Police brutality with mentally ill suspects is common with police officers throughout the United States of America. It is, therefore, imperative to investigate the allegations against the police officers’ maltreatment of citizens who are mentally ill. The police chief has a responsibility to improve the police relations with citizens of the United States. This, therefore, calls for qualitative methods to be applied into the research so as to get the clear picture of what happens inside and outside the police station to determine what kind of training will be introduced. The policemen responsible for handling such cases will be observed discreetly as they work so that they may not change their treatment towards the mentally ill suspects. However, this kind of method raises some ethical concerns. First, the research team will use deception to gain access to observation that they may not have accessed because the police do not know that they are the actual subjects of the research. Second, the research study could generate distrust to the participants such that future research on the subject would be difficult to obtain information or cooperation of the participants. Finally, the police did not agree to be studied at their work stations. Therefore, no consent was obtained for this exercise (Kothari, 2005).The hypothesis for the observation method would be: mentally ill suspects maltreatment by police decreases the quality of services. The independent and dependent variables respectively would be the police treatment and quality of services.

Sampling and limitations for validity and reliability

The sampling procedure that will be used is the convenience sampling. This is because not all the police within the station deal with the mentally ill suspects and, therefore, those who deal directly with the suspects are better placed to guide the research team into collecting adequate information. Another purpose for this is that the matter requires prompt action and, therefore, the sampling is fast and reliable for such a case. Limitations regarding validity and reliability of the study will include determining if the instrument used in the research will be accepted by the panelists who are going to fund the training. Second, would be determining if the results be valid such that the research can be replicated by other researchers and give the same results. Third, the research team is to determine the conclusions obtained after the study will match the reality on the ground ((Kothari, 2005).

Question 2: Criminology theories

A theory is an abstract statement which explains why certain things happen. Criminology has been theorized alluding that there are differently underlying causes of crime.

Rational choice theory

According to Siegel (2007) the proponents of the rational choice theory believe that violators carefully plan activities and avoid detection by the authorities. The planning suggests that the decision to commit crime is designed to maximize personal gain and avoid punishment. During the Middle Ages, those who violated social norms were believed to be witches and were not rational. The punishment was burning at the stake but with time the jurisdiction of central governments broadened their mandate to deal with social conflicts. In the eighteenth century, social philosophers began to embrace the view that human behavior was, as a result, of rationality. People chose to act after weighing costs and benefits. They believed that they would experience pleasure or reduction of pain, as a result, of their actions. Cesare Beccaria called for fair punishment because he believed that people were self-centered and must be motivated by fear of punishment (Siegel, 2007). This theory does not explain why criminals are not perturbed by the severity of punishment when they are apprehended as they continue to commit the crime even when they know what is at stake. Despite this, it has been observed that most of those that committed the crime in the rational theory have reasons as to why they did. For instance the case of street robbery, most of the robbers needed money for hospital, food et cetera. One method of preventing crime is employing the situational crime prevention concept which dictates that planners must be aware of the aspects of sites that are risk to crime. They must know the advantage of illegal opportunities are offered by these sites and prevent crime. Another way is to reduce opportunities for criminal activity through establishing curfew laws to decrease opportunities young people have to engage in antisocial behavior (Siegel, 2007).