You will conduct sufficient web research to select a specific criminal justice-related issue/problem that the management, administration, and/or leadership of a major criminal justice organization are, have, or should be addressing. The specific problem and recommended solutions that you may review will vary considerably based upon the quality of your online research efforts. The better your research, the better you will gain knowledge from this assignment. You may relate the issue/problem to an agency/department in the area in which you live or any other area of the United States.
To begin this effort you need take the following steps:
- Conduct sufficient online research from any web source (including non-scholarly sources) that enables you to identify what you believe to be a major criminal justice management, leadership, and/or administration issue that the community has not addressed on a widescale basis. While you may identify the issue/topic from non-academic quality sources, remember that only scholarly/academic sources maybe used as references in the paper. You will need to be selective in conducting your topical research to insure that you identify an appropriate problem area that merits the attention of the senior management of an agency.
- Once you have identified the general issue/topic, you will conduct appropriate online research to determine that sufficient scholarly/academic-quality sources of information are available on the subject that you selected. If that does not occur, you need to select a different issue/topic to address. The specific issue that you select to address in the assignment should be based on the volume and quality of web sources that you locate.
- Once you have identified that a sufficient quantity of academic/scholarly-quality sources are available for your project, you will conduct further detailed web-based research on the issue. First determine that your references address how a particular city, county, state, or federal agency has successfully addressed the issue. The key here is to locate an organization thathasidentified the issue and thathasalready developed a solution to the issue. That effort will provide you with examples of solutions that have been attempted and that were successful.
- Once these steps have been taken, you will identify a criminal justice organization thathas notidentified or implemented a solution to the same issue. This organization should have a sufficient web presence for you to use their web-based data on organization, structure, policies, budget, procedures, etc., to allow you to shape your specific recommendation or solution. Using this organization as a basis will provide you with a real-world organization to use as your fictional agency. If sufficient web data is available, you may find it easier to select an organization which is relatively close to where you live or one in which you already possess some familiarity.
- You will prepare your paper as if you were a mid-level manager in the organization thathas notimplemented the solution. You will presume that your paper is to be provided to thechief of police, your sheriff, or the department head of a federal agency that is represented by this organizational example.
Using these basic steps and this basic approach to the research process will provide you with a firm idea of the type of general issues that the criminal justice community has determined to merit senior management's attention, provide you with examples of organizations that both have and have not addressed the key issues, allow you several topical options, and permit you to accurately determine the extent of quality reference material that is available. It will provide you with a solid foundation of material for your use in structuring your paper.