Lewis, Provine, Varsanyi, and Decker (2012) aimed at determining the reasons underlying the disparity in police involvement towards enforcement of national immigration laws. This article adopts the approach of a research study, but the methodology, which, usually, is the gist of any research process is lacking in various aspects. The reader is left to make his or her inferences regarding the nature of the research design (McNabb, 2010). The validity and reliability the research instruments are not guaranteed. However, the study is representative of the study population because it utilized a census approach of sampling. In addition, the response rate of 52.4% seems acceptable based on various reports from different research studies (Carley-Baxter et al., 2009). The research moves from developing some concepts regarding the possible influential factors for the disparity in police involvement in enforcement of federal immigration laws to drawing conclusions using the structural equation model (SEM). This study was a comparative study; hence, the researchers should have used a comparative approach to indicate the factors that promote police involvement, and those which do not, based on two study groups. The article has supported its findings with previous findings to show congruence and incongruence with previous studies. The study also acknowledges its limitation, which is necessary for future researches and delimitation of the study scope. Hence, future researches with better research methods should be used to verify the conclusions drawn by Lewis et al. (2012). Immigrant-supportive city policy commitments, racial disparity of the police chief, and unreformed local government were indicated as the influential factors for variation in the level of police involvement towards reinforcing federal immigration laws.
In comparison to the article by Lewis et al. (2012), this article has a clear theory that is used as the basis for argument. As an article that also seeks to understand the policing practices in reference to immigrants, Lewis and Ramakrishnan (2007) demonstrate that police practices are autonomous of the cities’ stipulations and endorsements that define treatment towards immigrant residents. This study was part of a larger study, but the current article fails to give adequate reference details of the wider study. The research location is categorically highlighted, but generalization of results to other countries is not guaranteed. Nonetheless, findings can be used to form a basis for understanding the situation of other countries. This study has exhaustively discussed its findings by integrating previous studies and local reports. However, there is need to use more indicators when investigating the application of policing practices on immigrants (CALEA, 2010). One cannot rely on language only to indicate positive police integration practices towards the immigrants. After reading the article, one can depict incongruence between the title and the article itself due to the sole focus of language as a police practice. This article aims at investigating police practices at the local level. Hence, the literature reviewed should have largely focused on the research objectives and addressing gaps that the current study seeks to fill in comparison with previous studies, but this was not the case (The University of Queensland, 2015). The authors should have used up-to-date research publications and reports. The manner in which the survey was conducted does not meet the required methodological protocols of a standard research study (McNabb, 2010). It is not clear how the use of both survey questionnaires and case studies would be augmented to meet the research objectives.
References
CALEA. (2010). Measuring the performance of law enforcement agencies. Web.
Carley-Baxter, L., Hill, C., Roe, D., Twiddy, S., Baxter, R., & Ruppenkamp, J. (2009). Does response rate matter? Journal editors use of survey quality measures in manuscript publication decisions. Survey Practice, 2(7). Web.
Lewis. P., Provine, D., Varsanyi, M., & Decker, S. (2012). Why do (some) city police departments enforce federal immigration law? Political, demographic, and organizational influences on local choices. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. Web.
Lewis, P., & Ramakrishnan, S. (2007). Police practices in immigrant-destination cities: Political control or bureaucratic professionalism? Urban Affairs Review, 47(6), 874-900.
McNabb, D. (2010). Research Methods for Political Science: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches (2nd ed.). New York: Taylor & Francis.
The University of Queensland. (2015). Goals of literature reviews. Web.