Anatomy of a Research Proposal

This assignment requires you to write a proposal that states your research question and your research strategy for addressing it. As mentioned throughout your previous assignments you may draw upon each one to help you build your proposal.

Research Question Topic: Attached

The research proposal must be between 8-10 pages in length not including title page or references.

Additional Instructions in attachments.

Anatomy of a Research Proposal

Your proposal should have the following sections:

Introduction:
The introduction is where you identify your specific research question and where you set the general context for the study. In this section you need to include: Comment by N Drum: This should flow as a narrative. You should not have a bunch of subheading here calling out “Purpose statement” and the like. It should be clear from your writing what you are talking about and why its relevant. Make sure your discussion flows logically.

· a statement of the problem or general research question and context leading to a clear statement of the specific research question;

· background and contextual material justifying why this case or topic should be studied; and

· a purpose statement.

Literature Review:
This short preliminary literature review section reviews the literature important to your specific research question. The literature review focuses on discussing how other researchers have addressed the same or similar research questions. It introduces the study and places it in larger context that includes a discussion of why it is important to study this case. It provides the current state of accumulated knowledge as it relates to your specific research question. In this section you should: Comment by N Drum: In your assignment for this course you were asked to do a literature review specific to a substantive theory. You should NOT cut and paste that paper into this section. Instead here you should be synthesizing the literature specific to what we already know about the topic you’d like to assess. What studies have already been carried out here that inform the development of your research question but just don’t go far enough?In the literature review section is also where you will discuss your substantive theory. In terms of organization you can do this first and then get into the studies that have already been carried out or last, each proposal is different so you need to feel this out for yourself and what makes sense for your research topic. You should be synthesizing the literature around your substantive theory. Here you might be able to further synthesize (condense) what you already wrote for your assignment 4.

· Summarize the general state of the literature (cumulative knowledge base) on the specific research question. For example if you discuss other studies that have been conducted you would summarize the researcher’s findings, how those findings were obtained, and conduct an evaluation of biases in the findings.

· This section should provide a broad overview of the primary arguments related to the topic and organizes the general views on the main aspects of the topic by theme, which could be the prevailing arguments or schools of thought, or commonly held beliefs that your particular topic may challenge.

· Include a short conclusion and transition to the next section.

· For some additional information on how to organize your theoretical framework into your paper, check out this

USC Library guide on Theoretical Frameworks

.

In your literature review you should also discuss the theoretical framework to be used in the study.  You should ensure you cover the following in your discussion: 

· a summary of the theory or model to be used in the study, including a diagram of the model if appropriate;

· comment on the kinds of questions this theory has been used to answer in the past and why it is appropriate to use in this proposed study

· To really drive this home you want to end your literature review with a discussion of the current knowledge gaps. This is an opportunity to once again promote the importance of your own research. How will your research fit within this larger body of knowledge? What are you doing differently?  What gaps will your research fill?

From here you would then include a transition into your methodology section.

NOTE: Literature reviews can be a bit tricky to write.  Think back to how you wrote your short theory lit review in week 4.  Chances are you already started to write in a style similar to what one does when completing a literature review.  Check out

this video

(the same one you were guided to in week 4) to help you further prepare to write this section of your proposal.  This will not be the last time that you are asked to write a literature review in your academic career so its important to master this skill.

Research Design and Methods:
Describes how you will answer your research question or test the hypothesis. This section describes your overall research design and how you plan to collect, synthesize, and interpret your data. It should include: Comment by N Drum: This section should be to the research design and methods you plan to use for your proposed study. This proposal needs to be something that is realistic that you yourself can carry out on your own (not with a team of researchers, or with a ton of money). Think about a project that you can complete in 8 to 16 weeks. This should be a proposal for a research paper that you could present (once the project has been completed) to a professional conference, or as your MA thesis.

· identification and operationalization (measurement) of variables;

· a sampling plan (i.e., study population and sampling procedures, if appropriate);

· justification of case studies used;

· data collection/sources (secondary literature, archives, interviews, surveys, etc.);

· a summary of analysis procedures (pattern-matching, etc.); and

· the limitations of study and bias discussion.

Conclusion:
Reemphasizes the importance of your study and ties the proposal together.

Reference List
: As with all academic papers you need to references the works that you have cited (direct quotes or paraphrases) in the text of your document and incorporate a complete reference list or bibliography at the end. This list needs to be in the style used within your field. APA= Criminal Justice, Turabian for all others in this course. Comment by N Drum: The only references that should appear on this list are the ones you actually reference in the body of the paper. This is the rule across all papers unless your professor says otherwise. At the grad level papers the merit of papers often comes from the body of work that informs them so you really want to pack these in and show off your knowledge of the literature.

Remember that the references you use demonstrate your knowledge of the topic area.  This research proposal is meant to convince your professor that you not only have identified a worthy question in need of investigation, but that you are also capable of carrying out the research involved to successfully answer that question.  At the very least you should have referenced 12-15 peer-reviewed sources in this proposal.

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Cyber Sex Crimes against Children

Introduction

Cyber child sexual abuse and sexual exploitation are IT on online networks to perpetrate sexual crimes against children. United Nations defines sexual abuse against children as interactions or connections between a younger child and a more knowledgeable or older person, whether a stranger, a sibling, a friend, or a guardian. The child is used as an object to fulfill the sexual desires of that person. These connections and interactions are conducted by bribing, tricking, forcing, threatening, deceiving, or pressuring a child. Perpetrators of cyber sexual crimes attempt to abuse or abuse children by exploiting their vulnerability, trust, or differential power for sexual drives in exchange for money, gifts, sexual gratification, and other benefits. The New York Times (2020) noted that technology companies reported more than 45 million pictures and videos sent to children. These findings indicate that online networks are accelerating the rate of sex crimes against minors, with law enforcement agencies failing to contain their distribution. While estimates show an alarming trend, the effect of cybersex crimes can be measured in four methods: counting the number of perpetrators, offenses committed, images and videos distributed and downloaded, and the number of children affected. However, Akinola (2017) notes that each of the four measures produces varying figures since sex crime can take the form of sexual abuse or sexual exploitation. However, adequate research has not been conducted to identify the reasons behind the rise of cyber-related sex crimes against minors. This lack of understanding of reasons makes it problematic to design measures and policies to protect children from being victimized, my online sex crime perpetrators. This study’s significance is that it will increase the understanding of how parents, caregivers, teachers, and responsible child protection authorities can protect children from becoming victims of cybersex crimes and how they can prevent the efforts of sex offenders from succeeding. Forming a better foundation of preventive measures will lay a foundation for children to be saved from cybersex exploitation and fulfill their lifetime dreams and ambitions of life.

Problem statement

The large size of the internet and the significant number of online applications and platforms provide a means for sexual abusers to hide from authority. Because of the large volume of information being shared online, the traditional investigative methods of preventing child sexual abuse fail to capture every form of sexual abuse. Giachritsis et al. (2020) noted that the ease of sending friend requests, downloading online sexual images, and trading sexual content is increasing sexual exploitation cases targeting children. The images are also becoming more violent and compelling than in the past years. Parents are also contributing to the current problems by giving children more freedom over the time they spend online and the type of mobile devices they are using to go online. The availability of high-quality cameras and high-performing phones increases the speed of accessing sexual images and interacting with potential online offenders. Besides, tracing online data cannot be done manually because of the large workforce required to perform that task. This means that only technological solutions and preventive measures can prevent cases from rising exponentially. Technologies that can use artificial intelligence to shorten the time it takes to identify online perpetrators of sexual abuse are yet to be fully deployed and tested. Parents may also not be aware of what their children are doing or experiencing on social media. Most online platforms do not have the capabilities to filter content according to age or remove unacceptable content from child exposure. Exposing sexual content to children can have devastating consequences on academic performance, social and moral life, religious beliefs, psychological development, and future relationships. Exposing children to sexual content can increase their sex demand, thereby increasing the rate of early pregnancy. It can also negatively impact child sexuality, especially when exposed to sexual content from early developmental ages. Cyberspace is particularly influential and can impact social interactions. Children exposed to inappropriate content in cyberspace may exhibit behaviors that are not acceptable in the offline world. Children act and say things that they learn from older individuals, even from people they interact with within cyberspace. People in cyberspace can also interpret situations differently and make children misinterpret reality. Opportunities to distribute sexualized content can occur in multiple venues, including messaging and chat rooms, online games, emails, adverts, and ads. Some abusers are willing to travel and conduct sex trafficking or meet children they have successfully convinced online. A multifaceted approach is needed to combat cybersex crimes against children. These include law enforcement, increasing awareness, and enacting policies and regulations.

Purpose statement

The reasons behind the increase in sexual crime against children have not been explicitly uncovered. This research aims to fill this gap by identifying the reasons behind the rise of sexual abuse and exploitation cases affecting children. This research will explore how online time could potentially impact sexual abuse and sexual exploitation. It will also investigate the impact of exposing children to sexual abuse on children’s education, sexuality, social life, psychological development, and early childhood pregnancy. Based on online time, this research will also identify the number of sessions that contact-driven offenders have before meeting the child victim.

On the other hand, the research will pinpoint the sessions that solicitation offenders have before exposing their child partners to sexual content. This will help determine how reducing online time can help mitigate the speed with which online sex offenders tend to arrange meetups or arrange conversations meant to activate the children victims sexually. It will also help navigate the policy approach and parental interventions needed to prevent online exposure or increase online offenders’ identification by the responsible authorities. The online time will take into account when most conversations begin, the frequency of contact, and the duration of chat sessions.

Hypothesis

Reducing online time will result in the reduction of the number of children exposed to cybersex crimes. Forming a better foundation of preventive measures will lay a foundation for children to be saved from cybersex exploitation and fulfill their lifetime dreams and ambitions of life. This means that successful offenses will be inversely proportional to online time. Additionally, this study’s findings will increase children’s academic performance, decrease sexual immoralities in society, reduce under-age pregnancies, and increase the achievement of lifetime dreams and aspirations. It will also maximize the success of policies designed to mitigate cybersex crimes and expose perpetrators of sexual injustices in cyberspace. The study is designed to increase the understanding of how parents, caregivers, teachers, and responsible child protection authorities can protect children from becoming victims of cybersex crimes and prevent the efforts of sex offenders from succeeding. Parents will know how to limit online time among their children, what advice they can give, and what type of devices and online sites they should avoid giving their children.

References

Abimbola-Akinola, D. A. (2017). The Cyber Crime and Internet and Internet Sexual Exploitation of Children.

Hamilton-Giachritsis, C., Hanson, E., Whittle, H., Alves-Costa, F., Pintos, A., Metcalf, T., & Beech, A. (2020). Technology-assisted child sexual abuse: Professionals’ perceptions of risk and impact on children and young people. Child Abuse & Neglect, 104651.

New York Cyber Sex Crimes. (n.d.). 1800Nynylaw.Com. Retrieved December 14, 2020, from

https://criminaldefense.1800nynylaw.com/new-york-cyber-sex-crimes.html

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Introduction

The cyber-world is a hotspot for crimes against children. Perpetrators hide behind anonymous or different identities when performing criminal acts against children. This creates a small shield that children, parents, and even law enforcement find hard to decipher in identifying the perpetrators. Crime against children on online platforms has mutated into crimes like pornography (where the children are the subject), unwanted solicitation for pictures or sexual contact, bullying and harassment, and unwanted exposure to sexually explicit material (Hunt, et al., 2020). Over the past two decades, there have been various empirical research, surveys, significant studies, and reports evaluating internet crimes against children. This research content highlights the frequency of illegal use of internet services to harass children and the perpetrators’ and victims’ patterns. Included in the literature review are the various roles parents, educators, and law enforcement play in mitigating sex crimes against children on the internet. This research proposal will highlight such research conducted over the years on the risk factors and incidence of children and youth exposure to sexual content on the internet. The specific research question for this study is “How has incumbent technology impacted cybersex crimes against minors? Intrinsic assessment of the literature review has extrapolated the researcher to identify various research questions to guide this study. What has led to the worsening of cyber sexual abuse against children? How does online time potentially impact sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children? What is the impact of children exposed to sexual abuse? i.e., on children’s sexuality, social life, psychological development, education, and early childhood pregnancy. Which are the effective mitigation strategies applied by law enforcement, parents, and educators to deal with online sex crimes against children? These research questions will ensure this study stays on the scope and provides a logical flow for this research. The researcher aims to articulate coherent research that will fill current research gaps on cybersex crimes against children and provide future study recommendations.

Literature Review

This literature review is arranged chronologically based on the mutated online crimes against children, i.e., pornography (where the children are the subject), unwanted solicitation for pictures or sexual contact, bullying and harassment, and unwanted exposure sexually explicit material.

Harassment

Researchers Chaffin and Stacy (2008) conducted online research on online sexual harassment. The study was focused on adolescent peers and online peer sexual harassment. Online sexual peer harassment is witnessed among teenage peers’ use of texts, social networking sites, personal websites, polling websites, e-mail, instant messaging, cell phones, etc. to spread sexual rumors and sexual harassment propaganda. The researchers identify that school management should take care of offline sexual harassment among peers and online peer sexual harassment. The researchers identify the drastic impacts of online peer sexual harassment by citing cases of children who have committed suicide upon being sexually harassed by their peers. Chaffin determines court precedence, i.e., Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, to indicate that school administration has the right to punish students for harmful speech. The researcher identifies that online sexual harassment among children should not be protected as free speech under the first amendment. Hence, schools should regulate online peer discussions and punish students who engage in their peers’ online sexual harassment.

Unwanted Sexual Solicitation

Dombrowski et al., (2008) articulate the psychoeducational and technological mechanisms applied by guardians to protect their children from sexual solicitation and online pornography. With the enhanced technological advancement of chat rooms, gadgets, e-mail, and social networking services, children can easily and readily access online sexual content. This is given minimal caregiver/guardian supervision of their online activities. Most of the caregivers/parents provide their children with gadgets like phones and PC to access such platforms exposing their children to the risk of sexual content at an early age. The researcher identifies that caregivers can deter sexual solicitation and children’s access to online pornography using software tools like firewalls, spyware detection and removal, antivirus protection, wireless encryption, and tracking of their online activities.

Additionally, caregivers can discuss internet dangers, establish internet-use safety contracts with their children, monitor internet use, and supervise their children’s internet friendships. This will help improve and safeguard their children’s emotional health. The research in his article discusses the user of caregiver vigilance and technological options to protect children against unwanted sexual solicitation.

Child pornography

Bourke et al., (2009) conducted a study to identify whether individuals who accessed child pornography material were sex offenders whose crimes have gone undetected or whether such individuals were at risk of committing sexual crimes on children. The researchers involved two phases in their study. The first study analyzed the criminal sexual history of offenders who were undergoing a treatment program. The second study examined offenders who acknowledged they had committed at least one sex crime against a child once they completed treatment. From this research, the authors identified that offenders who have used the internet to access child pornography were more likely to commit a contact crime. The conclusion from this research is that their population of offenders could very likely be child molesters.

Exposure to sexually explicit material

Sabina et al., (2008), conducts research to identify child exposure to explicit content like pornography. The researcher articulates online survey results involving a questionnaire to sample college students on their exposure to online pornography. The online survey compared the reports of female and male students. 62.1% of female students and 72.8% of male students indicated they had accessed pornographic and other sexually explicit content before 18. 42.3% of female participants said they had never looked for pornography online on purpose, while 6.8% of male participants identified they had never looked for pornography. Several participants indicated that exposure to pornography at a young age had significantly affected their emotions and attitudes on sexuality. The researchers concluded that there were disparate responses and reactions to online pornography, and basing research on gender stereotypes may inhibit the comprehension of how youth and children respond to exposure.

Theoretical framework.

The selection of a theoretical framework for this study was based on identifying the best framework to elicit concepts on sexual offenses and child sexual abuse. The various theoretical frameworks identified include Marshall and Barbaree’s Integrated Theory, Thakker and Ward’s Integrated Theory of Sexual Reoffending, Ward and Beech’s Integrated Theory of Sexual Offending Finkelhor’s Precondition Model. The theoretical framework that best articulates the research on cybersex crimes against children is Finkelhor’s Precondition Model.

Finkelhor’s Precondition Model.

Finkelhor’s precondition model is a framework that accentuates child sexual abuse against children by male perpetrators. Finkelhor, (1984) identified four main components/theories that accentuate child sexual abuse, i.e., emotional congruence, sexual arousal to children, blockage, and disinhibition (Fido, et al., 2020).

Emotional congruence theories elaborate and relate to why children sexually arouse adults/offenders; blockage theories identify why other individuals inhibit their identity from having normal sexual relationships with older adults (Dangerfield, et al., 2020). Ideas on disinhibition articulate and process that sex offenders do not have conventional inhibitions against having sex with children. Finkelhor disagrees with traditional comprehension that these four theories are independent entities but identifies that they are interrelated and are complementary processes of one another.

Finkelhor identifies that the first three theories, i.e., emotional congruence, sexual arousal to children, and blockage, identify how individuals develop a sexual interest in children (Ward, et al., 2001). The fourth theory i.e., disinhibition, identifies how this sexual interest translates into actual behavior. Finkelhor’s Precondition Model is a combination of these four theories/categories. The Precondition Model also articulates out a classification scheme with the ability to guide treatment. Finkelhor articulates that the factors leading to sexual abuse can be grouped into four preconditions before the actual crime occurs i.e.,

1. 1.
The potent offender needs the motivation to abuse a child sexually

2. 2.
Offender overcomes internal inhibitions to act on that motivation.

3. 3.
Offender defeats external impediments to commit the sex crime on a child.

4. 4.
The offender has to overcome/undermine a child’s possible resistance to the sex crime.

Figure 1 below shows a graphical representation of Finkelhor’s Precondition Model and the various preconditions before an actual sexual abuse act on a child is committed.

Figure 1: Finkelhor Precondition Model

Finkelhor’s Precondition Model’s significance to this research is that it will help the researcher identify the reason for the worsening of cyber sexual abuse against children and the impact of childhood exposure to sexual abuse? i.e., on children’s sexuality, social life, psychological development, education, early childhood pregnancy, and the effective mitigation strategies applied by law enforcement, parents, and educators to deal with online sex crimes against children.

Research Design and Methods

This study includes assessing research materials and datasets composed of demographic, institutional, clinical, and empirical studies on criminal sex offenses to minors on online platforms between the years 2000-2020. The research strategy implemented in this research uses research questions that will guide the research design to be used. The research strategy will involve qualitative interviews to help understand the disparate research perspectives of this study. This section represents a coherent minimalist analysis of the research design, data collection procedures, and data analysis plan.

The study population for this research involves child sex offenders undergoing a treatment plan. The researcher will sample the study population from the target population of sex offenders undergoing a treatment program. The sampling strategy applied in selecting the appropriate study population is probability sampling (Kumar, 2018). Probability sampling will involve a random selection of participants to the research. Due to the limited budget, time, and scope of this research, the sample size will be small. The appropriate number of participants includes a maximum of 6 previous sex offenders and 4 clinicians managing the offenders undergoing the treatment program.

This research will adhere to the ethical considerations of conducting ethical research by considering aspects like participant consent, participant information privacy, storage, and usage of the information collected (Ngozwana, 2018). To ensure this research’s success, the research instruments will undergo a piloting assessment to ensure the data collection methods like interviews do not overstep certain bounds. Piloting will also provide the interview questions to procure the needed answers needed for answering the research questions.

The data collection procedures implemented in this research include interviews and participant observation (Mohajan, 2018). Qualitative research methodology in social sciences and related subjects. Journal of Economic Development, Environment, and People, 7(1), 23-48. The researcher will use semi-structured interviews for first-hand data collection. Participant observation will be used to observe the behavior of the study population for this study. Other data collection sources for this research include the use and analysis of journals, books, online sources, and other sources relevant to this research.

The data analysis technique to be applied in this research is the use of pattern matching. Pattern matching will help triangulate the concepts and answers to the research questions collected during the data collection process. This study’s limitations are the limited budget, workforce, and time to conduct mature research (Snyder, 2019). There are many research gaps and scant literature on cyber-sex crimes against children that still need analysis and definitive conclusions. Sample selection and identification is a research limitation. Identifying the appropriate sample size for the research is a limitation that could impact the statistical measurement for this research.

The purpose of this research is to identify what led the child sex offenders to commit their crimes. This will help align the investigation to the theoretical framework of the study. Coherent alignment and data analysis will allow the researcher to make definitive conclusions regarding the task.

Conclusion

Cybersex crimes have been exponentially increasing because of incumbent technologies and broader access to sexual content across the internet. The purpose of this study is to identify the reasons behind sexual abuse on children. Finkelhor’s Precondition Model will aid and align this research to meet the research objectives. Mitigating sex abuse against children is a vital aspect of today’s society. This will help improve children’s psychoeducational, emotional, sexual orientation, psychosocial, and psychological nature.

References

Bourke, Michael L., and Andres E. Hernandez (2009). The ‘Butner Study’ Redux: A Report of the Incidence of Hands-on Child Victimization by Child Pornography Offenders. Journal of Family Violence 24, no. 3 183–93.

Chaffin, Stacy M. (2008) The New Playground Bullies of Cyberspace: Online Peer Sexual Harassment. Howard Law Journal 51, no. 3 777–818.

Dangerfield, B., Ildeniz, G., & Ó Ciardha, C. (2020). Theories That Explain the Sexual Abuse of Children. The Wiley Handbook of What Works with Sexual Offenders: Contemporary Perspectives, Theory, Assessment, Treatment, and Prevention, 23-37.

Dombrowski, Stefan C., Karen L. Gischlar, and Theo Durst. (2007). Safeguarding Young People from Cyber Pornography and Cyber Sexual Predation: A Major Dilemma of the Internet. Child Abuse Review 16, no. 3 153–70

Fido, D., & Harper, C. A. (2020). Theories of Image-Based Sexual Abuse. In Non-consensual Image-based Sexual Offending (pp. 27-51). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Hunt, X., Tomlinson, M., Sikander, S., Skeen, S., Marlow, M., du Toit, S., & Eisner, M. (2020). Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and mHealth: The Frontiers of the Prevention of Violence Against Children. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, 3, 80.

Kumar, R. (2018). Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Sage.

Mohajan, H. K. (2018). Qualitative research methodology in social sciences and related subjects. Journal of Economic Development, Environment, and People, 7(1), 23-48.

Ngozwana, N. (2018). Ethical Dilemmas in Qualitative Research Methodology: Researcher’s Reflections. International Journal of Educational Methodology, 4(1), 19-28.

Sabina, Chiara, Janis Wolak, and David Finkelhor, (2008). Rapid Communication: The Nature and Dynamics of Internet Pornography Exposure for Youth. CyberPsychology and Behavior 11, no. 6 691–93.

Snyder, H. (2019). Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines. Journal of Business Research, 104, 333-339.

Ward, T., & Hudson, S. M. (2001). Finkelhor’s precondition model of child sexual abuse: A critique. Psychology, Crime & Law, 7(4), 291-307.