criminal justice literature
The paper must use at least 6 scholarly journal articles and all the sources must be cited and used in the text of the paper. In other words, putting the six sources in the reference page is not sufficient. Each of them must be used in the text of the paper as well. All your sources must be in the reference list and all the references in your list must be cited in the text of your paper.
The paper should have the following headings (but do not number them like I did):
1) Description of the Policy
The history of the policy
The problem the policy is supposedly designed to address
The policy’s stated or implied goal
2) Literature Review or discussion of the current research on the policy (see below)
3) Analysis (see below)
4) Recommendations (to improve the policy or eliminate it – see below)
5) References[unique_solution]
Literature Review: The goal of a literature review is to tell your reader what the criminal justice literature tells us about the policy, with the assumption that the reader does not know anything about your policy or issues related to it. The policy description and literature review are not the proper places for analysis. It is, simply, a description. Any issues/problems you see with the policy should be reserved for the analysis and recommendations sections. Be careful about your organization so that you do not mix up the information from one section to another.
Analysis: The Analysis should discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the research or literature. It should also include the strengths and weaknesses of the policy itself based on the research and literature. Now that you have conducted thorough research on your policy, you are expected to evaluate it based on Bonham’s (2012) seven criteria. The one most often discussed in the literature is effectiveness, but do not forget about the others. In determining its effectiveness, you must first determine what would signal that your policy is “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. You must do the same for the other seven criteria; however, you may come across a policy where one or more of Bonham’s (2012) seven criteria are not evaluated. You must state this clearly and demonstrate that you realize that a limitation of your paper is that you were not able to find information on these criteria.
Recommendations: Once you have provided your reader with arguments for why the policy you have chosen is good or not good, offer your recommendations for the future. If the policy is good, should it continue to be used as it currently is, or should there be some changes? If so, what should those changes be and why? 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 policy’s effectiveness?
If the policy is not good, how should it change? Why? Should it be completely abolished or replaced with a new policy? What would that new policy look like and why would it be better? It is important to note that it is difficult to find a criminal justice policy which meets these seven criteria, so most of you will need to provide recommendations to at least alter it in some way, if not abolish it.
It is important to justify your recommendations. Remember that if your ideas or recommendations are drawn from another source (i.e., one of the articles), proper in-text and a APA style reference page is absolutely required.
Don’t forget to explain why you are making these recommendations or why these recommendations will improve the policy.
Keep in mind that the text of the draft paper (not including the title page or references) must be 8 full pages and no more than 10. If it is less than 8 full pages or more than 10, then your grade will be lowered substantially.
This limitation will require you to be very precise and purposefully in your writing. There is no room for fluff or for repeating yourself. Saying the same thing over and over will lead to a poor grade. The paper must be tight, so you should find yourself writing and re-writing the paper several times to get it right.
Use your own words. Avoid using quotes in your paper. The only acceptable quotes would be directly from the policy itself. Then you must make sure you put the words in quotation marks and properly cite the source with the page number. Any quote should be followed with an explanation of that quote, including what it means. All the paper’s sources must be cited both in the text of the paper and in the reference page. Your work must be original and in your own words. The link below is to the APA website and a site on how to use APA correctly.
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
Finally, make sure you use proper punctuation and separate your ideas with paragraphs. Ideally, each paragraph should have a topic sentences, several sentences making your point, and a transition sentence to the next paragraph. Poor paragraph structure or failure to use the identified headings will lower your organization score.