Topic: Criminal Justice

Order Description
SOSC 499 Senior Research Project

SOSC 499 Senior Research Seminar is a newly designed course intended to serve as a “Capstone” experience for graduating seniors in the Social Sciences. This course is restricted to Criminal Justice, Government and Sociology majors only . . . This is a required course for all Social Science seniors.

Student Learning Objectives:
1. The student will learn and demonstrate knowledge of how to select and formulate a suitable research topic relevant to their major.
2. The student will demonstrate an appropriate methodology to pursue research on a topic relevant to their major.
3. The student will demonstrate that they know how to conduct research using secondary data and analyze the data for findings. (or hypothetically generate primary data).
4. The student will prepare a suitable written presentation of findings.

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: READ CAREFULLY
***I DO NOT WANT YOU TO ACTUALLY GO OUT AND COLLECT DATA BY GIVING OUT QUESTIONNAIRES OR SUCH WHICH ACTUALLY REQUIRE LIVE HUMANS TO GIVE YOU PERSONAL INFORMATION: ALL OF THIS WOULD HAVE TO GO THROUGH THE UNIVERSITY IRB COMMITTEE FOR APPROVAL AND I DO NOT WANT YOU SATURATING THE COMMUNITY WITH QUESTIONNAIRES AND SUCH. YOU GATHERING OF DATA IS STRICTLY HYPOTETHICAL: YOU ARE GOING TO SHOW ME THAT YOU KNOW HOW TO GENERATE DATA, NOT ACTUALLY DO IT.
The Purpose of SOSC 499 Senior Research Seminar is to provide (and require!) the student graduating with a degree in Government, Criminal Justice or Sociology an opportunity to demonstrate a college level grasp of the skills and knowledge expected of a college student possessing a Bachelor’s degree in the Social Sciences. This course serves as an opportunity for the student to incorporate or mesh materials learned in other social science courses and demonstrate a grasp of materials and skills learned in other seminal social science courses.
Class Discussion Topics and Seminar subjects

I. Background of the scientific method and application
II. Selection of a topic/subject for research
III. Selection of a methodology for the research
IV. Gathering data: how to do/where to find it/and more
V. Analysis of data:
VI. Review of relevant literature (www.mamma.com) is a superior source of information.
VII. Be sure and properly cite your references (use whichever format is most comfortable for you
VIII. Findings and conclusions _ what did you find or expect to find??
IX. Presentation of the study . . . conclusion of the paper
NOW READ THIS VERY CAREFULLY:
HERE IS WHAT I WANT YOU TO DO!!
1. Define your topic clearly so all other reviewers will know exactly what you are studying and what the “problem or focus” of the study is.
2. Define the variables you will be using and measuring: define them exactly so all other reviewers will know exactly what you mean when you label a variable and then use it in your study.
3. Review the relevant literature and cite it appropriately: this is called a “review of literature”.
4. Explain exactly how your will gather your date (even though this will be hypothetical data”:
5. If you plan on using a questionnaire design one and show the variables and questions you intend to use. (remember you are not actually going and administer this questionnaire)
6. Include a copy of the questionnaire.
7. If you are going to use secondary data show copies of this/these resources and cite their references.
8. If you are really creative and use another method to gather data describe in detail how you will gather this data and define the level of the data (i.e. nominal, ordinal, etc.)
9. Explain which statistical methods (or software) you will use to analyze your gathered or acquired data.
10. Present a hypothetical or expected outcome of your data analysis.