RESEARCH PAPERS

1. Consumer fraud and immigrant consumers in US

2. Low income young fathers.

Description of research papers

1. Huge numbers of immigrants enter US daily. Because of lack of knowledge about their
new environment these immigrant are targets of consumer fraud. This research tries to
answer the question looks into t his problem in detail.

2. This research looks into the problem of young families that are living in poverty. In
many instances fathers stop playing a role in children’s lives. Young fathers are
interviewed about the context of their lives, connections with their children and
implications these have on their sense of self. The purpose of this was to see whether
young fathers are involved with their children or not.
Comparison

Sample/research technique

In the first research much of the data comes from law enforcement agencies.
Professionals such as policemen and lawyers are interviewed (experience survey) about
their experiences with the immigrants. Focus group and interviews of immigrants are also
conducted.

Analysis

The research findings prove that immigrants are subjected to all kinds of consumer fraud.
Usually immigrants are scared of going to the police because of risk of deportation hence
this provides many people to take advantage of the immigrants who are illegally residing
in US. Legal immigrants are targets of fraud because of their poor knowledge of US law.
For instance research finding concluded that land lords charge extra rent from immigrants
and telemarketers give false information to these people especially in their local language
such as Spanish.

Research concluded that public policy changes would minimize consumer fraud targeted
to immigrants. It was also advised that immigrants should also improve their knowledge
of English and US law.

Short comings

Nowhere in article does it say that the sample was random or not. Hence I am assuming
that personal judgment and non probability sampling was used. In my opinion this was
the wrong method. Also entire sample was taken from a small place in Georgia. Hence
the findings can not be generalized to all immigrants. Sample should have been random
and should have been taken from different areas in US.

Second research paper

Sample/research technique

In the second research a sample of 25 young men with low incomes was recruited from
maternity wards of hospital. The participants were interviewed initially and then a second
interview was taken after a year. Interview was tape recorded and later transcribed. The
young fathers were paid to give interviews.

Analysis

The interview concentrated on family background and its affect on fathers ability to
provide for their children. The findings concluded that young men do more than just
provide for their children. Those fathers that did not play a role in the upbringing of their
children mainly wanted to hide their inadequacy i.e men feel inadequate when they are
unable to provide for their family. The purpose of the second interview was to see how
many fathers still are playing a role in their children’s lives.

Short comings

In my opinion this research study has a severe sampling bias in it. The purpose of the
second interview was to see how many fathers still are playing a role in their children’s
lives. Fathers during the initial interview knew that at the end of the year they would be
called for another interview to see whether they played a role in their children’s life. This
could have promoted many fathers to take interest in their children’s lives.