responses provided by the study sample.
The methodology that was used by the researcher is in-depth qualitative analysis where respondents views were recorded regarding their experience with criminals suffering from FASD and whet the criminals themselves were undergoing as a way of giving them a voice. The population sample was comprised of twenty-one people where none participants were had FASD with five of them being male and four of them being female of thirty-one year on average. Additionally, twelve professional were included were nine of them were male while nine of them were female. The method that was used to include persons suffering from FASD was based on the age limit of not less than nineteen year old, mandatory previous engagement with the justice system and verified FASD diagnosis. On the other hand, professionals or workers from the institution were supposed to have had an earlier interaction with FASD criminals, and their professions were varied from defence lawyers to community support workers to judges among others.
The sampling method that was used was referred to as snowball sampling method that present study respondents were tasked with the recruiting of future subjects among their associates; hence, the sample group was growing like a rolling snowball. As the study sample was increasing in size, the data being data also increased to a substantial quantity, and its used was mainly preferred because of the hidden nature of the target research population. In terms of the data collection, twenty semi-structured interviews were carried out on an individual basis, and a single interview brought together two participants at the same moment. A single researcher was the one mandated to carry on with the interview with each of the interviews lasting for up to ninety minutes.
The study identified three main subjects connected to the threat and defensive factors that were applicable to people with an FASD in the criminal justice department which include those who were ready to enter the department, those stalled inside the department and those encouraged to move past the department. Regarding those ready to gain entrance ino the system, the research identified biological, social, and psychological factors for persons suffering from FASD that either led to the reduction of protective issue or raised the risks. Some of the biological factors that were identified included poor decision-making and inability to predict the influence of high-risk matters while psychological factors identified included health and influenced entry into correctional facilities. For those hindered within the system, they faced social, biological, and psychological factors that went on to disadvantage them with the cognitive factors inclusive of limited comprehension and failure to self-advocate among others. For those people who are energized to move beyond the system, the faced a number of strengths that included the urge to change, pliability and hope.
The conclusion of the researchers can be described as one that offers an insight into the problems that persons with FASD may go through once in the criminal justice department in addition. The authors made use of the qualitative methodology in the research and analysis of data that led to the identification of three themes, which were ready gain entrance into the department, stalled in the scheme and encouraged to overcome the system. The recommendations that arose due to the study suggested the effective measures be introduced among other aiding facilities for people with FASD, and forthcoming investigation should take a wider geographical setting.
In conclusion, the study was carried out was effective in identifying the experiences of persons with FASD who have a connection with the criminal justice department but possibilities of further improving the study were present. In that, the study was only conducted on a limited local setting, which may not represent the true situation in the whole country; hence, a more detailed and widened research is needed. Additionally, a more conclusive result can be obtained if information of the participants is collected in depth as compared to how the researches collected their data as they used FASSY organisation that could not give them the room to ascertain.
References
Pei, J., Wing SzeWence, L., Jampolsky, F., & Alsbury, B. (2016). Experiences in the Canadian criminal justice system for individuals with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders: Double jeopardy? Canadian Journal of Criminology & Criminal Justice, 58(1), 56-86. doi:10.3138/cjccj.2014.E25
