Saints and the Roughnecks

¶ … Saints The Roughnecks and the Saints: A Research Overview The essential problem that the researcher set out to address in this article was the perception of and reaction to delinquency amongst teenagers in a specific town. more specifically, the researcher ended up identifying a difference in the way teenage boys of different socioeconomic backgrounds were viewed by teachers, the police, and other community members in light of their delinquency, though it is not clear that the research understood this to be the central problem when the research was initiated.

As currently published, however, it is clear that the central identified problem is the lack of consistency with which rules and laws are applied, a lack of coherence in the perception of these boys based solely on their behavior, and a lack of equal treatment based on these self-reinforcing perceptions.

Research Questions Again, it is not clear that the author/researcher had clear or specific research questions in mind when the research was begun, and there is certainly no hypothesis stated that might help determine what these initial research questions might have been.

The general research questions that appear to have guided this research include, what types of behaviors that can be lassified as "delinquent" to these boys engage in? What is the degree or frequency of these delinquent behaviors? How are these behaviors viewed by the boys' teachers, police, and other community members? What effects do the delinquent behaviors and the community's reactions to these delinquent behaviors have on the individuals involved? Variables Because there was not a specific hypothesis given at the beginning of the research article, and due to a lack of concrete and explicitly defined research questions, the identification of variables in this study must likewise be made by the reader through inference and observation.

Socioeconomic status appeared to be a primary independent variable, as did the actual delinquent behaviors that the boys were involved in and the frequency of these acts. Dependent variables examined were the reactions of various community members to the delinquency these boys engaged in and the effects of these reactions on the boys themselves. Essentially, the research found that socioeconomic status -- the independent variable -- -influenced reactions to delinquency and in turn the effects on the boys' themselves of their own delinquent behaviors -- the dependent variables.

Research Design The research design makes the lack of a clearly stated hypothesis, research questions, and variables quite understandable. Taking an almost entirely descriptive approach that one might properly term an ethnography; the researcher apparently made no attempt to intervene in any actions and simply wrote down what was observed during times essentially "embedded" in these boys' social groups. Interviews with some teachers were apparently conducted, and it is not clear when in the research process these interviews occurred.

But otherwise the study remained more distanced and more descriptive than inquisitive. Conclusions Reached The ultimate conclusion reached by the researcher was that the socioeconomic status of the two groups of boys observed led to different views of their delinquency, including very different estimations of the levels of delinquency each group/individual within the group actually engaged in (despite similar levels of actual behavior existing in both groups).

This in turn led to different opinions of the boys' potentials, capabilities, and contributions to the community that resulted in self-reinforcing actins on behalf of those that.