Critical Research Paper. Each student will be expected to complete a research paper for this course (that is, 5-8 pages) on a controversial crime-related topic. This project will enable students to demonstrate their ability to: 1.) conduct research using viable information sources; 2) critically analyze information about crime, criminality and the administration of justice 3) provide a “local” perspective using the class material to discuss the topic from a “theoretical” perspective. The formal elements of the paper require that each student identify at least two different sources that relate to a topic in the class.One of these sources should be from a nonscholarly (popular) site which should highlight your topic. Then students should use current scholarly sources (published between 2010 and now) as well as materials covered in this course to assess the non-scholarly article. The “popular” web-based sources may be drawn from material posted through news servers or other popular (non-scholarly/non-academic) sources available in different locations on the WWW. Each paper should include the popular site’s WWW address (URL) and the date that site was last visited, and the full citation information for the any other sources (using America Psychological Association citation format).
Be sure to find an Article to discuss throughout the paper
Choose from one of the following topics:
Insanity and the law
Research on the presence of racism in the current justice system
Capital punishment/death penalty in the justice system.
These are the books used in the class:
Hopkins Burke, Richard (2012). Criminal Justice Theory: An Introduction. New York, NY: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group.
Slate, Risdon N. and W. Wesley Johnson (2013). Criminalization of Mental Illness Crisis & Opportunity for the Justice System. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.