Economics of crime

4 a. The I will select for my research study is about how legalization of marijuana can impact on crime. This is of interest to thepeople in that it has raised controversy and mixed feelings among different people since some view the move as good while others have a negative view. The advocates of legalization of marijuana argue that it has some medicinal value and effective in curing some diseases. However, those against the legalization of marijuana argue that it can fuel crime in the society. There are some people who believe that even though marijuana can be used for medication, legalizing it is not a viable solution since it can be abused by other bad elements in society. This can lead to more crimes.
b. I will include the following articles in my literature review section.
Soros, G. (2010). “ Why I Support Legal Marijuana: We should invest in effective education rather than ineffective arrest and incarceration.” Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from: http://www. wsj. com/articles/SB10001424052702303467004575574450703567656
Svrakic, D. M. (2012). Legalization, Decriminalization & Medicinal Use of Cannabis: A Scientific and Public Health Perspective. Missouri Medicine 90 109: 2. Retrieved from: http://www. msma. org/docs/communications/momed/Medicinal_Use_Cannabis. pdf
American Academy of Pediatrics (2004). “ Legalization of Marijuana: Potential Impact on Youths. Pediatr 113. 1825-1826. Doi.
Morris R. G., TenEyck M., Barnes J. C., Kovandzic TV (2014) The Effect of Medical Marijuana Laws on Crime: Evidence from State Panel Data, 1990-2006. PLoS ONE 9(3): e92816. doi: 10. 1371/journal. pone. 0092816. Retrieved from: http://journals. plos. org/plosone/article? id= 10. 1371/journal. pone. 0092816
New York Times (2015). “ Marijuana and Medical Marijuana.” Retrieved from: http://topics. nytimes. com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/m/marijuana/index. html

c. I will focus on the following hypotheses: Legalizing marijuana leads to improved healthcare.
Marijuana use fuels crime rate in communities.
d. Both qualitative and quantitative data would be required for conducting this particular research. Qualitative data will involve the views of the people towards this topical subject. Interviews can be conducted in order to obtain first hand information about the perceptions of different people pertaining to the use of marijuana in different circumstances. Secondary sources such as published literature including peer reviewed journals would be used for this particular task. Newspapers containing information related to the topic would also be used. Official data from different organizations and governmental departments related to this subject area would also be used for the purposes of conducting this research. Quantitative data can be obtained through the use of questionnaires in order to establish the number of the people who support the idea of legalizing marijuana and those against it. The number of selected participants will represent the whole population.
e. The likely difficulties to be encountered in conducting this research include the following: Accessing data from similar researches since it seems that this topic is still new given that so far there are very few states that have considered the option of legalizing marijuana. The other constraint likely to be encountered is related to inadequacy of financial resources to gather all data necessary to this study. Time factor may also impact on this particular research given that it may not be possible to gather all the necessary information within the time frame set for conducting the study.