Assignment: YOUTH, CRIME, AND SOCIETY RESEARCH PAPER INSTRUCTIONS
Focus and purpose of the research paper:
When studying juvenile justice in American Society even superficially (let alone critically) one of the most apparent and concerning facts is that minority youth from certain economic and sociocultural backgrounds are more likely to become entangled in the system of juvenile justice. Once detected and arrested, these youth are also more likely to make it farther into the system, and to receive more formal and punitive sanctions than their counterparts.
The purpose if this research paper is two fold. First, it is to write a research paper on the issue of why and howminority status and sociocultural backgroundis related to different outcomes in terms of delinquency for youth (for example, are there racial or sociodemographic difference in terms of who is involved with the juvenile system of justice and why? Are youth who come from impoverished, broken-down, or less educated backgrounds more likely to be involved with the system of justice, or to be arrested or incarcerated, and why). In other words, write a paper in which you gather empirical evidence to describe how and why minority youth, or youth with diverse sociodemographic backgrounds are disproportionately represented/involved with the juvenile justice system and delinquency.
The second purpose is to learn and apply discipline-specific skills in formal and informal writing (the publication manual directly applies here). It is expected that you will apply what you learned in the publication manual (e.g. how to cite properly), and what you have learned about juvenile justice, delinquency, etc.
Be sure to review the following sections/pages on your textbook before you begin to research articles and work on your paper:
Disproportionate Minority Contact, pg. 26-27
Race and family factors, pg. 113-114
Minority offenders, pg. 184-185
Reduce racial disparity, pg. 402
Disproportionate minority contact, pg. 407-408
Note that these sections provide several sources that you could use as starting points for your research paper. The section on DMC on page 26, for example, cites Huizinga et al. 2007. You can go to google scholar or another scholarly search engine, research this publication, and other similar ones, review them and use them for your paper. Also, simply going to google scholar or other similar search engines and typing something like ‘disproportionate involvement of youth in delinquency' will serve as a starting point.
As a general guideline, you should have at least 2 in-text citations per paragraph. Your text should only be minimally cited if at all. Almost all citations should come from other academic sources. Your paper should be written in 12point font, Times New Roman, double-spaced, with standard one-inch margins. It is very highly recommended to seek help from the writing center or someone with exceptional writing abilities to help you in this writing process.
The research paper format and timeline:
1. List of the articles that will be tentatively used for your paper, due before October 28th
Start gathering this list of academic sources right away. **The point here is not just to find the sources, but to briefly review them so that you can become familiar with the content and use it later in your paper. In your submission, it is best if you add a very short summary of what each article contains or how it will contribute to your paper. Note that this is not a final list and that you are not limited to only using these sources. You will more than likely search for and use more sources as you are putting the paper together.
2. Introduction and outline:
The introduction should be about 1.5 pages. The purpose here is to briefly introduce the topic by presenting evidence (I expect to see plenty of stats here) from the literature to show the reader that the problem is worthy of concern (e.g. How serious is the problem? How common is the problem? Who is being affected? What makes this issue ‘an issue' in terms of resources, ethics, morals, or values such as equality or justice? And so on).Be sure to include information on how this issue is a problem at several stages in the juvenile justice process, from detection, to arrest, to adjudication, to different levels and forms of treatment, etc. It is advised to reference the journal articles you are reviewing as examples of how researchers introduce their topics and use them as a general guide.You should also include at least a sentence or two to summarize every section or topic that will be contained in your paper.
Do not be deceived by the length requirement, this is perhaps the most challenging section of the paper. You are not only introducing the topic and providing supporting evidence, but also summarizing what the rest of the paper will contain.
The outlineshould be around 1 to 2 pages. The more detail you add here, the better the plan or ‘roadmap' for the body of your paper. The outline should be divided by subtopics/sections, and you should add a sentence or two to describe what will be contained in that particular section. You also should list what resources you will use in that particular section (e.g. list the name of the publication or the author name and publication year). Again, a great guideline is to take a look at how journal articles are divided by different topics or subsections.
Here is a list of some of the subtopics/sections that your paper could contain (most of these are suggestions).
• (Required Section) Theories that aim to explain the over representation of minority youth in terms of criminal justice outcomes
• (Required Section) Disparities in the different areas of criminal processing, from arrest, to pretrial detention, conviction, sentencing, and ultimately incarceration and forms of punishment. You should have touched on this on your intro, but you need to expand much more on this section.
• Social/contextual conditions contributing to disparities-poverty, lower levels of education, broken down families and communities, etc.
• Heightened law enforcement and criminal justice enforcement in general on certain types of crimes-these are typically more visible, street crimes committed by minority youth, or certain types of places (e.g. inner city ghettos)
• Differential involvement vs. differential selection
• Discrimination or racial bias (whether implicit or explicit, intentional or not)
3. Literature review/body of paper:
The purpose of the literature review is to summarize the available literature on the topic. Remember to organize this review with appropriate subheadings to help you organize this information (e.g. the list above). Your literature review should be approximately 8 pages.
4. Summary of findings/discussion/conclusion and bibliography (due by November 25th ). **Be sure to submit the full draft of the paper at this time-intro, and literature review included:
This section should summarize the findings briefly. More importantly, this is the place where you can include your own critical thinking, opinion, and everything else you have learned in the course to discuss the implications of what you have found on the literature regarding the role of diversity and minority status on disproportionate criminal justice contact. This section should be about 2 pages.
The bibliographyis the section where you cite the sources used to write the paper. Refer to the publication manual for guidance.
5. Polished draft
This last version should include all the changes I have suggested on my feedback, and be proofread several times for content, grammar, style, etc. **Be sure to use what you have learned from the publication manual on this process.
General guidelines to consider:
Grammar / Tone
1. Do not write in the first person. Do not write "I think" or "I conclude" or "My opinion is" etc. The essay should be impersonal. Similarly, never write ‘Our next move must be' or ‘We must' to refer to something that must be done in the world or by a government (in particular, do not refer to the US government as ‘we').
2. Do not write ‘you' either to make something impersonal or as if you are writing a letter to the professor. E.g. Do not write ‘If you understand this theory, you can prevent crime' or suchlike.
3. Do not use slang.
4. Do not use abbreviations such as aren't and don't - spell them out (i.e. are not, do not).
5. Research papers should have a formal tone like a journal article rather than a chatty tone like a newspaper or an informal letter.
6. Be sure to write whole sentences rather than fragments of sentences. 12. Make sure that your grammar and syntax are correct.
7. If the piece of work is an essay, do not write a list of bullet-points.
Content / Substance
8. Quality (rather than quantity) is the key to getting a good grade. A quality research paper makes sound arguments that are supported by research findings.
9. Always start with a detailed outline before you begin writing your paper. This outline is your "roadmap" and should break the paper down into substantive sections to keep you "on track" as you write. Continually refer back to this outline to be sure all of the substantive issues have been covered in the paper in a coherent, logical manner.
10. The goal of a research paper is to integrate research findings (or in some cases entire bodies of literature) in a unique and thoughtful manner. With this in mind, be sure that you have at least one thesis statement, or central argument that the paper is structured around. Some research papers will have several propositions or theses, but all research papers must have at least one.
11. It is not appropriate to simply offer opinions or assertions unsupported by research. Express arguments based on logic, or conclusions based upon evidence, with references as appropriate.
12. In research papers, use subheadings to differentiate sections of your paper. These subheadings should be titled according to the content of the material included in that section. Sections of the paper should be differentiated based on substantive changes in the content / arguments of the paper. Use scholarly journal articles as a guide to writing in this format.
13. A research paper should begin with an introduction, sometimes titled "Introduction" in longer papers. It is short and gives an overview of the essay.
14. For longer essays, if a section of the essay reviews the literature, you might want to use the subtitle "Literature Review." If the entire paper is primarily a literature review, you should put appropriate subtitles on different sections of the literature.
15. A research paper often has a section titled "Discussion/Conclusion," which restates the central thesis of the paper and summarizes the arguments made within the paper. ?This section also often speculates on policy implications and suggests areas ?for future research. This section provides the finishing touch on your research paper and is your last opportunity to make an impression on the reader.
Editing
16. Before submitting your research paper, read it through, and pretend that you are somebody else - read it through their eyes. Then, clarify those sentences that made sense to you earlier but which may be less clear in meaning to someone else.
17. Use a spellchecker.
18. Have someone else read through your essay to make comments on both substance and presentation/grammar. Then read through your essay again.
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
1. The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also Include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.