Police brutality is different across difference ethnicity
Police brutality is different across difference ethnicity
In a 2-page (no longer than 500 words; double-spaced) essay excluding reference page, propose and explain your research topic. Your research topic must be related to criminal justice or criminology. Make your case for why it is important (e.g., it has important policy implications; it is unaddressed by previous research; it is a major threat to our society, etc.). Briefly cite data or previous research to document the prevalence and importance of your topic. Conclude by framing your topic as a specific research question about the empirical relationship between two or more concepts.
*Use the studies you reviewed in the first assignment to guide your description of your own topic. As suggested above, you may wish to draw on the recommendations for additional research for ideas about your own research proposal. You must cite every source within the text of the paper.
Grading criteria/ checklist
A clear and informative title of your research topic (1 pt): This will help you to focus on your research topic.
Testable research questions (RQ) (1 pt). Your research question must be informed by existing literature. You may use a bullet point format to clearly identify your research question. If you have more than one RQ, think carefully whether you really need more than one.
Clear definitions (1 pt). Define your main terms, independent and dependent variables, and any other important terms used in your RQ.Prevalence of your topic (1 pt). Describe how common or serious your chosen topic is. Providing prevalence is different from providing sample statistics from one study. You may also mention a trend – it has increased, decreased, or stayed the same, depending on your topic. If you claim it has increased or decreased, provide a reference time frame. “Since 2010, the number of people sent to NY state prisons for drug offenses has declined.”Convincing arguments (1 pt). Explain why it is important to conduct the research study you are proposing.
Reference information (1 pt): Provide full reference information in APA style. You must cite every source within the text of the paper.
Penalty (-1 pt) if you do not follow word limit (500 words
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
