Observation:
There are more than 11,000 persons released from prisons and Drug Rehabilitation Centres in Singapore each year. A large percentage of them are sincere about turning over a new leaf, getting a decent job and leading a normal life. Yet, they are often faced with a social stigma imposed on them due to their criminal records.
This problem not only causes distress to the ex-offenders, but also to their family members. Besides the emotional and economical burden, they also have to deal with the social stigma of being related to an ex-convict.
It is true that there are rehabilitative and aftercare programmes to assist smoother re-integration of an ex-convict back into the society, but these will not be effective if there is no awareness and acceptance from the general public.
This problem not only causes distress to the ex-offenders, but also to their family members. Besides the emotional and economical burden, they also have to deal with the social stigma of being related to an ex-convict.
It is true that there are rehabilitative and aftercare programmes to assist smoother re-integration of an ex-convict back into the society, but these will not be effective if there is no awareness and acceptance from the general public.
After 4 years of launching the 'Yellow Ribbon Project', the same problems faced by these ex-offenders still exist. The level of acceptance may have increased but the bulk of the population still seem to look at these ex-offenders differently.
General Research Question:
Is there still social stigma by the general public towards ex-offenders after 4 years since the launch of the 'Yellow Ribbon Project'? If yes, what are the reasons?
Hypothesis:
There is still an appreciable level of social stigma by the general public towards ex-offenders in Singapore.
There is still an appreciable level of social stigma by the general public towards ex-offenders in Singapore.
Attitudinal Survey:
An attitudinal survey will form an important part of this study. A survey will have to be formulated to collect information about the level of acceptance by the general public towards the ex-offenders. Such information can only be more accurate when collected directly from the general public, hence a survey is required.
Objective of the Study:
The objective of this study is to analyse the existence of and reasons behind social stigma (should they exist) of ex-offenders by the general public.
Objective of the Report:
One objective of this report is to enable the Community Action for the Rehabilitation of Ex-Offenders (CARE) Network to review the effectiveness of their project and to bring forward information about the existence of and reasons behind the social stigma on ex-offenders by the general public to the Community Action for the Rehabilitation of Ex-Offenders (CARE) Network. This is so as to allow the CARE Network to improve on their existing efforts under the Yellow Ribbon Project, as well as to formulate new strategies to increase the acceptance of ex-offenders by the general public. This will aid to improve the lives of both the ex-offenders and their family members.
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5 comments:
Hello Jia Hwa! It 's really disappointing that despite all the efforts put in to remove the social stigma, some Singaporeans still remain so unforgiving towards ex offenders. Do you remember filling up job application forms and having to answer if you ever been convicted in a court of law? Sometimes I wonder what is the purpose of this question?
I believe your general research question is appropriate as it spells out exactly what we want to know. It is concise and straight forward and it is able to lead us on to find out more regarding the reasons for the existence of social stigma.
With regards to the feasibility of this study, I would say that it is definitely possible. The only difficulty I foresee would be gathering data from a sample size large enough to be representative of the whole population. As your research topic is targeted at Singaporeans' opinions as a whole, it is only fair if we survey a diverse group of people. It wouldn't be justifiable if we interview only the youngsters as younger generation might have different mindset compared to the older generations.
As such, the challenge would be choosing a diverse group of people, large enough to represent the general public's view. It would be time consuming and tedious to gather huge amount of responses too.
That aside, your study (if successful) would be able to increase people's awareness and eventually bring new life to the ex offenders! Two thumbs up for the good cause!
Cheers,
Edwin
Hi JiaHwa, I feel that this is a very meaningful topic to study on. I remember watching the show "One More Chance", made in conjunction with the Yellow Ribbon Project, which encourages the public and employers to provide a chance for rehabilitated ex-convicts. It shows the problems every ex-offenders would face, how they were treated and how desperately they desire for a second chance. I feel that the presence of social stigma not only poses problems to those ex-offenders and their families. It may cause problems to the society too. Ex-convicts often face job discrimination. In order to solve their economic problems, they may turn back to commit crimes.Therefore, it's important to increase awareness and acceptance among the community.
Survey can be done to understand how the public as individual or as a company feels about ex-offenders and "Yellow Ribbon Program". I feel that the research question is appropriate as it clearly questioned the level of discrimination that we have against the ex-offenders after so much is done and therefore determine the effectiveness of the "Yellow Ribbon Project".
Hi JiaHwa, I feel that this is a very meaningful topic to study on. I remember watching the show "One More Chance", made in conjunction with the Yellow Ribbon Project, which encourages the public and employers to provide a chance for rehabilitated ex-convicts. It showed the problems every ex-offender face, how they were treated and how desperately they desire for a second chance. I feel that the presence of social stigma not only poses problems to those ex-offenders and their families. It may cause problems to the society too. Ex-convicts often face job discrimination. In order to solve their economic problems, they may turn back to commit crimes. Therefore, it's important to increase awareness and acceptance among the community.
Survey can be done to understand how the public feels, as individual or as a company, about the ex-offenders and "Yellow Ribbon Program". The research question is also appropriate as it clearly questioned the level of discrimination that we have against the ex-offenders after so much is done and therefore determine the effectiveness of the "Yellow Ribbon Project".
Hi Jia Hwa, great job!
You might want to rephrase your hypothesis to make it grammatically sound. Also, re-order your clauses in the first sentence of the objective of your report and it will flow more logically because the purpose of the report is to present the information to CARE so that CARE can review the effectiveness of their programmes and not the other way round.
Very meaningful topic! Many people are not ignorant about the general living situations of the ex-offenders though living in the same community. If the research can be successfully done, it will definitely help create awareness of giving second chances to ex-offenders, and generate acceptance of ex-offenders and their families into the community. The research project will also inspire community action to support the rehabilitation and reintegration of ex-offenders into society.
The largest difficulty here is to collect a big sample size of the general opinions, and the question is how big the sample size is big enough to give a reliable statistic data. Apparently, we got to interview/survey on a diverse group of people in Singapore. This will create some difficulties in survey as well.
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