I am working on a criminal justice exercise and need guidance to help me learn. 

Objectives:

• Practice writing and research skills
• Learn about a crime in a specific community.
• Explain why the crime may be occurring and its  impacts

Technology that may be used:

• Library
• Internet search 
• Microsoft Word

Career Competencies this assignment seeks to develop:

• Professional communication
• Critical thinking and problem solving
• Ethical decision making
• Cultural agility, inclusion, and anti-racism
• Teamwork and collaboration
• Digital Literacy

Paper Topics

You will need to zero in on a crime topic that you will be focusing on for the remainder of the papers in this class.  You can select from the following list:

• DUIs in Hennepin, Ramsey, Anoka (or other counties in MN or a different county in another state)
• Motor Vehicle Theft in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Hennepin, Ramsey  (or other cities/counties in MN or in another state)
• Human Trafficking in Minnesota (or in another state)
• Elder Abuse in Hennepin, Ramsey, Anoka (or other counties in MN or a different county in another a state)
• Domestic Violence in Hennepin County, Ramsey, Anoka (or other counties in MN or a different county in another state)
• Gun Violence in St. Paul or MPLS (or other very large cities/counties in different states)  
• Burglaries in St. Paul or MPLS (or other very large cities/counties in MN or another state).
• If none of these topics are of interest to you (and your group-mate), it is permissible to  select a different crime topic and location, but you need to send an email to Susan.Hilal@metrostate.edu   that identifies what topic you would like to do and why and provide some data you located about the occurrence of this crime in your location.    I will let you know if the topic and community will work for this class (taking into consideration all of the components of all the papers in this class).  This email should be sent at least 5 days BEFORE the due date of Paper 2.

Required Components

This paper must include the following sections with corresponding sub-headers:

• Cover Page in APA format.   If you are doing  this with a partner, both your names should appear on the cover page,  https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/title-page
• Section 1: Introduction- Always start a paper with an introduction where you grab the reader’s attention and tell the reader how the paper is organized and what is to come.   Do not write in the first person. This should be about 1/3 of a page.  
• Section 2: Crime and Location Overview- Provide a summary of the crime in your selected location.  You will need to look up statistics associated with this crime via crime reports found on local, county, state, and federal law enforcement webpages and summarize them here.   Please use .gov sources.  You will be summarizing the scope of the crime problem to include:
  • The most recent crime statistics related to this crime in your chosen community and elsewhere.
  • Description of how this crime is more/less prevalent in your chosen community compared to elsewhere ( see https://crime-data-explorer.fr.cloud.gov/pages/home).
  • Description of how this crime has changed over the years (more prevalent, less prevalent, the same) in your community and elsewhere.
  • Description of  where specifically this crime is most likely to occur in your chosen community and elsewhere.
  • Description of when this crime is most likely to occur. 
  • Description of what is known about the offenders/those arrested for this crime.
  • Include any other relevant details about the scope of this crime. 
  • Please use tables/charts/graphs in this section.  Be sure to give the table/chart/graph a title and cite directly below it where the information came from that is displayed.
  • The sources you use here should be academic articles found via the library and information found on government and organization webpages.
  • After reading this section, the reader should have a very clear idea of the scope of this crime in your community and elsewhere. 
  • This should be about 1,5 pages long. Do not write in the first person.  
• Section 3: Crime Impact– This is a general overview of the crime impact.  
  • Who and what does this crime impact and in what ways? Be specific.
  • What is the impact of this crime on the location and  society as a whole?
  • The aim is to show the reader this is an important crime that needs to be addressed because of the impact of this crime on individuals, the community, society as a whole, etc.  
  • The sources you will use here are academic articles found via the library and government webpages.
  • This should be about 3/4-one page. Do not write in the first person.  
• Section 4: Theory Association–  Here is where you begin to think and write about the big “why” questions.  
  • You will identify at least one criminological theory that applies.  You will want to refer to information you learned in CJS 320:  Criminology and Public Policy and review this powerpoint.
    • What is the name of the theory?
    • Describe the theory to include the independent variables in the theory, the theorists associated, and most importantly how this applies to the crime.   
    • Be sure to cite where you get information about the theory. 
  • After you do this you will then use the library resources to find an  empirical study (watch this video if you don’t know what an empirical study includes- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUAQWB7-kOo) that applied the theory you selected to the crime you have selected.  This means when you search,  you will narrow your search to empirical studies, dated 2015 or newer that include the name of your crime and the theory you have selected.  If you can’t find one, ask a librarian for help or pick a different theory to summarize and connect to the crime.  
  • Read the article and then summarize in your OWN words the purpose, methods, and findings.    It should be very clear you are summarizing an empirical study.   Do not write in the first person.   This section will be at about 3/4-one page. 
• Section 5: Factors that Contribute- In addition to the theory you identified in the previous section, what additional factors may contribute to this crime?  Identify some individual, social, and/or structural factors that contribute to the crime.   What has research found are the correlates of this crime? You will need to go to the library to find studies to help support what you write. Make sure you are citing academic articles (go to the library, NOT google)  in this section and your materials (textbook and notes) from CJS 320: Criminology and Public Policy.  This section should have at least 2 recent  (2015 or newer) citations.   Somewhere in this section you should include some discussion of the pandemic and how this may have impacted this crime.  This section should about one page.   Do not write in the first person.  
• Section 6– Conclusion
• Section 7- Reference list properly cited in APA opens in new window.  
• Section 8:   Group work- If you did this with a partner, identify in a paragraph what each of you did on this paper.  If you don’t include this, feedback will be left in the assignments for you to add this before it is graded.