Women in the Criminal Justice System

Women in the Criminal Justice System

Research Paper Assignment

Your paper should be double spaced, in 12 point font. You must cite your references both in text and at the end of your document using APA style. You should include a title page and a reference sheet, which do not count towards your ten page requirement.

The prompt for the paper is to develop a research question (see “paper topic” section) and then use research sources to support your answer to this question. You should develop a thesis statement and then examine the research literature that addresses your question in the body of the paper. Not all research you discuss must support your thesis statement, but you should explain how it does or does not, and why. You should conclude with a summary of your supporting information and a discussion of what this research means for society, or what policies it implies would be helpful in solving a problem.

Paper Topic

Select a general topic related to women in the criminal justice system. Remember, we are looking at legal cases related to women, and women as victims, offenders, and practitioners in the criminal justice system, so you have a very wide range of topics you can select. Then think of a question you would like to answer about that topic. The question should be about a relationship between two things or variables. For instance, “Is gender related to job performance as a police officer?” would be a research question. “I want to write about female police officers” is not a research question.  The question should be in the form of “Is X related to Y?” To submit your paper topic, all you need to turn in is this question in a Word document. I will approve these paper topics, or discuss any changes that could be made to improve them.

Research Sources

Using library resources, find at least ten scholarly sources that will help you answer your research question. Scholarly sources include academic journal articles and books based on research. Generally websites will not bit into this category. These must be sources you can access in full text format, not just the abstracts. If you are having trouble finding these sources, please contact a librarian, or you can ask me for help.