Final Research Project Requirements CJBS 250 and PSC 255
You may choose any topic you’d like related to Criminal Justice, Psychology, Sociology,
Marketing, Public Administration.
PROHIBITED TOPICS: You may not do your final research proposal on the
following:
Capital Punishment, Broken Windows, Racial Profiling, Stop Question & Frisk,
Redlining, or ANY form of Corrections.
Main Goal to be Achieved: Create a Research Proposal of 6-8 pages where you will:
A. identify a topic and write a hypothesis statement which you intend to prove through
survey research. All semester you have been learning the vocabulary and the concepts
involved when producing and consuming research. These main points and topics from
each chapter MUST BE USED if you want to earn a quality grade on your research
proposal. Your hypothesis statement should begin with “I intend to prove…….”
Ex. “I intend to prove that students who sit in the front of the classroom perform
better academically than students who sit in the middle or the rear. Students who sit in
the middle of the class do better than students who sit in the rear of the class but do not
do as well as students who sit in the front of the class. In other words, your academic
success relies, at least in part, upon where you sit during the classes.
B. The following separate and distinct headers MUST BE USED to discern each
portion of the project.
• Problem or Objective — Describes what will be studied. This is your
main research topic to be studied, including a brief introduction to the
topic and a hypothesis statement to be proved.
“I intend to prove…….” (½ page)
• Literature Review — Summarizes the prior research on the topic
What is known about the topic? What have other studies concluded?
This is the “term paper” part of your exam. Write (2-3 pages) about
other studies encompassing your topic. Use at least 3 separate sources
here.
Research Questions — Specifies what the research will answer
This section must included 15-20 research questions that will be asked
to survey participants and used in your survey in order to obtain the
information you seek. Be sure to include demographic data, main
substance questions, and contingency questions specifically designed to
prove or disprove your main statement. This section should display a
stacked list of survey questions of your choice. This section should NOT
be written in paragraph form, but rather a list of questions with blank
fill in answers and others with predetermined choices (2 pages)
• Subjects for Study — Whom or what will be studied?
This section should include exactly who you plan to ask survey
questions, how this sample will be chosen. (1/2 page)
• Measurement — Identifies the key variables of the study
This section should clearly identify what measurements you expect to
find out with your survey questions. What are you measuring, exactly?
What measurements are you going to use? What are the dependent
and independent variables?(1/2 page)
• Data Collection Methods — Explains how observations will be
collected
This section explains what kind of survey structure you will use. How
will this information be obtained, exactly? (1/2 page)
• Analysis — Specifies how the observations will be analyzed
What did you learn? What information did you get? This page is made
up. It’s fabricated based on hypothetical answers that you might get.
You suppose the information. This section should contain pie graphs,
charts, conclusion data and summary statements (2 pages)
• References — List of materials consulted and cited in the proposal
This section MUST include an APA compliant reference page including
no less than 5 sources. You will have points deducted if this page isn’t
perfect.