After reviewing the textbook topics and course learning objectives, students will select a subject of interest for a 7-10 page research paper supported by a minimum of 5 academic peer reviewed sources. The paper is due at the end of Week 7.
The paper is to be double spaced, with 1″ margins all around, Times New Roman, 12 pitch; no other style or pitch is to be used in the paper. Students who opt to utilize larger fonts, or add extra spacing beyond regular double spacing, and or put in margins larger than 1″ all around will as a minimum see a full letter grade deduction.
The following are the six course learning objectives from which you can base your topic:
Examine the organizational structure and the administration process of the U.S. justice system.
Differentiate among the various components that influence the administration of the criminal justice system.
Describe the use of force and the use of discretion in criminal investigation.
Examine the administration of the courts when addressing sentence alternatives.
Analyze the American correctional system and its use of alternative programs when administering justice.
Identify common ethical issues that occur in the criminal justice system.
Research paper topics must be based upon one of the six course learning objectives. When submitting the paper by the end of Week 7, students must identify not only the topic of their research paper but also the course learning objective with which it is aligned as part of the Abstract.
When writing your research paper be sure to focus upon the aspect of criminal justice that you are addressing from the perspective of the course learning objective with which it is associated. You must support points made in the research paper with scholarly resources. Your personal opinion must be limited and will not be a determining factor in the final grade. Instead, your grade is determined by how well you support your argument utilizing the materials discussed in this course and research and reference material you locate.
What I do not want is a regurgitation of what is in readings. Expand on the material; do not repeat it. Direct quotes should be used sparingly and limited to instances where the original meaning would be lost if not directly quoted; all quotes must be in quotation marks. Similarly quotes do not count toward minimum length. Document your facts utilizing standard APA style 7th edition.
This paper is to be submitted to me as indicated on the Course Schedule and Grading Policy Summary Table. The paper is to be in APA format and the body of the paper is to be between 7 and 10 pages. The body of the paper does not include the title page, table of contents, any and all quotes, images, charts, appendix or references. This is to be of high quality, free of spelling and grammatical errors, and of original work. Plagiarism will be dealt with harshly, and at the least will be an automatic 0 on the paper. You are to title your paper by your last name. For example, my paper would be called “conkey.docx” with “.docx” being the MS Word file extension.
You must submit your research paper to this assignment as a Word document. Other formats will not be accepted. The date of your submission is based upon the date you successfully submit your research paper in the correct Word format.
