Gender Differences On he Road to Redemption

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The Academic Research-Article Critique paper
Introduction
The journal article “Gender Differences on the Road to Redemption” is part of redemption research concerned with assessing the length of time it takes for an offender to be considered as “redeemed” from his/her crimes. This state of redemption means that it is when an offender can be comparable to a non-offender, also noting that the one who had already committed a crime has an equal risk level as to someone who has not done any criminal act. This article by Gina Curcio, April Pattavina, and William Fisher aims to determine whether gender differences influence the years to redemption and whether the number of years that is provided in previous research will be identical with the study. In addition to this, the article also aims to explore the different factors involved to reach the redemption point. The results of this research study are highly applicable to the formation of policies and regulations involved in the employment process, which may lead to the dismissal of using criminal records as one of the bases in an employment application.
The data set used in the research study is from the ongoing compilation from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics that was actually for the collection of information regarding the notable life events and labor market activities of certain groups of people, both males, and females. The age group of the people included in the data collection ranges from 12 to 16 years old during the first interview session, reaching up to 27 to 31 years old at the time of the latest available interview session on the data set. Most of the independent variables in the study are those factors that were included in previous redemption research. These include significant life milestones, education level, and the presence of previous arrests.
The study used an analytic approach to handling the data set available. The split sample analyses were used to determine the relationship between the independent variables and their influence on gender. The survival analysis was used in modeling time to arrest or rearrest. The discrete survival model was also used in the study for the hazard probabilities throughout the years that the study is being assessed. In all these approaches, a separate examination was done to compare males and females, on top of the general analyses conducted as a whole. Given the stated goals of the research concerning the factors that influence the number of years that it takes to reach the point of redemption, the logistic regression analysis is utilized to identify the various predictive factors and traits of those individuals in the data set that is able to reach redemption without experiencing an arrest. However, it should be noted that this analysis was used on those participants who already had a prior arrest recorded at baseline, so the variable that is observed is particularly whether a rearrest will happen among those participants before reaching the goal of redemption.
The results of the study reveal that females take fewer years in reaching the said point of redemption in comparison to their male counterparts. The numeric value stated in the research study is that males reach the point of redemption after 10 years of remaining arrest-free, while it takes only 4 years for females who have a previous history of crime to reach redemption. Other factors involved in having fewer chances of achieving redemption are the following: those who have two or more arrests, males, those law offenders who were younger at the time of the first arrest, and those who did not finish high school or do not have a high school diploma. The information can be applied to different aspects of achieving that point of redemption, that may seem minor but have a huge impact on criminology and policy-making, such as environmental stressors, educational attainment, employment opportunities, and child custody.
Body
The title of the journal article, “Gender Differences on the Road to Redemption” clearly indicates the important subject matter of the research which is redemption, and the associated influence of gender difference to achieving this. This already enables the audience to have a picture of the expected subject and idea of the paper. The goals of the research study are accurately stated and align with the goals mentioned in the introduction part of the paper. The goals of the paper are to add to the current research available concerning redemption, determine whether gender differences influence the length of years that it takes for an individual to reach the point of redemption, and the discovery of other factors that may influence the journey towards this point. A good point in this part of the paper is also informing the audience about the policy implications that will be discussed in the latter part of the research paper.
Prior to reviewing the different parts of the research paper, an important aspect that is important to take note of is that the authors of this paper did not receive any monetary support for conducting this research. This strengthens the study because it removes the possibility of outside factors related to financial support that may have influenced the conclusion and the research topic as a whole.
The introduction provides an overview of the study. It also educates about the risk of recidivism in a long-term perspective, which is already a research topic in the studies under criminology. The motivation behind this research topic was also stated in the introduction which further emphasizes the need and importance of this paper. A motivation behind redemption studies that were mentioned in this part of the paper was the impact of having criminal records on an individual’s employment opportunities. This already limits an individual affecting livelihood and other aspects such as socioeconomic status, mental health, social wellbeing, etc. which further promotes the importance of policies that concern this topic. Focusing on gender differences is also a good consideration due to the fact that criminals or law offenders are not solely males. The authors were able to provide useful information that will emphasize the strength and the necessity of this specific research study, especially because of the major part that will discuss gender difference in relation to redemption which provides a new perspective and point of study in comparison to the previous research papers available.
The analysis of data by dividing it into males and females is a unique approach that is a strength of this research work. Gender is not used as a control variable but as a factor that highly influences the different variables in the study. This is done in addition to the general analysis of the results, which truly aligns with the goals of the study mentioned in the first parts of the paper. When focusing on gender differences, it is important to have a sufficient number of participants that are representative of the population that is being studied in the research. The study despite having a large number of participants has an issue with the decreased number of female law offenders in comparison to males. This may be a weakness of the study because it will decrease the available information that may be obtained by observing the behavioral trend of the female participants as well.
The data set that was used in the study is an appropriate choice because it provides a long-term observation that will enable the researchers to identify important key points and variables such as important life milestones, educational attainment, number of rearrest, etc. The large sample size specifically 8,984 young individuals ranging from 12 to 16 years of age is an advantage to the study because the results of the study will be more accurate and can be applicable to a generalized population. But it should be emphasized that the age group may also pose some limitations due to the presence of criminals that are from other age groups or generations. In the process of analyzing results, the variability of data was addressed by having a baseline for both the male and female offenders. The data that were taken are appropriate with the analyses used. The use of survival analysis is another good point in the methods of the study because it provides an edge over other possible options by determining whether an arrest or rearrest has happen...