CRIM 400 WRITING EXERCISE
For this assignment, you will be required to go to the library and retrieve an article related to the causes of
crime. After retrieving the article, you will be required to read, summarize, and critique the academic evaluation of criminal behavior. Details for the summary and critique are below.
Note: This article must describe an empirical assessment of criminal behavior. Avoid literature reviews, editorials, and descriptive assessments of the frequency or prevalence of crime in a certain area.
Government documents and reports are not appropriate. An inappropriate article could lead to a grade of
zero points.
Step 1:
Go to the library or search online for an article from a peer-reviewed academic journal that evaluates the causes of crime and criminality. It is your best bet to stay within criminology journals.
Do not attempt to find the shortest article; it might take more time to read a lengthy article, but a brief report could lack information that is vitally important to your review.
To conduct this search, you will need to be familiar with the electronic databases in the library.
Criminal Justice Database,
or
Sage:Premier, which are available through the library’s web page. If you review an online, full-text article, be certain to review a PDF version of the article.
If you have questions about the suitability of an article, ask me directly.
To get my opinion of the article, you will need to tell me why you think it might work and what questions you have about its appropriateness for this assignment. Do not send me copies of articles via email or hand me a stack of articles after class without knowing something about the articles. Reading and selecting an appropriate article is part of the assignment.
Step 2:
After finding a suitable article, your job will be to summarize it.
Your summary should include:
•
An identification and specification of the crime(s) being assessed.
•
A description of the theoretical basis for the research.
o
This requires you to know a basic summary of past research and how it led to the development of a new hypothesis.
•
A description of the empirical test (i.e., a brief description of the methodology)
o
Not everyone has great experience with research methodology or statistical analysis. Focus on the data (or sample), the measurement of the variables, and the proposed relationships.
•
A description of the type of data used (Self Reported, Official, Victimization) including the benefits of this data and what makes it appropriate to use in this test
•
A description of the conclusions/findings/results including what this research says about understanding the criminal and delinquent behaviors
•
Note: consider the three questions that we have reviewed in class.
Step 3: After summarizing the article, your job will be to critique what you have read. Your critique should
include:
• A description of any alternative conclusions that might explain the results
o This is a careful consideration of what might make the results spurious
• A description of any problems that might be found in the data or research design used to test the theory
o Consider if the researchers have used an inappropriate data source or have misidentified the measurement of crime and what causes crime.
• Your opinion regarding the relative merit of this article in understanding crime and criminal
behavior.
o Your summary should provide you with an understanding of how this research improves our ability to understand what causes crime.
o Include a description of future research that is needed
o Include a description of policy implications
o Note: These things are not always presented by the author of the article.
Step 4:
After taking some time to read, summarize, and critique the article, you should be prepared to write your
review. You should construct an outline of your thoughts, and sketch out a rough draft of your essay.
After reviewing your outline and rough draft, check to make sure you have not forgotten any of the information requested above. If everything is okay, double-check for spelling, grammar, and syntax errors.
This essay should be typed and double-spaced on a sheet of 8.5 X 11 inches paper with one-inch margins in a normal font (e.g., Times Roman, Arial, Courier and 12 points)
. Your essay must be within 4-7 pages in length, but you should be most concerned with the content of the essay and that it is complete than reaching the minimum number of pages.
Stylistically, your essay should open with an introductory paragraph and follow a logical outline. A typical
progression through the essay could be as follows:
I. Introduction
a. Identify the article reviewed
i. Author’s name
ii. Avoid inserting the title of the article; this is a waste of space and should be
limited to your reference page.
b. Identify the intent of your assignment.
i. Review
ii. Summarize
iii. Critique
II. Review
a. Summarize the paper
i. Criminal behavior and causes of criminal behavior identified
ii. Research hypotheses identified (and direction of the relationships)
iii. Data identified
iv. Results identified
v. Conclusions identified
b. Critique the paper
i. Problems with the data identified
ii. Alternative conclusions identified
iii. Importance to the understanding of criminal and delinquent behaviors
1. See section III. b. and III. c. below
III. Conclusions
a. Your informed opinion regarding the ability of this relationship to explain crime
b. Directions for future research
c. Policy implications of this empirical research
https://www-proquest-com.proxy-iup.klnpa.org/criminaljusticeperiodicals/docview/2036377970/fulltextPDF/847380D270C94A01PQ/7?accountid=11652)
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