Question

A sociologist wants to study a culture that occurs in some women’s prisons: "state families," in which individual prisoners take on certain roles within a group of like-minded prisoners. There is previous evidence that younger prisoners will use older inmates who play the roles of grandparents as a resource before they will turn to staff for help and advice. The lieutenant in charge of a dorm of long-term prisoners offers to gather volunteers to speak to the researcher and also offers to vouch for the integrity of the researcher. The use of this staff is:

a. A valid use of a statistical technique referred to "snowball sampling" wherein the inclusion of the first subject leads to the recruitment of another one subject.
b. A useful tactic in obtaining a sample of prisoners who both meet the criteria and who will be honest with the researcher.
c. Wrong and is prohibited; subject selection needs to be free from intervention by prison authorities or prisoners.
d. Acceptable only when the researcher’s IRB grants a special waiver.

Answer 1

c. Wrong and is prohibited; subject selection needs to be free from intervention by prison authorities or prisoners.

Step-by-step explanation:

c. Wrong and is prohibited; subject selection needs to be free from intervention by prison authorities or prisoners.

Since prisoners are vulnerable by their confinement, it is necessary that research with prisoners do not impose further restraints on voluntarism of their decisions.

The people carrying out the research must amplify the voluntarism of a prisoner’s agreement by minimizing the influence of other people,

especially workers or prisoners who may exercise random authority over these potential subjects.

Subject selection needs to be just within the population that potentially meets the study criteria.