The death penalty and crime rates in states that allow death penalty

Since the purpose of the study involves quantitative aspects of death sentence cases and the crime rates, the study adopts an explanatory approach. As a result, there is need to measure the occurrence rate of crimes subject to the death penalty in states that practice it. The research is to investigate the prevalence of crime in states that allow the death penalty. The crux of the study is to establish whether the crime levels are high or low compared to states that do not allow the death penalty. The hypotheses of the study include the following: • The states that allow death penalty have a higher rate of criminal cases • The death penalty inhibits criminal activities in the states that allow the death penalty.

The data obtained shall be evaluated only to include those who ended at the courts, and where judgments were issued. Ethical issues in the study Ethics has been defined differently by different authors. However, the crux of ethics is streamlining a process to given set standards. Yin (256) describes ethics as encompassing a method, or procedure or perspective governing decision making about acting and presenting a set of problem. Ethics help in discerning acceptable and nonacceptable practices during research (Cooper and Pamela, 2006). , 2007) The study adopts a positivism research philosophy to investigate the crime rates and the death penalty in these states that allow it. Cooper and Pamela (2006) describe positivism philosophy as an empirical investigation based on a unitary source of knowledge, Lewis (303) argues that positivism adopts a logical, quantitative, and objective methods to test hypothetically-deductive conclusions.

Since the study is a quantitative study, positivism would be helpful in objective results from the study as it seeks facts and subsequently establish relationships between the variable, death penalty cases and crimes rates. The research approach can be inductive or deductive. Deductive method is based on the conceptualization of a hypothesis and subsequent development of the strategy to test it. The survey strategies use the opinions of a given sample of the population to respond to given questionnaire that answers the anticipated variables in the study. The case study strategy assesses a particular situation and its impact to conclude variables under investigation (Saunders, 2011). The study adopts a survey method to obtain data since it is a study of a relationship which relies on the ideas of the criminal investigators, the criminals, as well as the public.

The questionnaire is distributed to obtain data for the study. Threats to internal/external validity There are threats to both the internal and external validity likely to influence the outcome of the research. The five scale Likert Scale was used on the opinions of the general public, inmates, criminal investigators and the jurists. Data collected is classified, tabulated and analyzed and interpretations done using tools such as the Regression analysis, T-test, One Way ANOVA, tables and diagrams. The data analysis is done using the SPSS 17. 0 software. Validity and reliability Reliability is the ability of data collection instruments to give consistent results.  Business research methods. Vol. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2006. Ives, Angela, et al. "Pregnancy after breast cancer: population-based study. , Robert Bogdan, and Marjorie DeVault.