Youth Research, Inc.
RES/351

Youth Research, Inc.
In January of 2010, Tampa Bay Online published an article stating that Youth Research, Inc. had defrauded federal regulators in the company’s safety testing reports. The article claimed that Youth Research, Inc. had been hired by various lighter manufacturers between 1994 and 2005 to conduct child safety tests on the lighters (Silvestrini, 2010).
The Consumer Products Safety Commission noticed inconsistencies on reports submitted by Youth Research, Inc. on testing of lighters’ safety features. The reports submitted by the company used the same children with different dates of birth, genders and schools listed in different studies conducted by the company. The article further …show more content…

Ms. Forcade was also ordered to pay a ten thousand dollar fine. Two contractors who conducted tests for Youth Research were sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay a three thousand dollar fine each. One of the contractors was also sentenced to three months home confinement. Another contractor was sentenced to twenty-one months in prison and two years of supervised release for her contributions to the unethical research (2011 Press Release). The Consumer Products Safety Commission has proven in this instance that their department is highly effective. Workers in the commission were first to notice the inconsistencies in submitted reports, including names that had been misspelled and forged consent forms, and quickly acted to ensure the lighters were retested and met commission standards. The Consumer Products Safety Commission referred their findings to the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Consumer Protection Litigation and allowed the judicial system bring the law breakers to justice (2011 Press Release). One can only assume that Youth Research’s unethical research practices were born out of laziness. Youth Research found it was easier to fabricate testers or alter current testers’ information to submit with reports rather than find testers that met the Consumers Products Safety Commission’s standards. Youth Research’s unethical research practices were far-reaching in their victimization of lighter