CriminalJustice and Criminology Dissertation Essay Help

Research Methods in CriminalJustice and Criminology

Order Description
Please separate the three assignments and three pages each assignment.
Unit II Project
Research Topic, Question/Hypothesis, and Design
In the field of criminal justice, there is always the need for the development of evidence-based strategies, programs, and policies. The evidence that is used to
influence changes in the field of criminal justice is extracted from the findings of criminal justice research studies that are conducted by social science
researchers, such as yourself. Therefore, there is a continual need to conduct criminal justice research that examines current issues in the field. You are tasked with
developing a research study that explores a current issue in the field of criminal justice. You will detail your study in a research report covering the major steps
outlined below, and the final report will be submitted at the end of the course.
The research report consists of four parts:
1. Part 1 – Research topic, research questions, and research design
2. Part 2 – Literature review
3. Part 3 – Research methodology
4. Part 4 – Discussion and conclusion

You then have the opportunity to tie all four parts together in a rough draft and make final revisions before presenting your research report for the course’s final
project. MCJ 5532, Research Methods in Criminal Justice Administration 4
Part 1A: Research Topic
First, you will need to identify a criminal justice related topic that you want to explore throughout all of the assignments associated with the final research report.
Second, provide a brief discussion about why you chose your topic and why researching that topic is important to the field of criminal justice. Third, to assist you in
determining the type of research that has already been done on your topic and to give you a head start on Part 2 of your research report, you will need to include a
list of five scholarly sources related to your topic.
Note: You are not required to summarize the sources here, but the references must be cited in APA format.
Part 1B: Research Question
Developing a research question is one of the most important parts of the research study. Your research question is what dictates the type of methodology that will be
used in the study. There are certain research questions that lend themselves to pure (basic) versus applied research. There are certain research questions that lend
themselves to qualitative versus quantitative research. Therefore, it is imperative that you establish the research question prior to conducting a study. This is
important as you are formulating your steps to solve the problem in your empirical research. It should also be noted here that if one is asking qualitative type
research questions, answers might not result. Instead, additional questions or sub-questions may result, which is an acceptable result.
Note: You are not discouraged from using either type of question. Instead, you are reminded as discussed in the textbook that various types of questions exist and that
the type of question you use will impact your methodology. This is why it is imperative that you identify the type of research question you want to ask at the
beginning of your study.
For this part of the assignment, you are tasked with developing a research question. Based on your research question, you will need to generate at least one hypothesis
or at least one sub-question that is associated with your research question.
Keep in mind that the research question needs to be connected to the topic that you identified in Part 1A of the assignment, and it needs to be a question that you
want to explore throughout the other parts of this assignment and subsequent assignments related to the final research report.
Part 1C: Research design
You will need to decide whether your research will use an experimental design, a quasi-experimental design, or a preexperimental design. Provide a discussion that
explains how your research falls into the experimental design that you chose. While you do not need to go into specifics about the methodology that you will utilize
for your research study, you do need to be able to discuss to what extent your design will or will not incorporate equivalents, observation, treatment, and time.
All three parts of the assignment allow you to begin formulating your research design steps as you are building your research report. The three parts of the assignment
should be submitted as one document. The assignment must be at least two double-spaced typed pages.
Be sure to cite in APA format any source used to influence your response. Therefore, your reference list should at least include a citation of the textbook since you
are required to apply the concepts discussed in the textbook for each part of this project.
You can find resources to assist you in completing Part 1A of the assignment from the CSU Success Center. You can find resources to assist you in completing Parts 1B
and 1C of the assignment in the textbook.
Information about accessing the Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below.

Unit III Literature Review
Part 2: Literature Review
The literature review is the part of the research report in which researchers evaluate the methods and findings of existing research related to that topic, determine
what is already known about the topic and how what is known relates to what they are interested in, find support for their chosen methodologies and/or find ideas for
drafting a methodology, and identify gaps in the literature that suggest that the research being conducted by the researcher will forever advance the knowledge in the
field.
To prepare your literature review, you need to complete the following tasks: MCJ 5532, Research Methods in Criminal Justice Administration 5
1. Use the CSU Online Library to find at least five scholarly sources that are related to your topic. The sources should be no more than five years old. You are
allowed to use the same five sources that you identified in the Unit II assignment, Part 1A.
a. When using the CSU Online Library there are various databases that allow you to check a box that says you only want “peer-reviewed” sources. You will need to make
sure you check this box to ensure that the sources you identify for your literature review are scholarly peer-reviewed sources.
b. If there is no research available on your topic, contact your instructor about how you should proceed in finding research for your literature review.
2. Begin your literature review with a very brief discussion of your research topic and related questions and/or hypothesis.
3. Briefly summarize a) research focus, b) research methodology, and c) key findings of the scholarly sources that you identified for use in your literature review.
4. Critically evaluate the findings of each study in relation to your research topic, questions, and/or hypothesis. This can include comparing and contrasting each
study’s findings, a discussion of the weaknesses of the study’s methodologies, and identification of the needs for future study as a result of the study’s findings.
The critical evaluation of the studies in relation to your research topic, questions, and/or hypothesis can either come at the end of each summary of the scholarly
sources or it can come at the end of the literature review after all of the summaries of the scholarly sources have been provided. Note: The main purpose of the
literature review is to:
a. discuss the available research related to your topic and
b. identify how that research relates to your topic and informs the methodology that you will use to conduct your study. Both of these elements must be present in the
literature review. Thus, while you are not required to provide your research methodology in this assignment, the literature review should allow for an easy transition
into your research methodology that you will present in Part 3 of the research report.
5. Cite all your sources in APA format, both in-text and in the reference list.
6. Ensure the assignment is a minimum of two double-spaced pages.

To give you an idea of what is expected for this assignment, an example of an excerpt of a literature review is provided below.
Note: There are many ways to structure a literature review. Additional examples can be found in the scholarly sources you review and from the CSU Success Center.
Literature Review Example:
Conducting research on special populations such as prison inmates continues to be a topic that is widely discussed among social science researchers in the field of
criminal justice. The discussions around this topic center on two main issues: 1) what type of research is ethically appropriate, and 2) what entity should be
responsible for ensuring that ethical protections are adhered to.
Wilfred (2015) interviewed the commissioner of corrections and directors of institutional research from 20 states. The purpose of the study was to determine whether or
not there was agreement between practitioners and academics in the field of criminal justice about how research should be conducted on prison inmates. Findings suggest
that there is general agreement that research should be conducted, but there is very little agreement about how the research should be conducted.
ADDITIONAL SOURCES WOULD BE SUMMARIZED IN A SIMILAR MANNER.
Research has demonstrated that there is general consensus that researching prison inmates is possible and that it should be done ethically. However, much of the
available research on conducting research on prison inmates did not identify any consistency about which entity should be responsible for making sure that the ethical
protections are not violated when conducting research on prison inmates. In addition, there is very little research that includes the voices of prison inmates
regarding conducting print research on prison inmates. This study is designed to further explore what types of ethical research are appropriate on prison inmates and
who should enforce those ethical protections. This study differs from existing studies on this topic in that prison inmates will be asked those questions…(Wilfred,
2015).
Reference
Wilfred, S. (2015). Researching prison inmates: Practitioner and academic perspectives. NoWhere, USA: Spurious Publications.
Note: This example briefly highlighted the research topic, briefly summarized the scholarly sources, provided a critical evaluation, and ended with a discussion of how
the existing research in the field is related to the study that the researcher writing the literature review will conduct. MCJ 5532, Research Methods in Criminal
Justice Administration 6
Unit IV Project
Part 3: Research Methodology
For this assignment, you will complete a research methodology that is the part of the research report in which you thoroughly and specifically discuss the methods that
you will use to evaluate your research questions and/or hypotheses. It is in the methodology that the researcher is able to present his or her study design so it is
clear to the reader how the data will be collected to allow the researcher to explore his or her topic as discussed in the previous sections of the research report.
To prepare your research methodology, complete the following tasks:
1. Begin your research methodology with a very brief discussion of your research focus and a list of your related questions and/or hypothesis.
2. Discuss the main variables that will be explored in your study. Be sure to specify how those variables will be measured.
a. For example, if you were interested in studying the relationship between sex and illegal drug use, you would need to make sure to specify what information you want
to collect for each variable. For sex, you could choose to measure it as having the attributes of a male or female. For illegal drug use, you could choose to measure
it by looking at the number of times someone was arrested for possession of illegal drugs. You could further distinguish that by only looking at the amount of drugs
that someone was arrested with and determining based on the weight, whether it was considered possession for personal consumption or distribution. This is just a brief
example of how the variables could be measured. There are a variety of other ways in which these two variables could be measured. Thus, you can see why it is important
to not only identify the variables but to also specify how the variables will be measured.
3. Present your research methodology. You need to ensure that the specific steps you will follow to explore your research questions and/or hypotheses are clear to the
reader. Avoid the use of general statements and direct quotes from the textbook about what should be included in the research methodology. Your task is to discuss in
your own words what you would specifically do to study your research topic. What steps would you engage in to ensure that your proposed study properly explores the
research questions and/or hypotheses that you developed? In your methodology, you need to discuss the following concepts:
a. Research design
i. Note: Remember to refer back to Unit II Assignment, Part 1C where you discussed your research design.
ii. Include a discussion of the methodological approach (i.e., qualitative, quantitative, or mixed method).
iii. Include a discussion of how threats to internal and external validity are addressed.
b. Participant selection process
c. Include a discussion of the participant characteristics and related ethical considerations.
d. Data collection process
i. Include a discussion or an example of the data collection techniques (e.g., surveys, case studies, participant observation, unobtrusive measures, and secondary
data).
ii. Include a discussion of the step-by-step procedures you will follow to collect the data from your study participants using your data collection technique.
iii. You will be formulating your data collection techniques but not actually collecting the data.
e. Protection of human subjects
i. Include a brief discussion about how your research study’s methodology will ensure human subject(s) protections (e.g., minimal harm to participants, consent, and
confidentiality). Such statements may address the submission of your study protocol to an institutional review board (IRB), or a U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (DHHS) review, or compliance with National Institute of Justice (NIJ) human subject requirements.
f. Study timeline
i. Include a brief sketch of the anticipated timeline associated with conducting your study from the IRB review to the completion of data collection.
4. Cite all your sources in APA format, both in-text and in the reference list.
5. Ensure the research methodology is a minimum of four double-spaced pages.