Debate and critical analysis on drug use and drug policy in a global context

Debate and critical analysis on drug use and drug policy in a global context

A good response to others is not something like “I agree.” Please find something that you can analyze, add to, critique, explain, disagree with, or something. It should be a few cogent sentences. It should contain something that shows your knowledge of the subject, as well as additional materials you might bring from the web and elsewhere.

Apply theories or materials correctly. Apply relevant professional, personal, or other real-world experiences. Supports position with applicable knowledge.

You should create substantial responses to your peers. Think of this as your opportunity to teach. Create substantial responses which expand on a point and present information on the topic. Your responses should demonstrate your critical thinking on the topic.

Respond to the following discussions (8X). Write how you would respond to their discussions with approximately 100 words or more each. Be thoughtful and insightful and it must demonstrate critical thinking and analysis.

1. According to Babbie there are seven steps to evaluating the quality of an internet website. With so much freedom on the internet the opportunities to share information are limitless as are the opportunities to spread misinformation. These seven steps are used to weed out bad information from the good information on the internet. Frist, identify who the author is. A reputable author would most likely put out reputable information. Organizations or unknown authors are suspect. Next, recognize if there is a particular slant to the article. Any author can put their own spin on data, but the best data is objective and not biased. Thirdly, see if the site gives accurate and complete references. Good data is built on good data. Spouting a bunch of facts without proper references does no one any good. Next, see how dated the information is. It could be perfectly good information but it could also be old and updated someplace else when a web page is published and then forgotten. The next step is to see if the data is official. Official government research groups such as the Bureau of the Census or the Bureau of Statistics will publish information regularly and are considered the standard of data reporting. Sixth, if it is not a government site (.gov) check and see if it is a reputable university site (.edu). Finally, see if the data is consistent with other sites. If the data is reliable then it will stand up to being double checked with another site (Babbie, 2016, pp. 458-461).

One of the sites I used in my report was a table from the FBI site that published their National Crime Report. If I applied the 7 steps that Babbie suggests it would go like this. First, who or what is the author. In this case it is the FBI a reputable, if not a little dubious, government agency. Next, is there a slant to the data. Not that I can really tell. The table is just numbers so if there is a slant to the numbers it was in their gathering so no apparent political agenda here. After that is seeing if the article gives references. Yes, the web page tells you where the data came from. From the date on the page we can see that in the next step the data is not out dated. The next step of being official is covered. It’s the FBI, pretty official. The web site is a .gov, not a .edu, but .gov should be putting out some pretty accurate information. Finally, is the data consistent with other sites. A quick Google search does confirm that the data in the table can be found in other locations. So this FBI webpage does pass the muster test for being a reliable web site and can be used with confidence.

2.For the class, how does bias differ in qualitative research compared to quantitative? Any thoughts anyone?

3.As the Internet is frequently utilized to gather information about a particular topic, locate one website related to your research topic and apply the seven (7) criteria for evaluating the quality of internet material presented by Babbie on pages 459–461 to evaluate the quality of the information on that website. To do so, present, in APA format, the reference for the site, followed by the answer to each of the seven criteria. In addition, you should post comments to other students’ submissions directed to the seven criteria presented by Babbie. For example, if someone has posted an argument for the generalizability of a particular article, you could post an opinion against the generalizability of that particular article?

There are seven evaluation steps that a researcher should take when evaluating the data on a website. MY topic is on racial profiling, so I wanted to research the recent incident at Starbucks. If you are unaware of the recent news event, than I will briefly describe what occurred.

In a Philadelphia Starbucks, two black men named Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson, both 23, were arrested while they were awaiting a business meeting. Nelson asked if he could use the restroom, and the Starbucks staff member stated it was for paying customers only. “When the men were approached at their table and asked if they needed help, they also brushed it off, unaware of the chaos that was soon to ensue” (Fonrouge, 2018). A few minutes late, police walked into the Starbucks location and cuffed the two men out of the coffee shop. Here is the kicker, the men had both been long time customers since they were 15 years old and were only in the Starbucks location for 2 minutes before the police were called. The men are now suing Starbucks and will most likely become millionaires.

The first step is identify the author of the website. In this case, it is the New York Post, and an author by the name of Gabriela Fonrouge. You want to check for any sloppiness or bias attributes to ensure the accessibility of the site is not largely censored. Next, you want to check and see if the website if giving you a particular point of view. Many WWW.comLinks to an external site. sites are created to support political, religious, or other points of view only. Third, you want to fact check the data on the website for accuracy and complete references. How and why was this website or article created? Is the website reporting the data collected or by someone else (Babbie, 2017, p.476). The fourth check is to ensure the date is up to the current date. Many websites are out of date or were not published in a timely manner. The number five check is a simple data check with official government sites. This could be the Bureau of the Census (www .census.gov/), the Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.bls.gov/home.htm), the National Center for Health Statistics (www.cdc.gov /nchs/), and others (Babbie, 2017, p. 476). Number six; check to see if it is a university website. Many universities present and post up to date data that are considered legitimate. Lastly, verify (cross-check) the data with other websites. Take the time to research the source of data collected and compare it.

These are seven steps that can assist a researcher in verify the validity of a website.

4.As the Internet is frequently utilized to gather information about a particular topic, locate one website related to your research topic and apply the seven (7) criteria for evaluating the quality of internet material presented by Babbie on pages 459–461 to evaluate the quality of the information on that website. To do so, present, in APA format, the reference for the site, followed by the answer to each of the seven criteria. In addition, you should post comments to other students’ submissions directed to the seven criteria presented by Babbie. For example, if someone has posted an argument for the generalizability of a particular article, you could post an opinion against the generalizability of that particular article?

The internet is a valuable asset that has greatly increased the vast amount of knowledge available to almost anyone with an internet connection. It is with this access into many different areas that can lead to bountiful amounts of research data. How the information is collected and manipulated into published form does need to be taken into consideration. With different areas of online activity this information can be used or generated towards an individual’s own biased opinions rather that based on factual research. It is important to be able to find the pertinent information relating to your research project, however steps to need to be taken to evaluate the quality of the data.

According to Babbie, clearly it will continue to evolve as an increasingly powerful entity. As with gunpowder and television, the power of technology does not guarantee that it will always be used wisely (Babbie, 2017). When data is found you should take the time to conduct an evaluation on rather the information is useful. There are seven criteria which can be used in the process of identifying the validity of the content. These include taking into consideration who wrote the piece. Was it a singular person or an entity? Also important is to determine whether the information is based on the research data or favors a biased opinion on the subject. In most cases the ability to decipher the objectivity should be clear. In conducting research there will be data that is presented which you obtained from another person. In this case it is important to cite the work and provide full references for another to be able to verify of reconstruct the information you wrote. There is a possibility that some information posted on the internet is factual, however the article may use old and outdated sources in their work. The most up to date information and data should be used in the development of new research. And is the data official? Can you determine if the research indicates that the observations or data collection was done using official sites for objectivity in the process of this work. A good source for finding relevant accurate information is from research sites, namely those from universities. It is through the process of peer reviewed articles and research to determine their accuracy prior to publication. And finally, can you reproduce the same general information found at multiple internet locations? The data should appear to be consistent which would allow a researcher to reasonably consider the information was correct.

5.I think that if I were to give my research project to a peer-reviewed research journal that I might be best served by submitting it to Criminology & Public Policy. My project was on the effect of legislation, in particular gun control laws, on the crime rate. This journal deals with public policy. The process that I would go through is first of all adapting my project to be a more appropriate size. I am sure that by the time that I would think of sending my project into a journal that it would be quite large in size. I would have to edit it down to just a few pages and cut out a lot of the things that I would take for granted that my target audience would already know such as much of my methodology section. Then I would submit the paper to the journal. At this point it is put out for peer review and I would receive peer reviews. People, or the editor of the journal, would read my paper and basically give me criticism on how to make it better. The paper would come back to me with a letter of conditional acceptance which would mean that they will publish it but I need to make some changes. I make the changes, send it back, maybe with a check for a small fee they charge, and then they publish it. Of course if it is good to go the first time I wouldn’t have to rewrite it, they would just publish it. A third option would be they would just send me a letter saying I was hopeless and they will not be publishing my paper (Babbie, 2016, pp. 468-469.).

6. After researching different peer-reviewed research journal site that were not only relevant to my research project but I feel like it would be a good addition to the website. I choose the Sage journals where I found a good number of other published journals which also touched base on specific topics such as juveniles, violence among youth and delinquency. I believe my research project will fit in with what the other journal topics that are displayed as long as the format is somewhat similar to what is already presented.

Before even thinking about publishing my research project in any journal, first I want to make sure that I not only go over it carefully to make sure that things such as citations and references are in place along with grammatical errors and anything that may feel out of place is important. Then, I would like the professor that I did the research paper for to go over it as well seeing that they would be able to point out anything that I may have overlooked and add additional information that may make it better. Once the revisions are made that the professor had suggested then you will have to prepare the journal/article to make sure it meets the journal’s requirements as well.

Journals usually will have an author’s guide as a guideline for potential authors before they are allowed to publish. Once you have followed the required instructions and guidelines that the journal has laid the out along with the professor’s suggested adjustments, then you will be able to submit the final journal article. Most if not all the time, once the journal company has reviewed the article you have submitted, they will send it back with their critiques and review in order to meet their liking but once you have made those changes then it should be ready to be published.

7. I would choose the International Journal of Drug Policy for my research project to be published in. The International Journal of Drug Policy provides a forum for the dissemination of current research, reviews, debate, and critical analysis on drug use and drug policy in a global context. They have 9 pages with 20 articles per page related to the topic of marijuana research, data and legalization.

They also have an academic base with the Centre for Research on Drugs and Health Behavior, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London, UK. The International Journal of Drug Policy is ranked 3rd out of 34 journals in the SUBSTANCE ABUSE category in the 2016 Journal Citation Report. You can also signup for new content alerts so you are always up to date with the latest information being published.

8. To publish my research project, I would utilize the American Sociological Association (ASA) presented in our book. This an open-access journal that adheres to the standards of double blinded peer-review. Double blinded peer-review means that both the reviewer and author identities are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa, throughout the review process (Babbie, 2017). The Editors can provide the authors of the submitted articles with feedback, received from the referees, in order for the author to revise their article and resubmit it for consideration.

In the ASA website, there is a division that focuses on studies of crime and deviance. It allows researchers to submit work theorizing how inappropriate and illegal behavior is controlled by formal and informal organizations, and how their violation is handled by government agencies. This is a perfect department for my study on capital punishment and its effect on capital crimes.

Order from us and get better grades. We are the service you have been looking for.