Criminology Research Paper (Research Paper Sample)

Project Guidelines

Title Page

The title of your paper should convey the subject matter in 15 words or less. Do not call it anything like "Crim 1220 Project" (this gives no information about content), or "A Content Analysis" (not specific enough). A title like "An Uplifting Experience: Solving the Mystery of the Elevator Button" is much better; right away, the reader can see what it's about. Your name, student number, and instructor name (Melissa Roberts) should appear somewhere on this cover page.

Abstract

An abstract provides a complete summary of your paper - its central focus, your research question, basic results, and main conclusion(s). This should be the last thing you write. It should be a maximum of 200 words, single spaced and appear at the top of the first page of the paper following the title page and before your introduction.

Introduction/Literature Review

The introduction should do exactly like that – it introduces your topic and contextualizes it within the broader literature as appropriate, states your objective and should end with an outline of your research question(s) or hypothesis. Most importantly, it should provide a useful framework to the paper. My advice is to be specific about the research question you addressed, as the marking of the paper will be influenced highly by how well your research decisions served to actually answer that question, address that objective, or test your hypothesis. Do not use the terminology research question/hypothesis interchangeably. They are not the same thing.

Method

This is a primary component of your paper and will be much more detailed than the methods sections that typically appear in published journal articles.

Specific elements should include:

 Presentation and discussion of selected method – in this instance, content analysis, or observation.

 Sampling procedure – how did you obtain your sample? Was it purposive, convenient, random (unlikely) or something else. Where did your data come from? Who or what did you observe? Make this section clear; we should be able to replicate your study based on the information you provide in this section. This means you need to be as specific and detailed as possible.

 Where and how did you collect your data? What coding processes did it involve? How did you ‘organize’ your data so that you could make sense of it?

 You also need to discuss your research process and the research decisions you made in relation to the above. This should include the identification of strengths and weaknesses of the method and the research process, weighing advantages and disadvantages. What did you learn in the process? If you had to do it all over again what would you change? Some of these components may actually be more appropriately discussed throughout the paper and do not need to be restricted to the methods section.

 Ethics – You must address ethics and how you dealt with them in the project. Given the nature of the types of projects that were approved this section will not be as detailed as might appear in other studies. Review the proposal guidelines re: ethics for suggestions re: what you should discuss here. In your

discussion of ethics you should do more than copy and paste the details from the guidelines. You should demonstrate that a real understanding of ethics.

 A copy of your approved proposal. This is a standard requirement for any piece of research. In addition, it will allow me to see how your project has changed from in its initial inception and should demonstrate what you have learned in the process. Further, I will consider how you addressed the feedback you received on your initial proposal.

 A copy of any research instruments (e.g., content coding scheme or data collection tools) should be included in the Appendix.

 You are also required to provide your completed coding schemes or field notes. These notes do not need to by typed or written. Do NOT worry about making sure they are neat, or formally presented.

The key here is to explain your methods well enough so that it is clear to the reader what you did and why, and the tie between your research question(s) or hypothesis and your methods should be clear, i.e., you are describing how you operationalized your question and why.

Results

This section does exactly that – presents your data/findings. It should be easy to follow and logical.

The first thing to do here is describe your sample in more specific terms: How many completed observations (this may be as simple as the number of hours you observed) or documents or movies are you basing your results on? If you have not already provided the information in your methods section be sure to be specific. Use narrative, table(s) or graph(s) as appropriate - and try to summarize information into as few of these charts, tables or graphs as possible. Remember, space is important, so try and make your presentation as simple and economical as possible. Dozens of graphs showing univariate distributions will not impress anyone. Use the graphs/tables/figures to help your reader make sense of the data; present them because they are an important part of making a point you want to make, and not because you have the data and thought you might as well graph it. Avoid redundancy -- if the information is in a table or graph, don't then describe all the information again in the body of the paper. However, there should be links in the narrative to the graphs or tables. Don’t simply dump them into your paper with no reference to them in the narrative. In the observation study, it is recognized that you may not have a table or any numbers at all; or you might, depending on how you approach the study.

Discussion/Analysis

This section provides a discussion of the findings – what do your findings mean? How can they be analyzed? Depending on the topic this may also include a discussion of outside sources demonstrating how your findings fit into the broader literature and how the findings and analysis relate to what others have found. Some of you may choose to merge the results and analysis into one section which is fine.

I would suggest that you begin with a statement that summarizes your main findings in relation to your research question (e.g., "I started this research with the null hypothesis that the media present an unbiased picture of crime and found that …"; or “My observations were conducted to explore the interactions between panhandlers and the people they solicit and found that …”).

Your discussion should examine the strengths and limitations of what you've done. In what ways is your project/analysis a good one in giving you an answer to your question(s)? What did you do right? But also, what are some of the limitations that should be taken into account, for example, in deciding how far your results can be generalized? Included here should be a consideration of any rival plausible explanations of the results you observed; what other interpretations could be made of your data, and/or what other inferences could be drawn? And why was yours the most plausible explanation that could be offered?

NOTE: you may choose to include the discussion of strengths/limitations in the conclusion. You will need to make a decision about where this discussion best fits within your paper (see below).

Conclusion

The conclusion should provide a summary of what you found. Did your project answer (or not) your initial research question(s)?

In addition, it should include the strengths and weaknesses of the study (although much of this may actually appear throughout your paper as noted above). If you had to do it all over again, knowing what you know now, what could you do better, i.e., what lessons did you learn that would allow you to create a better piece of research? Finally you should address the implications for future research – if you were going to continue research in the area what might you look at. How could the project be expanded? Any good piece of research will raise as many questions as it answers; what are some that arose from your research?

References

As noted above, your project will require outside academic sources in addition to using the course readings as appropriate. Please use APA style with the following modification: your citations should include page numbers regardless of whether it is paraphrased or a direct quote. Please note: you must include full A.P.A. reference citations for material that you include in your paper in your Reference List. Please see specific details re: Instructions for Referencing in Written Assignments provided below and pay particular attention to the section on patch writing (point 5).

Appendices

Your appendices will include the following:

 A copy of your approved graded proposal. Papers which do not include an approved proposal will receive a grade of zero.

 A copy of the coding scheme you developed (all projects)

 Field notes and data coding sheets

A note about citing your data

For content analysis include a separate list of data sources following your Reference List. Here you should provide the necessary information to allow your reader to find your original sources.

Instructions for Referencing in Written Assignments

Academic references must be included throughout the paper; you must appropriately cite the sources of your information.

1. Note: APA 6th edition notes that page numbers are preferred whether or not you are using a direct quotation or paraphrasing information. For this class, page numbers are required for both quotations AND paraphrases.

2. Although APA 6th does not use footnotes or endnotes, if you include these as asides within your paper they also require appropriate references. Your reference list must also be complete and must include all sources cited in your paper. NOTE point 5 below which must be followed.

3. Long quotations (4 lines or more) must be single spaced and indented from both the left and right margins.

4. All direct quotations in your paper must be in quotation marks. If you omit a few words or pages in a quotation, put the quote in quotation marks and connect the two segments by ellipses (i.e.,

three dots – see point 5 below for an example). If you change one or two words in a quotation put your word(s) in square brackets. Phrases which are direct quotes must be put in quotation marks.

5. Both quotations and paraphrases must be followed by its source and the page at which they are located. When quoting or paraphrasing cases with paragraph numbers, use the para. number, where it exists (e.g. para. 142). If using on-line articles use PDF versions whenever possible so that a page number is available. If a PDF version is not available, use the pages as they appear when the online article is printed in HTML format.

6. A paraphrase (a restatement of someone's idea in your words) must be followed by a reference to the source and page (or para. number, for legal cases and some on-line articles) of the idea. If your paraphrase is almost identical to the original source, use a direct quotation. When paraphrasing from a case, use the paragraph number instead of the page number, where it exists. Note: Formats which state that a page number is optional are not acceptable in this class. Page numbers are required for both quotations and paraphrases.

7. Understand - changing only a few words or the order or words is a form of plagiarism commonly referred to as patch writing. It is unacceptable and is considered a form of academic dishonesty.

e.g., In original: “After initial analysis of the women’s interviews, focus groups were held with service providers from women-serving organizations, and the justice and child protection systems … Twenty-eight service providers who work with women who experience violence and/or their children participated in focus groups on child custody and access ” (Varcoe & Irwin 2004:83).

Patch writing (a form of plagiarism): Following the interviews, focus groups were held with service providers who work with women who experience violence and/or their children and women from the justice and child protection systems and women-serving organizations (Varcoe & Irwin 2004:83). This is too similar to the original and is not acceptable because quotation marks are not used.

Resolution #1: Following interviews with the women, “focus groups were held with service providers who work with women who experience violence and/or their children” including individuals from “women-serving organizations, and the justice and child protection systems” (Varcoe & Irwin 2004:83).

Better resolution: In addition to interviews with women meeting criteria for the study, focus groups were conducted with individuals providing service to abused women and those working in “the justice and child protection systems” (Varcoe & Irwin 2004:83).

Provide a complete citation (name of author and article) and a website address for all material obtained from the web when a PDF version is not available. Additional information regarding web citations are found in the APA Manual referenced above.

A note about web references. The author of the website should be used within the body of the paper. The reference provided in your reference list should include the website address. The following is an example.

British Columbia Ministry of Attorney General. (2000). Violence against Women in Relationships Policy. Retrieved April, 2003, from the World Wide Web: http://www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/vawc/toc.htm.

A note about edited texts. When citing from an article found in an edited text such as the Boundaries text you must cite the specific article used and its author(s) as well as the editors. For example,

Best, J. (2001). The Worst Social Statistic Ever: Introduction. In B. R. E. Wright & R. B. McNeal (Eds.), (2010), Boundaries: Readings in Deviance, Crime and Criminal Justice (pp. 1-8). New York: Pearson Custom Publishing.

9. Acknowledge the use of secondary sources (e.g. Smith, 1986 as quoted in Black, 1988 at 24) although whenever possible you should refer to the primary source. In this example, the author of the article is Black who cited a 1986 source by Smith. When you do not go to an original source cited by another author you cannot cite the article as though you read it. This is known as a secondary source. You must acknowledge that you have taken the info from a secondary source in text and you do NOT include the reference in your reference list. Using the above example – you would include Black in the reference list but not Smith (you did not look at the Smith source, so you cannot include it in reference list).

10. Submitting the same or similar assignments in two different courses is a form of academic dishonesty, even if you wrote the paper.