Highly publicized incidents of injustice (e.g., police involved shootings, wrongful convictions, misconduct by criminal justice professionals) have led to widespread scrutiny of the criminal justice system. Criminal justice policy and practice is always a key topic in presidential campaigns. In preparation for the upcoming 2024 election, one of the potential candidates has tasked you with writing a research proposal on individuals’ perceptions of the criminal justice system and the factors that impact these perceptions. The candidate requests that you include the following in your proposal:
1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
a. General overview of attitudes towards crime, the criminal justice system, and criminal justice policies
b. Review of the literature on the key variables (e.g., demographic characteristics, media consumption, etc.) that influence individual perceptions of the criminal justice system and criminal justice policies.
3. Theory
a. Identify a theory that might explain the link between key variables you identified in your literature review and criminal justice system perceptions.
i. Address the major tenets of the theory
ii. Be able to apply the theory (in depth) to the topic
4. Method
a. Hypothesis
b. Sample and sampling procedures
c. Research design, measurements, or instruments
d. Identification of the independent and dependent variables; operationalization of these variables.
5. Limitations of the study