Empirical Research

Order Description

Writing Assignment #3

Due: December 12th, 2014

For this third writing assignment in this course you are asked to explore a criminal justice issue which interests you and then discuss TWO EMPIRICAL STUDIES surrounding the issue in significant detail. The topic of this assignment is open, but you must explore an issue on which empirical research exists.

In 4-5 double-spaced pages, you should:

? Introduce the issue (20 Points).

o What is the issue at hand?

o What is the relationship between your two measures of interest (i.e. stop and frisk policing reduces crime.)

? What behavior are the designed to reduce or impact?

? How are they believed to accomplish this?

? Discuss the two empirical articles that you have chosen to represent tests of your relationship.

(40 Points)

o Discuss the data and methods used in the research in significant detail

? What kind of data did the authors use?

? Where did it come from or how was it collected?

? How did they measure the concepts of interest (Independent Variable and Dependent Variable)?

? What kind of analysis did they use?

? What did they find? What do their results suggest?

? Conclude the paper with a discussion of whether or not the research supports the proposed relationship between the variables you have chosen (i.e. is there evidence that stop and frisk policing reduces crime?) (15 points).

? A reference section should be included that lists the resources you cited and include all appropriate in-text citations (15 points).

? Paper should be free of typos and unclear sentences as well as be well-organized (10 points).