Applied Criminology
Assessment 1: Defining the Problem is an individual project. Each member of your team will complete it individually.
This trimester we have given you a very broad theme— Reducing Crime in Culturally and Ethnically Diverse Communities in Australia.
However, this is such a broad theme, you will need to narrow your focus. Before constructing a solution, you will need to understand the problem.
Some questions you might want to consider:
Who is impacted by this problem? Who are most often the perpetrators or victims? Do they share certain characteristics?
Are there environmental factors (e.g. where the problem occurs) that contribute to the problem?
What other solutions to the problem have been proposed? What have those worked or failed?
What is already being done to address this problem in Australia and Queensland?
As you define your problem, you will want to start doing research. Your group will coordinate so that each individual team member is doing research on a specific portion of your problem.
For example, one person may be reviewing research on perpetrator characteristics, another team member is focusing on victimology, and a third is looking at existing interventions.
To that end, you will:
Identify three (3) relevant, scholarly sources that help you to understand and define the problem your group has identified. Research includes credible sources like peer-reviewed journals or government sources (e.g. ABS, AIHW, AIC, etc.). Newspaper, blog, and social media sources are not acceptable. Preferrably Peer-review journal.
Create an annotated bibliography. The Purdue OWL provides a good overview of what an annotated bibliography is. You will want to include a short summary of the source and address the research is relevant to your project.
Include a citation for each source. These citations should be in the same style and format.
Finally, you will also arrange your information into a mind map, a visual representation showing how the ideas (in your bibliography) fit together within the larger project.
Length: max 900 words (excluding mind map/visual representation).
