Analysis and Application Exercise

Write a 3 – 4 page paper that responds to the following scenario:
The illegal immigration issue is one of the most complex and emotionally-charged social justice issues facing the United States. Most people you know

have an opinion on the topic ranging in scope and substance.
In your capacity as a criminologist, you have been asked by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to perform a study on illegal

immigrants.
INS wants you to provide ideas as to the manner in which a researcher could conduct a valid study in the United States related to immigrants’ fear of

crime and lack of confidence in their local police department.
The issue at hand is to develop a study that would have a valid sample size. You are to offer an opinion as to the particulars of the potential

study. Your paper should:
1. Identify probability and non-probability sampling designs, providing examples for each;
2. Analyze these methods, distinguishing which approach (or approaches) and design (or designs) would be appropriate for this particular study;
3. Develop a sampling strategy, discussing where to conduct the study to maximize the chances of obtaining a representative sample of illegal

immigrants; and,
4. Discuss how the sample would be selected to ensure enough participants to produce reliable data.
They have asked that you read Chapter 7 from Voices from the Field, pages 141 – 159 in order to better understand the attempts made by others in

studying this particular issue. The objective here is not to try to replicate (or summarize) Vander Ven’s study, but to learn from his approach and

apply some of his methods to the INS research on illegal immigrants. His study highlights some of the difficulties in gaining access to particular

populations, and your response to INS should include a discussion of the best sampling strategy to sample a sufficiently large number of illegal

immigrants. Support your arguments with references to the Vander Ven study, your textbook, and outside resources.