Manchester University Library Trip

From the trip to Manchester, I found that the most useful thing was finding the online journals as I found very relevant ones for my topic. We learnt how to use the Manchester University Library which is going to be very useful for future research. I found that a key thing to do during my topic is to make sure I always keep my question at the forefront of my research and don’t go off topic. Also, I realised that I must think about where all my research has come from as not all can be trusted. I think the biggest challenge I will face is going through all the research I can find and picking out only relevant information, as my subject area is so broad, I must learn to narrow it down.

Useful Research Methods for my Topic

I have decided to change my project to focus solely on the British punishment system and whether it is effective in rehabilitating offenders.

Research methods I am going to use:

•  Interviews, person & email - In ordet to gain information from experts in the field
• Case Studies - So I can look at specific cases where offenders have been rehabilitated, or not
• Newspapers - I can investigate the effect of prisons on the UK economy and any cases in the news at the moment
• Websites - To access facts and figures, and also gain information on organisations
• Books - To learn about the British Penal system
• Media Programmes - If I found a relevant one, it can be up to date and therefore very useful
• Leading Organisations - Any organisations that work for penal reform, eg. Howard League

Initial Website Research

The Howard League for Penal Reform

http://www.howardleague.org/

Useful website for finding out what organisations like this one are campaigning for. Women, children, overcrowding in prisons, treatment and conditions.

Recent campaign promoting community sentences as a more effective alternative to prison:

http://www.howardleague.org/community-sentences-cut-crime/ 

Different social pressures, etc...

HM Prison Service
http://www.hmprisonservice.gov.uk/
Useful for background knowledge of how a prison operates, for example segregation unit, workshops...
PPO Prisons and Probation Ombudsman
Provides list of support groups for prisoners and families.
News article about young offender's rehabilitation:
http://www.hmprisonservice.gov.uk/news/index.asp?id=10248,22,6,22,0,0
Offers a different side than that of Howard League. Maybe could be biased towards the system as official government website.  

Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA) 1974
http://www.crb.homeoffice.gov.uk/about_crb/what_is_the_roa.aspx
Helps offenders who haven't reoffended within a specific amount of time after being released.
This could be useful in researching the legislation in place concerning rehabilitation.
Further research into this would need to be done.

Punishments in the UK
http://www.courtroomadvice.co.uk/punishment-rehabilitation.html
Good for learning about the different types of punsihments in the UK such as community punishment orders, fines, refferal orders and supervision orders
However, would need to do more reaserch to gain in depth knowledge.

The Economist Newspaper
http://www.economist.com/node/17312073?story_id=17312073
Brilliant article for learning facts and figures of reoffending and the impact it has on the rest of the country.
Short term inmates cost the prison service over £285m a year, about 60% of themn are reconvicted within a year.
The number of prisoners in England and Wales has almost doubled since 1993.
Community service produces lower reoffending rates than short-term sentences, 37% to 61%.
Justice secretary Ken Clarke proposing overhauling sentencing and rehabilitation in a green paper by last Christmas, so must research this.
Useful graph!!

(The full article is saved on my computer, with more of it highlighted than I have included here)



NEXT RESEARCH TOPIC AREAS: Rehabilitation (inc.ROA) and looking at case studies, methods of punishment in UK in detail, and look into Ken Clarke's green paper from last year.

The internet is going to be very useful towards my project. However, I have noticed that many websites either give too much detail or too little detail. I need to back up my findings from books in order to validate the information I am finding. However, in my initial research it has been extremely useful for statistics. A challenge I think I am going to face is that it is proving difficult to find information on punishments without focussing too much on prisons.

EPQ Presentation Evening

The Evening Itself... 

From listening to the EPQ presentations I have learnt that the research process goes way beyond the usual forms such as websites and books. I learnt that a good way of gaining information is emailing experts in the field or people who had done research into it; I think this would be extremely useful for me. The presentations were presented very professionally and they especially coped well with the questions they were asked, which I am very nervous about! I think the way of tackling this would be to have a broad spectrum of knowledge of the area, not just of the information on the actual presentation. They had a lot of information to get into their time, and therefore had to be concise. They were also very clear and confident in their delivery which is vital for a successful presentation.

Review of my Own Topic... 

From watching the presentations, I realise that I need a clear question to answer, not just a wide subject area. This makes me think that I should just focus on one country’s penal system and investigate the effect it has on offenders. I’ve decided to just look at Britain and focus more on the rehabilitation process our country has. Hopefully now I can research this topic more thoroughly and therefore be more confident when answering questions. I am also going to email experts and/or writers in my field as I think this would be very helpful.