Unlawful Acts Towards African Americans

***The beginning of the paper is attached. Please add on from here.***
I.Introduction (one to three pages) – Identify a research problem in criminal justice. (Intro is attached)
a. This section is what you already worked up. Build off of this using the feedback I provided.
*** I will provide the feedback****
c. This section should include:
i. a description of the problem and why it is important to study;
ii. the concepts associated with the research (for example: the death penalty; peer association and juvenile delinquency; Community Oriented Policing strategies and crime; probation programming and recidivism);
iii. a discussion of the theoretical considerations or assumptions (for example: social learning theory claims XYZ about peer relationships and delinquency);
iv. the research question or hypothesis (or hypotheses);
v. the general approach to the research (for example: survey research, field research, secondary data analysis, program evaluation, etc.); and,
vi. what you hope to accomplish by conducting the study (for example, improving juvenile justice programs, saving money, reducing crime, etc.).
d. The introduction should be 1-3 pages.
II. Literature Review (4-6 PAGES) – This section includes a summary of previous studies that have examined the topic of your research proposal. For example, if you are interested in studying peer associations and juvenile delinquency; you would find current and credible research articles that have studied this issue. Then you would summarize those studies and use what they have done to inform your own research questions and methodology.
a. For the project you will need to include at least ten current, scholarly articles in the literature review section.
i. All sources must be scholarly. Scholarly research generally comes from peer reviewed journal articles, books, or Federal Government sponsored research reports. Any information that cannot be verified is not considered scholarly (Wikipedia, Answers.com, etc.). Most web sites are not scholarly sources. Most magazine articles are not scholarly. If you are unsure, feel free to email me and we can discuss the resource.
ii. Look for resources that are current – those published within the past five years would be considered current. You may use older materials in the proposal to develop your ideas, theoretical discussion, etc. However, for the literature review section, your scholarly articles need to have been published within the last ten years to count towards the 10 article minimum.
iv. All references should be in APA format.
b. The lit review should be arranged into logical categories based on the topics to be examined. Topics are multifaceted and each section of the lit review should summarize the literature applying to that particular category. That is, you should not summarize your material one source at a time but rather summarize all your sources pertaining to a particular subdivision of your topic. For example, if you are interested in police use of deadly force, you will likely find in the research law enforcement perspectives, procedural issues, training policies, as well as findings related to excessive use of force. Each of the these are critical elements to the overall discussion of the topic and the lit review should be structured accordingly.
c. Include only those articles that support the logic of your argument and/or your proposed research methods. For instance, if you are interested in studying juvenile delinquency; you would review studies on that topic.
d. This section will cover what you have learned from the recent literature (published within the past five years) pertaining to your topic. It will be approximately 4-6 pages long depending on your topic and MUST include at least 10-12 different academic sources. You will be summarizing these sources in regard to telling the reader what the research has shown about the topic and, most especially, how the research was conducted; that is, what method was used to collect data, what data was collected and from whom, how was it used and (most importantly the findings). You must use APA formatting both for content (narrative) and for citing your articles. Failure to cite your articles or writing word for word what another author says will be considered plagiarism NO QUOTATIONS, You need to paraphrase and summarize the material in your own words, citing in APA format.
e. Discuss recent developments and areas of need for new research. Check out the discussion and conclusion sections of most scholarly articles – the authors will identify ways to improve and/or expand research of a particular issue. Using the information is a great way to come up with unique research ideas.
f. The literature review section should be 4-6 pages.
III. Methods (five to eight pages) – Discuss how you would conduct your own study of a topic in criminal justice. This section should be detailed and provide enough information for another person to replicate your study based entirely on the information included in this section. A detailed methods section would include the following (ordered in this way):
i. Your specific research question or hypothesis (or hypotheses). For example: Spending more time with pro-social friends decreases juvenile delinquency.
ii. Concepts under study (for example: peer associations and juvenile delinquency).
iii. Conceptual and operational definitions. For example: number of hours spent with pro-social peers each week; number of delinquency acts committed in the past year.
iv. General approach to the research (quantitative, qualitative, or mixed).
v. Discuss the type of research design you would employ to accomplish this task. Is the study using pre-test/post-test design; randomized experiments; post-test only; etc?
vi. Discuss your sampling design or strategy. Specify your unit of analysis, how you will identify members of the population, and how you will select the sample.
vii. Identify the methods you would use to collect the data. Here you would specify the techniques used to collect information such as interviews, surveys, secondary data, observation, etc. You would also discuss any instruments needed to collect the information like surveys or interview schedules. If you have an interview, survey, observation or other instruments (for example, coding forms) as part of your research, you need to include those instruments in the proposal.
1. If you are interested in using some type of survey, I recommend visiting: http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/pub-res/measure.htm. This resource has 100’s of instruments already developed that you can use for your research proposal.
2. If you are proposing an original survey be used in the study, you would be expected to develop the instrument for the proposal and include the survey in the appendix section.
viii. Procedures that would be used in the research.
1. Times/Dates
2. Schedule
3. Location
ix. Timeline
1. Provide a general overview of when the study would be conducted and how it would take to complete.
x. Analysis or statistical testing. THIS SECTION CAN BE LEFT BLANK.
xi. The methods section should be 5-8 pages.
IV. Conclusion (one to two pages) –
a. Provide a summary of the problem, the research questions, hypothesis and research plan. Be sure to articulate why the problem is important to study and what will be accomplished with the research.
b. Address any limitations in terms of the method(s) selected, sampling design, instruments, etc. Also, discuss the internal and external validity of the proposed study.
c. The conclusion/discussion should be 1-2 pages.
V. Appendices
a. Any original surveys developed for the study – required if applicable.
b. Instruments (that are not copyrighted) to be used in the study – required if applicable.
c. Instructions to subjects – required if applicable.
d. Consent forms – required if applicable.
e. Debriefing scripts – required if applicable.