What is crime?; Who are the criminals our system of justice processes?

Attached you will see an example of what it needs to look like.

Cyber-Source Wiki Projects

All students will participate in a project that will result in the construction of a series of Wiki sites that will include sources related to the material we are discussing throughout the semester. This project will enable students to demonstrate their ability to: 1) use the internet as an information resource; 2) critically analyze information about crime, criminality and the administration of justice that is provided on the WWW; and 3) place the material being studied into a “local” perspective while using the class material to discuss the source from a “theoretical” perspective. It also allows the “students” to become “teachers” by demonstrating what they’ve learned from the class to one another so we can collectively learn together.

The formal elements of the Wiki Projects require that, for Sections 1 – 3-B of the class, each student must identify two different sources that relate to each particular section of the class. One of these sources must be drawn from a current scholarly source (published between the date specified in your syllabus and now) and the other source must be drawn from a non-scholarly (popular) site.

You will then prepare a brief critical analysis of the non-scholarly source relying the reading material assigned for the particular section of the class along with the current scholarly source you have located.

The “popular” web-based sources may be drawn from material posted through news servers or other popular (non-scholarly/non-academic) sources available in different locations on the WWW. Each student is required to post their critical review of the popular source on a “Wiki” page located at the class Wiki portal on or before the date posted in the Annotated Class Schedule. Each posting must include the popular site’s WWW address (url) and the date that site was last visited, the full citation information for the current scholarly source (using American Psychological Association citation format) and a brief summary and critical analysis of the source.

Each student’s summary must include specific discussion of how the source corresponds to the material included in the assigned reading for the section as well as how the information it deals with corresponds with the scholarly source that has been located. We will collectively engage in a discussion of these Wikis in large group discussion sessions held during each class session.

Each source used in the Wiki Projects will be awarded up to 25 points for a total of 75 final semester points possible based upon: 1) the scholarly level of insight shown in the critical summary of your source (10 possible points); 2) how clearly and fully you are able to integrate the assigned readings into the analysis of the “issue” (10 possible points); and 3) the salience of cyber-site selected to the assigned reading material (5 possible points).

Section 1 – Contextualizing the Study of Crime, Criminality and Criminal Justice
This section of the class focuses on the questions: What is “crime?”; Who are the “criminals” our
system of justice processes?; and “What do we do in response to “crime” and “criminality”? It is
designed to encourage students to recognize the value of thinking about the “problem of crime”
and the “administration of justice” from a theoretical perspective and to think about this problem
from both systemic and global perspectives.
Required Reading:
Hopkins Burke (Chapters 1, 2 & 5) Slate et al. (Chapters 1 – 5) Criminal Justice Theory-An Introduction

Last Completed Projects