The Impact of Drug Policy on the Criminal Justice
Introduction: The introduction is designed to provide a conceptual framework which maps out the direction and nature of your research question. It should provide a clearly discernable question or research proposition as well as a criminological justification for the research (25 Points)
Background: The background section is designed to set the stage for the analysis section. It determines the current state of affairs pertaining to your topic of choice and is written in a manner that easily leads in to a theoretical perspective. It is an enhancement to the introduction and drives home the justification of your research. This section should be 2-3 pages in length (25 Points)
Literature Review: This section lays out the current debates and findings as articulated in the academic literature pertaining to your topic. This part of the paper is designed to introduce the reader to the state of affairs of the dominant concepts in your field, methodologies, and theories. All you will do here is develop these categories for presentation and provide an academic justification for your research question (5 pages with 10-15 academic sources). (50 Points)
Theory: In this section, you are asked to develop a theoretical justification for your project. You will choose the best theory in criminology to align your introductory research question to the methods being used to answer your question. This paper should be roughly two pages in length. (50 Points)
Methods: In this section, you will develop the type of method to be used in your research project and provide an aligned justification for the paper tied to the research question and theory. This should be about two well-conceived pages in length (50 Points)
Analysis: In this section, you will analyze the data that you collected. The write-up should be organized around the nature and direction of the theory outlined earlier and answer the research question (50 points)
Final Project: The final project pulls together all of the other sections and adds in a conclusion and implication section. In other words, you will make an argument as to why your research was important to conduct and its social, political, and criminal justice implications. (200 Points)
