Introduction to Criminology

Strategy Paper

Instructions

 

Politicians want to show that they have made progress in addressing certain problems while in office, and the crime problem is no exception. The president of the United States has appointed you to lead a crime task force. Your mission is to design a strategy to address two crime problems:

 

the most difficult crime problem to address

the easiest crime problem to address

The president wants to show his effectiveness by solving at least one crime problem, hence, his interest in solving the easiest crime problem. The president believes that this will increase perceptions of his success in office. At the same time, the president recognizes that the most difficult crime problems to solve are often the most serious, and wants to communicate his commitment to trying to address these problems as well, hence, his interest in developing a plan to deal with the most difficult crime problem, a plan that the president can describe to the American people as part of an ongoing effort.

 

You will write a report in which you present your recommendations to the president. Consult your textbook index for a list of crime types, (chapters 52-70). Think about the information on the different crimes and select one crime that you believe is the most difficult to address and one crime that you believe is the easiest. Your report should consist of the following elements:

 

Introduction (Introduce the topic and mission of the report.)

 

Crime #1 (Describe the characteristics of the crime you believe to be the most difficult to address: prevalence, trends, costs, etc. Be specific in presenting information on this crime.)

 

Plan to Address Crime #1 (Describe the plan you are presenting to the president to address this particular crime problem. Again, be specific in describing the steps that will be taken (who will do what, for how long, with what resources).

 

Crime #2 (Describe the characteristics of the crime you believe to be the easiest to address: prevalence, trends, costs, etc. Be specific in presenting information on this crime.)

 

Plan to Address Crime #2 (Describe the plan you are presenting to the president to address this particular crime problem. Again, be specific in describing the steps that will be taken (who will do what, for how long, with what resources).

 

Conclusion (Summarize what you have presented in the body of the report.)

 

The sources you use for this assignment should include the textbook, and two peer-reviewed journal articles from Project 1. Significant amounts of information from the peer-reviewed journal articles and textbook sources from Project 1 should be incorporated into your paper.

 

In addition to presenting information from your sources, demonstrate your critical thinking skills in applying the course material and the information from the peer-reviewed journal articles to your plans to address the two crimes you selected.

 

Format Requirements

 

Each of the above elements should be preceded by a subtitle (Introduction, Crime #1, Plan to Address Crime #1, etc.). This makes it easy for the reader to keep track of where he or she is in the report.

 

· Paper should be a minimum of 1,000 words or about four pages

 

· Double space

 

· 12 pt. font

 

· 1” margins

 

· Use APA citations for all sources

 

· Include APA reference page (not included in word count)

 

Note: Use the automatic word count feature in your word processor to make sure that you meet the minimum 1,000-word requirement.