Research Proposal on Drug War at Southern Border and American Policy (Research Paper Sample)

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Research Proposal on Drug War at Southern Border and American Policy
Introduction
Drug war is both a historic and contemporary problem worldwide. Globally, different countries have various problems ranging from poverty to war. However, one thing that most countries have in common is the drug trafficking trade industry which is a global black market. The United States of America is one of those countries that has encountered drug trafficking problem with its southern neighbor, Mexico since early 20th century (Andreas, pg. 58). The U.S. Mexico border has been traveled by drug traffickers for over 10 decades, and as each year passes their shipments of drugs keep getting larger. The growth of drug trafficking has prospered since the beginning of the 1900s and only grew stronger when issues of drug cartels, high rate of corruption, and increased crime rate were all thrown into the mix (Keck, et al., pg. 47). Several laws have been passed including the draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws to control the rising of drug trafficking in America. The United States passed several anti-drug laws to control their use. Such acts included the anti-cocaine laws of the early 1900s, the anti-opium laws in the 1870s, and the anti-marijuana laws among others to control the use and drug trafficking in the country.
Literature Review
The history of illegal drug trade along the U.S. Mexico border dates back to before the twentieth century. In the past, drug organizations in Mexico were predominately involved in cultivating marijuana and opium – a precursor to heroin. Over the past decade, however, Mexican drug organizations secured a prominent position in the cocaine market that was formerly dominated by Colombian drug cartels, and opened the doors for Mexican groups to dominate the drug trafficking market. In the late 1980s, Mexican traffickers were middlemen for the Colombian cartels (Andreas, pg. 64). Traffickers would receive shipments of cocaine in northern Mexico, smuggle the drugs across the border, and leave stashes in specified locations where Colombian distributers would retrieve the cocaine and transport it to destinations across the U.S. In 1989, traffickers who were annoyed at delinquent service payments from Colombian suppliers retained shipments of cocaine in extortion until payments were made (Keck, et al., pg. 48).
During the same year, in a stroke of good fortune for U.S. law enforcement, a massive stockpile of these shipments amounting to over forty thousand pounds of cocaine was discovered in an industrial warehouse in the vicinity of Los Angeles, California (Andreas, pg. 68). This pivotal event forced the hand of the Colombian drug barons and led to a business arrangement that presently gives the Mexican traffickers as much as half of all the cocaine that they transport.
Throughout the course of history, the issues that cause the drug trafficking problem along the U.S. Mexico border are the dominant drug cartels who have obtained control of the drug trade industry, created violence and withstood attempts of elimination. Another factor is corruption in both the United States and Mexico authorities; this has threatened the law enforcement field as a whole (Keck, et al., pg. 48). Drug traffickers have also managed to disguise themselves to get by NAFTA to deliver drugs to America the easiest way possible, by truck. This problem has left its mark on history and will continue to increase until the United States and Mexico, along with the rest of the world, can come together and create a solution that will end this immensely profitable industry.
The first and probably most difficult move should be finding a way to undermine the drug cartels since capturing and punishing personnel has not made any impact. The next task would be reshaping law enforcement officials, so that loyalty to their country and neighboring ones overpowers money and other materialistic items (Andreas, pg. 70). Another action is to make amendments to NAFTA by allowing it to keep its roots of free trade, but learning how to tighten up the border. In order to reduce drug trafficking, it may also take a lot of money and a significant amount of time. This is a global problem and cannot be fixed overnight, but over time, progress can be made to stop this multimillion dollar market if we work together.
Research Methodology and Data Collection
Research Design
This research will be a culmination of both qualitative and quantitative approach in what will be called the mixed method design. In this regard, the methods of data collection will also exhibit the two research methodologies (Keck, et al., pg. 49). Some of the data will also borrow those from empirical evidence. To begin with, the research will first identify the focus groups. The groups will form the cluster samples from where interviews will be conducted. Here, the study will chiefly target the prisons in Maryland and Virginia (Puyana, et al., pg. 313). Of interest to the overall study are the black American prisoners. They will form the initial cohort of the focus groups.
Research Participants
During the research study, the groups of the Participants will include the convicted prisoners with drug trafficking related cases in Maryland and Virginia. The participants will also include those from the juvenile prisons in these cities (Keck, et al., pg. 53). The age limit for the participants will be open for purposes of proper inclusion criteria. The gender will also be another factor of consideration among the participants. The prisons to be visited during the actual research will include both male and female prisons (Finekenauer, et al.,). Additionally, the race comparison among the prisoners will also be included in this study for comparison purposes. The research will interest in establishing the reason behind the more numbers of black prisoners convicted of drugs abuse than the whites. In this regard, the research will only consider the participants who have been jailed for drug abuse cases.
The other group of participants will be the government officials from the criminal justice system. Of interest will be two judges from each district amounting to four judges. For the research to accurately answer the research questions and meet the objectives, the sample size should be verifiable and free from bias (Andreas, pg. 72). This implies that there will be the need for a relatively large sample size from across the prisons in Maryland and Virginia. Maryland has many correctional institutions which will help in easy data collection.
Data Collection
The primary method of data collection in this research will be individual interviews from the focus groups (Keck, et al., pg. 58). Considering the ethical research code of conduct, the participants will be protected such that no information or data from the participants will be shared without their consent. The interviews will be conducted in both federal and state prisons in Maryland and Virginia. The discussion will be structured to factor in all aspect which will lead the research to the answers.
Additionally, the existing data from the databases such as those from the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, the Baltimore City Detention Centre, the data from the US Sentencing Commission and data from Bureau of Justice Statistics will all be utilized in a comparative manner to get the research answers and help in achieving the aim of the research. The participants in this research will respond to some oral questions.
Data Analysis
The main methods of data analysis will include the use of comparative tables and charts. The statistical tools for this section will be SPSS and Basic Excel Spreadsheets. The data obtained will be compared to the data from the existing databases to determine whether the incarceration rates in Maryland have increased or decreased (Finekenauer, et al.,). Moreover, the analysis will compare the rates in the past decade from 2008 to the present research (Keck, et al., pg. 64). Use of bar graphs and charts will be heavily employed by use of simple excel and SPSS software.
Most of their approach is racial even though the menace is eating into the fabric of the society regardless of race or ethnic g