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.Recommend selecting the database Criminal Justice Abstracts,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.
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.
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)
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
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.
Your summary should provide you with an understanding of how this research improves our ability to understand what causes crime.
Include a description of future research that is needed
Include a description of policy implications
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, identify the key components of the research, and think about how this relates to our understanding of crime. 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.
