Impacts of European Convention on Human Rights on Prisoners' Right to Vote

This research proposal aims to evaluate the impacts of the European Convention on Human Rights on the right to vote of prisoners. The proposal includes a literature review on the concept of ECHR, reasons for not allowing prisoners to vote, and its impacts on prisoners' voting rights. The research methodology includes an inductive research design, qualitative research method, primary data collection, probability sampling, and thematic data analysis. Practical constraints and ethical considerations are also discussed.

Research proposal on
criminology

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Background of topic:....................................................................................................................3
Aim:.............................................................................................................................................4
Objectives:...................................................................................................................................4
Research Questions:.....................................................................................................................4
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................4
THEME 1: Understanding the concept of European Convention on Human Rights..................4
THEME 2: Reasons for not allowing the prisoners to vote.........................................................5
THEME 3: The impacts of the European Convention on Human Rights on the prisoners right
to vote...........................................................................................................................................5
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.....................................................................................................5
Research Design: ........................................................................................................................5
Research Method:........................................................................................................................6
Data Collection:...........................................................................................................................6
Sampling:.....................................................................................................................................6
Data Analysis:..............................................................................................................................7
Practical constraints in the research study:..................................................................................7
Ethical and safety considerations:................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Background of topic:
The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) has been made for protecting the
human rights of the people in the countries which belongs to the Europe Council. The main aim
of the convention is to determine the general interest, issues of the public policy and by this
raising of the standards for the protection of the human rights (Godfrey, 2019). Prisoners always
enjoys all the fundamental rights as well as the freedom which has been secured by the
convention, except for the right to the liberty where the lawful falls expressly within the scope of
the convention.

Aim:
To ascertain the impacts due to the European Convention on human rights on the right to vote of
prisoners'.
Objectives:
 To understand the concept of European Convention on Human Rights.
 To determine the reasons of not allowing the prisoners to vote.
 To evaluate the impacts of the European Convention on Human Rights on the prisoners
right to vote.
Research Questions:
 What is the European Convention on Human Rights?
 What are the reasons for not allowing the prisoners to vote?
 How the European Convention on Human rights has impact on the right to vote of
prisoners.
LITERATURE REVIEW
THEME 1: Understanding the concept of European Convention on Human Rights.
According to Cameron, 2018, European Convention on Human rights is the system which
has been made for the protection of the human rights of the people or the citizens of the countries
which belongs to the Europe Council. This convention was signed by the around 47 countries
including UK. The full title of this convention is the Convention for the Protection Of Human
Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. This author has stated that main rights which are been
protected by the family life, the home, the private life as well as the correspondence of the
individual. This convention was opened in the Rome for the signature in the year 1950 on 4
November and it came into the force in the year 1953 on 3 September.
Heselhaus and Hemsley, 2019, explained the European convention on Human Rights and
stated that many countries are there who did not signed this European Convention as the Russia
is the country who has signed the convention but did not ratify. This human right convention was
created to protect the rights of the large number of the people of the Europe as this was the treaty
which was designed for the protection of the human rights of the people as well as their basic
freedoms.

THEME 2: Reasons for not allowing the prisoners to vote.
Cumper, P. and Lewis, T., 2019, states that the right to vote is much important for every
individual whether it is criminal as well. As right to vote is the set without discrimination and
this provides that the every individual has the right of taking the part in the country's
government. The person is disqualified ans not allowed to give votes as the individual who is
engaged in the activities such as the unsound minds, being the prisoner for committing the
criminal offence. There is the right to vote for every individual to participate in the political
process of country and it is the guaranteed rights for them. They are not allowed to give the votes
because these people are given the punishments for doing inappropriate activities which indicates
they do not have any way to protect the society.
Theuns, T., 2019, has stated that the criminals or the prisoners are not allowed to vote as
they do not have any aim or mind of keeping the society, so they are not allowed to vote. In other
many countries, the prisoners are disqualified from the voting rights. It is very risky to provide
the opportunity for the prisoners of giving votes and harming others. The prisoners lose their
right for the voting and actively take part in the political process.
THEME 3: The impacts of the European Convention on Human Rights on the prisoners right to
vote.
Celiksoy, E., 2020, according to this, there are many judgements which has been
executed for the voting rights by the European Convention on Human Rights. On 6 October, the
first case of the Hirst and the United Kingdom then the ECtHR has ruled that the prisoners can't
vote as they have banned for serving the prisoners from voting and taking part in the political
process. The person or the individual in the Singapore is also disqualified, and they are not able
to vote as they are engaged in the criminal activities. The European Court of Human Rights has
held that the automatic ban and the blanket on the right to vote for the prisoners, and they by this
they are not allowed to vote as this was the impacts of the European Court of Human rights on
the voting rights of the prisoners.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design:
Research design can be referred to as the framework of the research methods and the
techniques of the market which are selected by the researcher. The types of the research design
will help the researcher to enable them to utilize the methods which are much appropriate for the

research study. There are three types of the research design such as the inductive, deductive as
well as the abductive research approach (Fofana, Bazeley and Regnault, 2020). The research
design which will be used in this topic is the inductive approach as this is much close to the
context and supports the generation of the new theories.
Research Method:
Research method can be defined as the particular procedures for the collection and the
analysation of the data. These are the strategies or the techniques which is utilized by the
researcher for the collection of the data in order to better understand the topic. There are two
types of the research methods such as the qualitative research and the quantitative research.
Qualitative research can be defined as the process of gathering the data by the live experience of
the people or taking the observations of the participants for analysing the outcomes of the
research study conducted. The quantitative research is the process of collecting the data and then
analysing the numerical figures or the data. The qualitative research method will be used in this
research study as this will help in taking the accurate as well as the reliable information for the
research of the topic.
Data Collection:
Data collection can be defined as the process of gathering as well as measuring the
information on the variables of the interest or on the particular topic. Basically this is the process
which involves collecting, measuring as well as analysing the accurate data for the research
study on the relevant topic. There are two types of the data collection method such as the primary
and the secondary method of data collection. Primary research method can be described as the
process of gathering the information through conducting the surveys, interviews, as this method
of the research is collected personally. Secondary data collection method is the process of
collecting the data which has been already taken before and it is used again for the research study
(Jowett, 2020). The primary data collection method will be used for this research study as this
will help in collecting the relevant data, has high accuracy and helps in gathering or collecting
the updated information.
Sampling:
Sampling is the process of selecting the subset of the population for the gathering the
accurate information of the research study. The main purpose of sampling is to provide the wide
range of statistical information of the qualitative as well as for the quantitative research method.

The sampling is of two types that is probability sampling and the non probability sampling.
Probability sampling can be defined as the process of selecting the samples from the population
and this selection is the random selection. The non probability sampling refers to the type of the
sampling method in which the selection of the units from the population is done through the
process of using the subjective or the non-random method. This research study will use the
probability sampling method as this will help in avoiding the errors, higher reliability of the
research findings, higher accuracy of the sampling as well as it is cost effective. The sample size
of the population for this research study will be 30 citizens of Singapore for collecting the
information regarding the voting rights of the prisoners. In contrast to this, the non probability is
the method of sampling which has the disadvantage that there is no equal chance of getting
selected.
Data Analysis:
Data Analysis is considered as much crucial element of the research study. This helps the
researcher in summarizing the data which have been collected as well it involves the
interpretation of the data which has been gathered. This is basically the process of collecting,
modelling as well as analysing the data for extracting the outcomes for the research study. There
are two types of the data analysis such as the statistical and the thematic analysis of the data. The
statistical analysis can be defined as the science of collecting, presenting as well as exploring the
large number of the data for analysing (Harding, 2018). The thematic data analysis is the method
of analysing the qualitative data for the getting the positive outcome of the research study at the
last. The thematic data analysis method will be used in this research study as this will enable to
identify the themes and the patterns of the important data.
Practical constraints in the research study:
Some limitations which was faced while doing this research study are the issues related to
the samples of the research as well as the selection of the sample from the population. The most
the biggest limitations which can be faced is the time constraints and it is much expensive and
time-consuming. This research requires the prior information of the particular topic as well as the
market research skills for the getting the best results by the research study (Adalsteinsson and
et.al., 2021). Cost is the major constraints of the primary research method because taking the
surveys will lead to cost much for the consumers. The researcher having the lack of knowledge
and experience may face the issues and this will lead to poor research study of the topic. There

are many practical constraints of this research study as this will create the challenge for the
researcher while doing the study of the specific topic.
The primary research may not always feasible as it becomes very difficult for the
carrying out surveys for the large number of the people. As attracting the large number of the
customers for taking part in the survey is very challenging.
Ethical and safety considerations:
Ethical considerations in the research study is refers to the set of principles which guides
the research designs as well as the practices. These principles are such as the voluntary
participation, informed consent, anonymity, confidentiality, potential for harm as well as the
result communication. While doing this research study, the research participant will be respected,
full consent will be taken by the participant before involve them in the surveys as well as the
privacy of the participants will be fully ensured (Pucken and et.al., 2021).
The ethical considerations are much important in the research study because this provides
the ethical norms for promoting the aims of the research study. The research study will take care
of the adequate level of the confidentiality of the data which will be gathered, the exaggerations
of the aims and the objectives will be avoided, the communication of the results will be provided
by ensuring about the honesty and the transparency. This research study will avoid any type of
the misleading information as well as representation of the biased data will be avoided.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Adalsteinsson, J.A.,and et.al., 2021. Limitations in the literature regarding Mohs surgery and
staged excision for melanoma: a critical review of quality and data reporting. Journal of
the American Academy of Dermatology.
Cameron, I., 2018. An introduction to the European convention on human rights. Iustus förlag.
Cumper, P. and Lewis, T., 2019. Blanket Bans, Subsidiarity, and the Procedural Turn of the
European Court Of Human Rights. International & Comparative Law Quarterly, 68(3),
pp.611-638.
Fofana, F., Bazeley, P. and Regnault, A., 2020. Applying a mixed methods design to test
saturation for qualitative data in health outcomes research. PloS one, 15(6), p.e0234898.
Godfrey, N.B., 2019. Suffragist Prisoners and the Importance of Protecting Prisoner Protests.
Akron L. Rev., 53, p.279.
Harding, J., 2018. Qualitative data analysis: From start to finish. Sage.
Heselhaus, S. and Hemsley, R., 2019. Human dignity and the European convention on human
rights. In Handbook of human dignity in Europe (pp. 969-992). Springer, Cham.
Jowett, A., 2020. Carrying out qualitative research under lockdown-practical and ethical
considerations. Impact of social sciences blog.
Pucken, V.B., and et.al., 2021. Antimicrobial consumption: Comparison of three different data
collection methods. Preventive veterinary medicine, 186, p.105221.
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