Each student will write a 5 to 8-page research and reflection paper about the issue you have identified.
The research and reflection paper should address the undermentioned details:
Describe your topic and why you opted to examine this particular issue (white-collar crime, clergy related crime, violent crimes, drug-related concerns, political abuse, etc.)
Describe what the commonsense understanding of the issue is/are, including the stereotypes, biases, and shared beliefs.
Conduct a literature review —- identify three to five academic journal articles, published between 2005 and 2016, which give you research information about your particular issue/topic. Summarize the authors’ arguments and findings. Make sure you describe the problem examined, who the research subjects were, and what the results were.
- Now that you know what research says about the issue, you will conduct
three to five interviews with people (one family member, one friend, and one/two stranger/s)
Note: make sure you interview both males and females, different racial and ethnic groups, different ages, etc. regarding their understanding of the issue. Make sure you mix-it-up. Create about five to six questions that will give you a sense of their perspectives …you will use the same questions when
interviewing all people.
- Summarize your findings and write it up … make sure you relate it to the research findings and
victimization theory. Make sure you describe how your results relate to the ideas (theories) we have covered in class. - Finish your paper by pulling everything together in the form of a conclusion. Make sure it addresses
the issue, what research says about it, what your interviews say about the problem and this research has affected your understanding of the problem. In this section, please describe what we can/should address or solve the issue. Please indulge what you have learned from the course material and
documentaries (if any) you heard or read for this class.- Make sure you provide a reference page … your citations and paper should follow the APA format.
- Make sure you have an appendix section. Here you will add the interview questions and the responses you gathered during your interviews.
- The cover page, reference page, and appendix do not count towards the 5 to 8 pages. These are additional to the 5 to 8-page requirement.
- Please be prepared, periodically, to discuss your progress on your research paper in weekly discussions.