Theories in Criminal Justice

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Research Paper (due Week 7: October 11, 2020):

I. Use your Chosen Topic:

*You CANNOT switch topics unless it is approved in writing (via email) from me! I will not accept any “switched” topics in Week 7 and you will receive a zero on the assignment.

2. Locate your 5 Sources:

Locate 5 scholarly sources using the Saint Leo Online library. It is quick and easy if you use my handy Sheet (attached to this email) that I

designed!

*You must use 5 sources at a minimum.

*Out of those 5 sources, 3 of them MUST be scholarly Journal articles from scholarly, peer-reviewed journals found on the Saint Leo Online Library. You should try to locate all of your material on the Saint Leo Online Library, just to be safe.

Remember: you must use a scholarly article that comes from a published Journal (like the Journal of Criminal Justice, for one example) and that has research studies that were done - with results that are analyzed and then reported.

Definition of a Scholarly Article:

*A scholarly Journal article is basically a published research article in which the authors have conducted a "scientific" study on the topic, and it has been recognized by the committee of the publishing journal as a bona fide study with valid hypotheses, experiment, and results.

It is intended for an audience with knowledge in the field (such as a college student ~ not the general public who might have zero knowledge on the topic).

Articles are written by scholars, whose names are listed along with credentials. Articles are footnoted, and list sources used.

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Scholarly articles are not written for profit. They are “Peer-reviewed” by others in the field before they can be published (as opposed to a magazine article or a website article that can be submitted by almost anyone!)

Examples of Journals you might want to use for this paper are:

Journal of Criminal Justice; Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology; Journal of Interpersonal Violence; Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology; Journal of Applied Social Psychology; Psychological Science – just to name a few.

Your other 2 sources may again, be Journal articles OR, 2 of your sources may be web sources.

Examples of Web sources you might want to use for this paper are:

An article from a newspaper that discusses a particular crime that occurred but only for the facts of the case, not for explaining the theory…

A literary discussion by experts in the field (if in doubt, please email me and I will be happy to take a look at your source!)

Please do not use the following for any of your sources:

Newspaper articles (other than to cite a date that a crime occurred)

Magazine articles

Your textbook or any other textbook/ book

Book reviews on books (even if you see a book review in a journal)

Encyclopedias

Manuals or Handbooks

Non-published Dissertations or Theses

Wikipedia or Instapedia

Dictionary’s

Any online “blogs,” social websites, chat sites

*None of these fit the criteria of a "scholarly, peer-reviewed Journal

article!" I cannot accept those types of sources for this assignment, as the

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directions clearly state that you have to use online sources from the Saint

Leo Library that are scholarly articles.

3. Know the Requirements for your paper:

You are required to complete a 2000-2015 word, APA (7th edition style) formatted research paper on the topic you chose back in Week 2.

**Please type your entire paper in either Times New Roman or Arial,

12-point font. The entire paper is double-spaced. Thank you!

Your research paper will be due by the end of Module 7. You should review all the instructions and begin working on your research paper. This research paper will be submitted to the Chalk & Wire link.

All work must be original (no previous papers):

Papers may not be submitted from previous courses or classes to fulfill this requirement and will be referred for a potential Academic Code Violation.

*Please keep in mind that it is the policy of Saint Leo University that all research papers must be original work. This means that you cannot use a previously turned in paper or parts of a previously turned in paper for this assignment, so if you wrote a paper for another class about “Labeling Theory,” you cannot use any part of that paper for this assignment. It will show up in Turnitin.com as plagiarized.

No more than 25% of the written assignment may be attributed to referenced sources. The paper must be 75% original thought.

***You must cite a minimum of five times (a citation is a complete sentence, not a few words…) in your paper using your sources (see below for further clarification on the sources!)

This is an example of a direct citation:

“In 1917, William Marston, a Harvard educated psychologist, refined the

polygraph as a lie detector and as a result, police departments began to

recognize the polygraph’s value of being used as an investigative tool”

(Letterman & Abantino, 2012, p.705).

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*Citations within the text: ***You must directly cite/ quote a minimum of five times in your paper (see below for further clarification on the sources!) At least 5 direct quotes should be included in your paper.

This is an example of paraphrasing:

The results of several articles on police departments and their arrest

rates show similar trends in juveniles being arrested in the summer, when

they are out of school, then in the winter months (Parker, 2010).

*This is paraphrasing because it is not a direct quotation, there are no quotation marks around the material, and no page number is needed. Some students confuse this with cited quotes, but it is not so! Some students confuse this with the MLA Style of citing, but we use APA Format

here at Saint Leo, not MLA.

Please keep in mind that you must have five direct citations/ quotes in your paper from your sources. 5 paraphrases do not count!!

Information about multiple authors in a source and citing:

When a source that has two authors is cited, both authors are cited every time. When a source that has three, four, or five authors is cited, all authors are included the first time the source is cited. When that source is cited again, the first authors’ surname and “et al.” are used: The 1st time you cite Beale, Simpson, and Ford, it would be written as: (Beale, Simpson & Ford, 2014). The 2nd time and thereafter, you would write: (Beale et al., 2014).

When a direct quotation is used, always include the author, year, and page number as part of the citation (Author, year, p.#). A quotation of fewer than 40 words should be enclosed in double quotation marks and should be incorporated into the formal structure of the sentence. A longer quote of 40 or more words should appear (without quotes) in block format with each line indented five spaces from the left margin. Please do not cite large lines of material and not more than three lines at a time!

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Citations should not be longer than 3 lines or they become ‘block quotes’ and have to be indented and written in a different format. Block quotes are not allowed for papers in this class! Block quotes lead to higher Turnitin.com plagiarism rates. Please do not bullet or number items in your paper; I prefer complete sentences as opposed to bulleting or numbering!

When citing material from an Internet source and that source does not have an author or page numbers, this is the proper way to cite it. The article title for this example is, “How to Understand and Prevent Crime in Inner-City Neighborhoods.” You would do so within the paper as follows:

I found through my research that “89% of schools in the inner-city have

three times as many arrests weekly as schools in rural areas of the same

county” (How to Understand,” n.d., para. 3).

Write in 3rd person:

**This paper MUST be written in 3rd person (meaning you do not use

"I" statements). That means you need to report the information you are

researching from your five scholarly sources (journals found on the Saint

Leo library website).

There should not be personal opinions, personal experiences, etc. in

this Research paper. This is much different from the Exercise papers!

Word Requirement for paper:

*The entire word count should not exceed 2015! I will accept 2000-2015. Anything under 2000 will lose points, anything over 2015 will lose points.

The 2000 words (minimum) to 2015 (maximum) includes the Cover page

and Reference page).

*This makes it easy for you to press “Review,” then "Word Count" buttons

on the top of your screen in Microsoft Word to see what your final word

count is!

**No colors, shapes, designs, pictures, charts, or graphs should be used for this paper!

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Please type “normally,” meaning that the left-column of the paper should be the ONLY side that is aligned (see below in yellow). Do not “right-justify” your paper on the right. Do not select the item on the tool bar (see the red “X” below) that aligns the right column:

Please type directly into your paper when completing this assignment! Do not use a Template when typing a Reference page or when adding citation sources to a paper. I cannot make corrections when a student does this and most of the time, Templates are not in correct APA Format!

Templates that most students use are found in the Tool Bar of MS Word (see below):

Please do not use these!! Thank you!

Please email me if you have any questions!

4. Include all the components of your paper:

The paper should include the following:

- Cover page (the Title of the paper - which is your topic name, should be on the Cover page and again on Page 3, in bold, centered in the middle of the paper).

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The following sections each need a heading, which should be in bold.

-Abstract page (page 2, and the title should be in bold). The Abstract is a short, 1-2 paragraph summary of the paper). No indentation is on this page.

-The Literature Review (beginning on page 3, this title needs to be in bold, aligned on the left side of the paper). This is the body of your paper (which should include some of your referenced material, properly cited in APA Format). You must have at least 5 areas in your paper (at least 1- 2 sentences each) that are cited directly from a source with APA Format.

-The Conclusion (beginning on the page or two pages before your Reference page; the title needs to be in bold, aligned on the left side of the paper). The Conclusion will summarize the main points you want to state about the paper.

-The Saint Leo Core Value of Excellence is part of the conclusion. Briefly address the Saint Leo Core Value of Excellence (referring to character and morals) and how this relates to your topic. Please bold this title in your paper.

-References page, the final page of your paper. The title needs to be in bold, centered at the top of the page where you list your five sources (and these must be scholarly articles and Journal articles! The sources should be found in the Saint Leo Online library.

The reference page should be one page only, and no doi/https links are needed for this page.

Other helpful tips:

-Each page in the body of your paper should have three paragraphs, as a general rule of thumb. Students often forget to indent when writing and this makes it difficult for the reader to follow along, especially when a new topic is starting and there is not a new paragraph.

-Please number your paper. This is helpful for me when grading, as I often refer to the page number when providing feedback on the corrected paper. It is okay to number the Cover page as “Page 1.”

-Use commas to separate items within lists. Students often write “lists” of items and do not insert enough commas. For example, if I were listing 5

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reasons why crimes are committed, I would insert 4 commas: 5 reasons why crimes are committed is because of low-income, poor neighborhoods, failure to obey rules, poor parenting, and inappropriate role models. You can easily see the five items because they are separated by 4 commas.

-Please do not hesitate to email me with any questions! Weekends are the best time for me to have a phone meeting: Saturday, or Sunday morning/ afternoon) I usually have time to call a student and go over anything you have questions about. 10 minutes on the phone can do wonders in helping a student understand something and I do not mind

doing this!

Sunday evening is very busy for me, so I generally do not make phone calls on Sunday after 6:30 pm. Please communicate with me by email and

we will find a time that works!

5. Submit your Assignment to Chalk & Wire:

The Grading Rubric is a “Chalk & Wire” assignment and the link for submitting your Chalk & Wire assignment is located in Module 7.

Directions on how to submit an assignment using “Chalk & Wire” will be made available to you at the start of Week 7.

**Please type your entire paper in either Times New Roman or Arial,

12-point font. The entire paper is double-spaced. Thank you!

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Research Paper Title (place name of topic here)

Insert Student Name

Saint Leo University

CRM 426

Dr. Nancy Santiago

October 11, 2020

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Abstract

This paper will examine the topic of the Scientific validity of polygraphs. (Continue on to tell

me main ideas and concepts from your paper for this Abstract). An Abstract is a 1-2 paragraph

summary of your paper. 1-2 paragraphs mean that it will only be about ½ to 2/3rds of a page

long. It should not be longer than this and it definitely would not be over a page long! None of

the paragraphs are indented. In your abstract, just tell the reader what it is you are going to be

discussing in your paper, what the issues are, and what conclusions you came up with. Notice

that in the Abstract section ONLY, there is no indentation for a paragraph. The entire Abstract

is lined up on the left side of the page.

The Abstract does not need to have any “Key Words” listed on the last line, as I tend to see

students doing…that is not necessary for this paper.

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Insert your Research Paper Title

This first area should be where you Introduce your topic and tell the reader about your

topic. Here is an example: The scientific validity of the polygraph test or the “lie detector” test

will be explored in this paper as it relates to Theories of Criminal Behavior. The main question

being addressed is whether the polygraph test is considered scientific or valid. Polygraph testing

has been used in many areas, not just within forensic sciences. Other uses of the test have been

seen in new hires for employee screening, criminal activity that may occur while on the job, and

in criminal cases, when questioning witnesses and or defendants.

The introduction tells the reader why this research is important, its relevance in criminal

justice, and some of the main points of the paper.

Literature Review

This is the part of your paper where you need to begin citing your sources. You may

utilize paraphrasing, which is when you word things not verbatim, but summarizing the

information you have read. There is a requirement for 5 direct citations in your paper. A direct

citation is verbatim (word-for-word) of anything in your sources: statistics, dates, names, etc.

Following are examples of direct citations:

The first time that the polygraph test was used was in 1895. “Cesare Lombroso, an

Italian psychiatrist, was one of the first to attempt to diagnose lying by measuring physiologic

functions” (Abracen, 2011, p. 101). A more sophisticated polygraph was built in 1906 and used

as a medical instrument for recording pulse and blood pressure.

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“In 1917, William Marston, a Harvard educated psychologist, refined the polygraph as a

lie detector and as a result of his work, police departments began to recognize the polygraph’s

value of being used as an investigative tool” (Letterman & Abantino, 2012, p.705).

Polygraphs are not without controversy, however. Many people feel that the machine can

be ‘tricked,’ and in a study conducted in 1959 by Professor Rondike at the University of

Tennessee, he concluded that Lie-detectors are only as ‘smart’ as the person conducting the

exam. “If you take a clever suspect, hook them up to a polygraph machine, and then add

someone not knowledgeable in the science of measuring skin reactions to bodily functions, you

have a recipe for disaster” (Milgram, 1963, p.375).

Research conducted by Zimbardo (2007) concluded that “when subjects are connected to

a Polygraph device, they often give out false readings simply because their galvanic skin

responses are hyper-sensitive and more easily aroused” (p. 118).

Samuel (2012) wrote a paper entitled, “Lies, courtroom antics, and machines.” In his

article, he attempted to explain why defendants often become experts in lying and they learn how

to outsmart machines much like a murderer shapes and improves his modii operandi in killing.

Conclusion

In your conclusion, you can mention any areas of research you recommend for future

study. This might include some interesting ideas you read about in your research, or ideas that

you have for this field. *Make certain to always write in 3rd person using statements like, “An

idea for future research could be doing….XYZ…” Do not write, “I think that this would be a

good idea…XYZ…” as that is writing an “I” statement.

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Saint Leo Core Value of Excellence

Here is the area where you address the Saint Leo Core Value of Excellence and how it

relates directly to the topic you chose. Explain how your topic you chose is tied in with – or

should be tied in with Saint Leo’s value of Excellence. This is a small part of the Conclusion

and only needs to be a brief paragraph. The entire Conclusion does not need to be more than one

page. One page is about average.

Continue on until you have 2000-2015 words.

*The entire word count should not exceed 2015! I will accept 2000-2015. Anything under

2000 will lose points, anything over 2015 will lose points.

The Cover Page and Reference page will count towards your word count!

Make certain to indent each new paragraph using the ‘Tab’ button, which is on the left side of

your keyboard, right before the Q key.

**Please type your entire paper in either Times New Roman or Arial, 12-point font.

Thank you!

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References

Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology,

67, 371-378.

Murzynski, J., & Degelman, D. (1996). Body language of women and judgments of vulnerability

to sexual assault. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 26, 1617-1626.

Schultz, P.W., Nolan, J.M., Cialdini, R.B., Goldstein, N.J., & Griskevicius, V. (2007). The

constructive, destructive, reconstructive power of social norms. Psychological Science.

18(5), 429-434.

Zimbardo, P. (2007). Revisiting the Stanford Prison experiment: A lesson of power of the

situation. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 18-28.

*Notice the heading is ‘References’ and nothing different (not ‘Works Cited’).

*Notice the entire page is double-spaced.

*Notice that after the first line, the 2nd and 3rd lines are indented.

*Notice the authors are listed in alphabetical order by last name on this page!

*Notice the last name is spelled out, followed by the first initial and a period.

*Notice that only the first word of the title is capitalized, and the rest are lower case.

*Notice the full source is spelled out. Do not use http:/ addresses or DOI numbers.

*You must use 5 scholarly sources; you should not need to use any more than that.

*Please do not fill up more than one page of sources for the Reference page!