You will be evaluating formal and informal policies throughout your career in Criminal Justice, whether you are working in policing, courts, corrections, or in some other capacity. Thus, each student in this class is expected to identify a criminal justice related policy that they are interested in and write a paper that:
- describes the policy and its historical development
- situates the policy within the existing criminal justice literature
- evaluates the policy's effectiveness and social implications
- offers defensible suggestions for making the existing policy better or for creating a new policy.
This paper will be broken up into 3 different assignments (see below), each of which will be graded independently and are worth 50 points each. This will give you the opportunity to get feedback on and make revisions to each section prior to turning in the final paper, which is worth its own 100 points. You will be graded on mechanics, organization, citation, and content (see rubric for detailed explanations).
To start your project, you need to select an informal or formal policy that you would like to focus on for the remainder of the semester. Try to select a policy on which there is a fair amount of material readily available to you or you will have a difficult time doing the research. This means that you should do some preliminary research before settling on a topic.
**NOTE: All Assignments and the Final Paper must be turned in as a Word Document to the Assignments section on BB. Late papers will not be accepted.
Assignment #1: Policy Description
Using a minimum of three peer reviewed, scholarly journal sources (you may also include the policy in question where applicable), describe the policy that you have chosen to focus on, answering the following questions in essay format: How did the policy come to be? What prompted such a policy? What are the requirements of the policy? Who is the policy supposed to affect/protect/serve? Where is the policy used? In what cases is it used? In short, your description should be geared towards informing a reader who has never heard about the policy. This section of your paper must be at least 3 pages long, double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font. Proper in-text and bibliographic citation (APA style) is absolutely required.
Assignment #2: Literature Review
Using a minimum of six new peer reviewed, scholarly journal sources, conduct a literature review on your policy and related issues. A literature review provides your reader with an overview of any research (**this means scholarly work) that has been done on your topic already. You are not limited to studies specifically connected to your policy - you should also consider related issues. For example, if you are researching the Amber Alert, you should look at studies related to child abduction and kidnapping in addition to looking at works specifically focused on the policy. The ultimate goal of a literature review is to tell your reader what we (the discipline of criminal justice) already know about the topic at hand, with the assumption that they don't know anything about your policy/issue. This section of your paper must be at least 5 pages long, double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font. Proper in-text and bibliographic citation (APA style) is absolutely required. You must provide two bibliographies; one from assignment #1 and one with the new sources for assignment #2.
**Note: the policy description and literature review is not a place for analysis. It is, simply, a description. Any issues/problems you see with the policy should be reserved for assignment #3.
Assignment #3: Analysis & Recommendations
Now that you have conducted thorough research on your policy, you are expected to evaluate its effectiveness. First, you need to decide what would make the policy "effective." How would you measure "effectiveness"? Then, using all of your available sources and referring to your literature review when appropriate, provide several defensible arguments for why this policy is or is not effective. This is not a place for uninformed opinion - you must use facts to defend your position. Presume that your reader has no prior knowledge of policy implications and it is your duty to make them an informed citizen.
Once you have provided your reader with arguments for why the policy you have chosen is or is not effective, offer your recommendations for the future. If the policy is effective, should it continue to be used as it currently is, or should there be some changes? If so, what should those changes be? Should the policy be expanded to apply to other cases/states/jurisdictions/etc.? What might future researchers consider if they plan to re-evaluate the policies effectiveness? If the policy is not effective, how should it change? Why? Should it be completely eradicated or replaced with a new policy? What would that new policy look like and why would it be more effective? This section of your paper must be at least 5 pages long, double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font. Proper in-text and bibliographic citation (APA style) is absolutely required.
Final Paper
Your final paper is where you put all of your assignments together (once you have revised them according to my comments, of course). Your final paper should have a new brief introduction that captures the reader's attention and tell them what will be in the paper, and then the following sections: Policy Description & Literature Review, Analysis, and Recommendations. The paper should also have a new conclusion summarizing what you have done in the paper. You must have a minimum of 9 peer reviewed, scholarly journal sources that are properly cited both in-text and in the bibliography using the APA style. The final product should be at least 14 pages long, double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font. Proper in-text and bibliographic citation (APA style) is absolutely required.