Term Paper on "Red Light Cameras"

Quoted Instructions for "Red Light Cameras" Assignment:

ALL READINGS NEEDED HAVE BEEN UPLOADED.

RUNNING RED LIGHTS AND RED-LIGHT CAMERAS

INTRODUCTION

Each year in the United States some 40,000 people die as a result of motor vehicle crashes and another 3 million people are injured. Many of these crashes happen at intersections. Drivers enter intersections traveling in multiple directions and at varying speeds and they must be prepared to respond to sudden changes as dictated by traffic control devices. Add to the mix pedestrians and bicyclists who often enter into the intersection from areas of poor visibility and you begin to see why the risk for an accident increases. Another factor that exacerbates the inherent risk at intersections is intentional disregard for traffic control devices. Of particular concern are vehicles that run red lights, which can lead to high speed collisions with devastating consequences (video example: do not play this if you are squeamish).

TEAM PROJECT

For this project you and your team members are to imagine that you work in the traffic division of large municipal police department. Recently your city has experienced four fatal accidents at intersections caused by drivers running red lights. As a result, the city council has authorized funds to lease five red-light cameras. These devices take pictures of cars running red lights. The pictures provide enough detail to identify the driver and vehicle, and citations are then mailed to the residence listed in DMV records. The city council is willing to purchase the cameras outright, possibly even add more, if the traffic division provides evidence that they reduce this infraction and possibly accidents. To get started the council has requested a detailed research proposal so they can evaluate the merits of the proposed study before it is conducted.

RESEARCH QUESTION

Your team must design a study that is capable of answering the following question using empirical data:

􀂃Do these cameras reduce the prevalence of red light running? Are drivers less likely to run red lights in the city after the installation of the cameras?

PARAMETERS

Your team must operate under the following conditions/restrictions:

1. If you proposal is accepted you will be awarded an additional grant of $10,000 to evaluate whether the cameras are worth purchasing

2. You must be able to complete your study in under six months

Research Proposals

Overview

At the start of the term you will be randomly assigned to a research team comprised of three to four other students and a course facilitator. Each week your team will be given an applied research problem to discuss. On one of these weeks you will be assigned to lead this discussion. At the end of the term (see syllabus for exact due date) you will submit a final research proposal that documents your methodology for addressing the problem you were assigned to lead. Please note that this paper is a proposal, you do not actually carry out the study and collect data.

The final paper should be no more than 8 pages double-spaced and must meet all of the following conditions:

 The proposed study must be ethical

 It must be feasible given the constraints listed in the assignment description

 The proposed study must lead to the collection of reliable and valid data that could answer the specified research question

 It must be well written using APA style

The proposal needs to include the following sections:

 Cover page

 Introduction

 Methods (includes subheadings for subjects, procedures, and measures)

 Methodology Review (highlights limitations and strengths of methodology)

 References

Designing The Study

To accomplish this task you will need to do all of the following:

1. Identify the specific topic you have been assigned

 An email and course announcement will be sent out the first week of class identifying your group and assigned topic

2. Review the research literature on the topic - minimum of 4 articles from peer-reviewed academic journals

 At least three of the articles should be empirical in nature *****“ by this I mean the authors actually collected and analyzed data as opposed to just reviewing what others have done

 Your best source for findings these papers will be PsycInfo, Criminal Justice Abstracts, and the Criminology Full Text from *****. Might also want to check NCJRS.

 The papers you choose should all relate directly to the topic you have chosen; do not just take the easiest articles you can find or you will be marked down

 You need to obtain and actually read the articles you cite *****“ when we suspect a student has simply copied a citation from another source without reading it we will ask for a copy of the paper

 Other reference materials can also be used as long as they come from credible sources and appropriate APA citations are provided

 For some topics there may not be much of a literature base yet (e.g., utilization of shelters by male victims of spouse abuse) *****“ when this happens scientists identify related areas to develop the rationale for their own study (e.g., utilization of medical services by men; use of shelters by women)

3. Develop and refine a testable research question on your topic

 Although you have been assigned a research topic, the final question your study addresses may need to be revised a bit depending on your proposed methodology

 Try to state your question using a single sentence that clearly identifies the variables you will be studying: *****Are prosecutors more likely to dismiss cases with female defendants than male defendants?*****

 Independent Variable = gender

 Dependent Variable = prosecution

 Remember that everything else you do in the paper depends on your research question being clearly conceived and written: the introduction should convince us that your question is important and your methods tells us how you will collect data to answer your question

 Simple questions and basic research designs work best - it is unlikely that any one of us will be able to design a feasible study that answers a question like, *****Does the death penalty work?*****

4. Design an ethically sound and feasible research study capable of providing empirical data to answer to your question

 By *****ethically sound***** I mean that you have carefully addressed all of the major ethical concerns that might arise - ask yourself whether you would participate in such a study or whether you would allow your child to participate

 By *****feasible***** I mean that you could accomplish the task within the economic and time limitations outlined in the assignment description

 Make sure that your methods are capable of providing empirical data to directly answer your research question

Writing It Up

Once you have discussed your project with your team members and reviewed the literature on the topic (or related topics), you need to write up your final proposal. The written proposal must have the following distinct sections and again, you need to use APA formatting and citation style.

1. Cover page

 Title of study

 Your name

 Class, professor, and date

2. Introduction

 Good introductions *****sell***** your specific research study *****“ by the time someone gets finishes reading your introduction he/she should already know what your study is going to address and should know why it is important

 Begin the introduction by creating the outline of an argument in support of your study. A good argument has 4 to 6 related points derived from a literature review that lead to a clear position. For example:

 Motor vehicle accidents kill a lot of people

 Many car crashes are caused by aggressive drivers

 Aggressive driving seems to be on the rise

 People are increasingly concerned about aggressive drivers

 We need to understand why people drive aggressively

 Notice how the outline is shaped like a pyramid, it starts out broad and narrows to a specific topic and question

 Using the outline above you can easily develop each of these bullet points into full paragraphs *****“ this is where you weave in what you learned from reviewing the 4+ articles you collected on your topic

 Early in the introduction you need to clearly demonstrate why your general topic is important - often researchers do this by citing statistics on the prevalence or significance of their given problem (see example below from a paper I recently published)

 *****Domestic violence is a major risk factor in women*****s physical and psychological health. For example, one third of U.S. women murdered each year are killed during domestic disputes and domestic violence is a leading cause of intentional injuries among women treated in emergency medical departments (U.S. Dept. of Justice, 1998). While research on the psychological impact of domestic violence has been hampered by restricted samples and limited measures of distress (Zlotnick, Kohn, Peterson, & Pearlstein, 1998), reviews of the available literature still suggest that victims are at high risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and other psychological difficulties (Golding, 1999; Holtzworth-Munroe, Smutzler, & Sandin, 1997; Jones, Hughes, & Unterstaller, 2001). Domestic abuse also is an exceedingly prevalent problem for women. One quarter of the women in a recently completed national survey reported prior victimization by an intimate partner (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000).*****

 Near the end of the intro you should clearly state your research question and note your hypotheses, or what you expect to find. Make sure that your earlier literature review clearly supports the hypotheses you offer

 Please note that scientific papers rarely use quotes - be prepared to paraphrase the work of other scientists and reference them accordingly. For example here is the original statement from an article I wrote followed by how I might paraphrase and cite it:

 ORIGINAL WORK: *****In the present study, we found that victims from higher SES areas (i.e., Census blocks) were more likely to seek services than women living in lower SES areas of our city. Our findings suggest that even when provided at low or no cost, many victims still do not access DV services. While not directly assessed in our study, problems of transportation, child-care, and time away from work are all plausible explanations for this economic difference in utilization. Additionally, economically disadvantaged women may be more restricted in the range of counseling/ supportive services they can access (i.e., free services vs. private pay services).*****

 PARAPHRASE: *****In a recent study Henning and Klesges (2000) found that female domestic violence victims from lower economic backgrounds were less likely to access community services, suggesting that common challenges faced by the poor (e.g., lack of child care and transportation) may act as barriers to seeking help.*****

3. Methods

 The methodology section is where you give exacting details on how your study will be conducted

 A well-written method section is like a blueprint - if someone unfamiliar with your topic can read your methods and immediately conduct the study on their own without asking you any questions then you have done a good job

 Subsections in the methods are used to describe your: subjects/participants, the measures you used, and any procedures that were necessary for conducting the study

 Make sure that you think about reliability and validity when designing your measures

4. Methodology Review

 Although this section is not generally a separate component of a research article, we include it here to assess your ability to recognize the strengths and limitations of your design

 Briefly document the major strengths and weaknesses of your study and try to justify why the current design is still useful for collecting information on this topic

 Study designs that have major limitations are acceptable as long as you recognize this and articulate a good reason for still carrying out your study using the *****flawed***** approach (e.g., time constraints, ethical considerations, costs)

5. References

 You should have a separate reference page that provides citations for all of the sources you used in your document

 Do not list a reference here unless you cite it directly in the text of the report

 Once again, careful adherence to APA citation style is critical for full credit

6. Appendix (recommended)

 In designing your study you will likely need to create some sort of a survey, observational rating scale, or data coding sheet

 Provide a copy of your survey/scale in the appendix

 Make sure that the items on your scale (e.g., variables) are well designed (i.e., attention to reliability and validity) and capable of providing data that answers your research question

 If you are using a survey it should be professionally formatted and ready to deliver to possible subjects

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