TERM PAPER ASSIGNMENT
The Term Paper Assignment will consist of at least 10 double-spaced pages (excluding title page, references, figures, illustrations, or other extraneous elements outside the main body of the paper). Students will format their paper using 12-point Times New Roman font and one-inch margins. Students will use at least 10 scholarly and trade references (Wikipedia, non-legitimate peer-reviewed websites, or blogs CANNOT be used as a reference).
Students will complete a 10 page paper that centers on a significant issue facing criminal justice from a theoretical perspective covered during the course. Some examples of significant criminal justice issues include but are not limited to: impoverishment and criminal offending, the effectiveness of deterrence, race and crime, serial killing, white-collar offending, juvenile offending, criminal recidivism, mass shootings, sexual assault, the role of IQ in offending, and illicit drug use and trafficking. The paper must contain a minimum of 10 references beyond your textbooks and lectures that are presented during the course.
The paper should be contain the following sections:
Introduction: provide hooks to gain the readers attention, a thesis statement, and a roadmap or overview of the sections that your paper will address.
Overview of Selected Criminal Justice Issue: in this section you will clearly explain the issue that you are addressing.
Overview of Selected Criminal Justice Theory: This section of the paper will clearly provides an overview of the selected criminal justice theory to include its main developer(s) and main premises.
Weaknesses and Strengths of the Selected Criminal Justice Theory: This section of the paper will detail weaknesses and strengths in the selected criminal justice theory.
Explanation of how the Selected Theoretical Perspective Explains the Selected Criminal Justice Issue: This section of your paper will contain an application of how the selected criminal justice theory would explain the selected criminal justice issue.
Presentation of how the Selected Criminal Justice Theory can be Used to Formulate Policies to Address the Selected Criminal Justice Issue: This section of your paper will contain an explanation of how the selected theoretical issue would influence policies that could address the selected criminal justice issue.
Conclusion: This section should only be one to two paragraphs long and should simply note the main sections covered in the paper and it should include a restatement of your thesis statement.
