Interviews and Surveys With Women Offenders Who

¶ … interviews and surveys with women offenders who are inmates in the Baylor Correctional Institution form the foundation of this discussion of data analysis and report writing. The revised research questions accentuate the need for a greater balance of qualitative and quantitative research to ensure as complete and accurate a research methodology is executed. The first phase of the study concentrates on a more thorough analysis of the qualitative factors that influence the outcomes of every research question. The second phased concentrates on the use of attitudinal scaling at the interval or ratio level of measurement so that multidimensional scaling (MDS) can be used to define perception- and attitudinal-based maps of how and why trigger events lead to lapses on drug tolerance. The use of MDS techniques to determine the relative level of self-awareness and attitudes towards specific treatment strategies is commonplace in social science, and often provides insights into interrelationships not typically seen in two-dimensional analysis (Schwartz, Cieciuch, Vecchione, et.al. 2012).

Data Analysis and Writing

The first phase of the modified research methodology concentrates on collecting qualitative data and will help to provide greater context to the revised three research questions. This contextual data will be very valuable for determining how the respondents (who are women offenders) see the material aspects of their lives and roles relative to those roles and needs that are interrelated to the trigger events that lead to relapse. Intermingling roles that are specific to the respondent in conjunction with attitudinal data provides insights into specific situational and lifestyle-based events that would otherwise often be missed (Robbins, Martin, Surratt, 2009). The qualitative data will be summarized in a variety of different formats, including the creation and continual fine-tuning of personas or aggregations of respondents. These personas will serve to succinctly communicate the overall findings of the study in a more personalized and focused way. The personas will also be invaluable in mapping the gradual improvement of offenders over time, as the research methodology is replicated to capture longitudinal effects of treatment programs. There is a dearth of studies to this point on the longitudinal aspects of treatment programs from an attitudinal or perceptual-based approach to defining success criterion for treatment (Robbins, Martin, Surratt, 2009). The proposed study begins with qualitative data that is also used for defining the specific series of decisions that lead to relapses of drug use being rationalized by women who have previously served sentences at the Baylor Correctional Institution. The objective of this phase of the research and the form the data will take will be for fully defining the experiential and ethnographic aspects of the offender's lifestyles, with specific focus on which events and attributes are triggers that lead to drug relapse. The combining of qualitative data with ethnographic will also provide a greater level of insight into which factors, decisions or relational aspects of offender's relationships create a fertile environment for a relapse (Robbins, Martin, Surratt, 2009).

The presentation and comparison of data will also be predicated on the continual series ethnographic analyses and comparisons with comparable previous studies that provide insights into how perceived roles affect relapses into drug use. While this area of research is nascent, there continues to be interest in how role-based clarity vs. ambiguity affects the decision-making process of repeat drug offenders (Beck, 2006). The greater the role-based identification and solidarity to expectations of a given series of responsibilities, either real or perceived the greater the resilience to the need for approval and tacit use of drugs, leading to a relapse. Qualitative, ethnographic data will be used for determining the social map and decision points that avert or lead to relapse.

The second phase of the research will center on the attitudinal surveys that will generate interval- and ratio-level data to be used in MDS-based analysis. This data will be analyzed both in tabular and in graphical formats, with a specific focus on how the advanced statistical techniques of cluster analysis and MDS perceptual mapping provide greater insights (Schwartz, Cieciuch, Vecchione, et.al. 2012) into which social factors trigger a relapse. The quantitative data will also be used for defining a longitudinal index of values that will be shared across the academic community with researchers evaluating the impact and saliency of role definitions and role clarity on the overall resiliency of offenders from relapse-based trigger events and sequences.