Research Paper  Decide on any important Criminal Justice topic or issue (In this case I chose Domestic Violence) (PTSD) Research and read several recent peer-reviewed articles on the topic and think of potential research questions Introduction: Introduce the topic and issue · History; context · Why is this criminal justice issue important? · Are there unanswered questions and/or more research needed? Is there call for policy reform (a problem)? · Identify the purpose of your research: significance and/or relevance Literature Review: What is the current peer-reviewed literature? Tell a “story”, not a list of findings · What have other people done about this or similar questions  · Tell a story: discuss the themes/agreements, discontinuities, breaks, disagreements, controversy etc. Emerging in recent literature about the topic . Only use quality sources and link them together : Google Scholar, journals from JJAY Library (a minimum of 5-10 peer-reviewed sources) · Key words and concepts relevant to the topic/question · Relevant theory  The literature review is a major contributor to the development of your project. It helps shape your question by enabling you to find out what has already been done. Weave together their contributions into a narrative (a story). Use the Literature Prep assignment (assignment 5) as a tool to help organize your thoughts and identify themes, contrasting thoughts, etc . (I will attach assignment #5 as a guideline) Decide and Define the Research Question: What question needs to be answered that has not yet been answered by someone else. · Make sure it is not too broad, not too difficult or unanswerable and in the context of the literature search and review. Is it feasible?  · State the research question precisely – your research will attempt to answer the question you pose  · 4 Kinds of questions that can form: 1 . What is the situation? 2 . What is going on here? 3 . What is related to what? 4 . What happens when…?  Methodology and Research Design: Your “plan” for the research…How you are going to answer your research question. Decide on the best and most appropriate way to accomplish this. You will be discussing which methods you will use and why. This should relate back to the purpose of the research and your question. Sampling Strategy: obtaining a portion of the larger population (total number of all possible individuals relating to a specific topic which could be included in the study) who will participate in the research. · Identify the population for the study: who (or what) to be studied. The group (or institution) that needs to be researched to answer the question  · Decide on sampling methodology: how are you going to get a sample of that population · Identify the exact procedure to obtain the sample (individuals participating in the study) · Includes: criteria an individual needs to have to be able to participate in this research, identifying potential participants, ga.

1. Research Paper
Decide on any important
Criminal Justice topic
or
issue
(In this case I chose Domestic Violence) (PTSD)
Research and
read several recent peer-reviewed articles
on the topic and think of potential research questions
Introduction:
Introduce the topic and issue
· History; context
· Why is this criminal justice issue important?
· Are there unanswered questions and/or more research needed?
Is there call for policy reform (a problem)?
· Identify the purpose of your research: significance and/or
relevance
Literature Review:
What is the current peer-reviewed literature? Tell a “story”, not
a list of findings
· What have other people done about this or similar questions
· Tell a story: discuss the themes/agreements, discontinuities,
breaks, disagreements, controversy etc. Emerging in recent
literature about the topic

2. . Only use quality sources
and link them together
: Google Scholar, journals from JJAY Library (a minimum of 5-
10 peer-reviewed sources)
· Key words and concepts relevant to the topic/question
· Relevant theory
The literature review is a major contributor to the development
of your project. It helps shape your question by enabling you to
find out what has already been done. Weave together their
contributions into a narrative (a story).
Use the Literature Prep assignment (assignment 5) as a tool to
help organize your thoughts and identify themes, contrasting
thoughts, etc
. (I will attach assignment #5 as a guideline)
Decide and Define the Research Question:
What question needs to be answered that has not yet been
answered by someone else.
· Make sure it is not too broad, not too difficult or
unanswerable and in the context of the literature search and
review. Is it feasible?
· State the research question precisely – your research will
attempt to answer the question you pose
· 4 Kinds of questions that can form:
1
. What is the situation?
2
. What is going on here?

3. 3
. What is related to what?
4
. What happens when…?
Methodology and Research Design:
Your “plan” for the research…How you are going to answer
your research question. Decide on the best and most appropriate
way to accomplish this. You will be discussing which methods
you will use and why. This should relate back to the purpose of
the research and your question.
Sampling Strategy: obtaining a portion of the larger population
(total number of all possible individuals relating to a specific
topic which could be included in the study) who will participate
in the research.
· Identify the population for the study: who (or what) to be
studied. The group (or institution) that needs to be researched to
answer the question
· Decide on sampling methodology: how are you going to get a
sample of that population
· Identify the exact procedure to obtain the sample (individuals
participating in the study)
· Includes: criteria an individual needs to have to be able to
participate in this research, identifying potential participants,
gaining access to the them, and selection process to achieve the
desired sample size for the research. (Larger the sample size the
better; Sample needs to be representative of the population)
Decide on a design frame based on the question and purpose of
the research – frame will guide the way you do the research

4. · Most common: Case study; Comparative research;
Ethnography; Evaluation; Experiment
· Data Collection – doing the research (what you do)
· Think about the research question: what options are available
to you? What are your time limitations and resources,
hypothetically?
· Identify exact data gathering procedure/technique: How will
the data be obtained, including the when, where, why for each
step…
· Methods using words: interviews, diaries, accounts, etc.;
Methods using words and/or numbers: questionnaires,
observations, etc.; Methods mainly using numbers: tests,
statistics
· Explain what you asked participants to do. Explain how and
when you used your instruments for data gathering. What steps
were taken and in what order?
· Describe and defend your choice of data-gathering instrument,
accounting for why you chose this rather than some other
technique
· Provide the instrument (survey, interview questions…): should
fit with the approach you decided to take; well thought out.
**Will be located in the Appendices**
Data Analysis: How are you going to analyze the information
you gathered, hypothetically?
· Analyzing words: identifying themes or categories; provide
insight/assign meaning; connections; content analysis; etc.

5. · Analyzing numbers: descriptive statistics, inferential
statistics; Use Excel or Statistical software to run tests; etc.
· Describe what you would expect to find/what it will tell you.
*You should be able to justify each approach (decision) you
took
**Expectations: sample size – larger the better for generalizing
results; reliability – similar results if you do the same again;
validity – you are sure you will find out what you set out to find
***Are you confident that your design is the best way to answer
the question? Consider all elements of the design (how you
identify participants, methods you use, issues) and the
implications these have
****Use assignments 6 and 7
(I will include my responses)
and my feedback to those assignments to help construct the
sampling and design frame/data collect portions of this section
Risks and Benefits / Confidentiality Issues
Describe risks and benefits for the participants - specifically
and detailed
Describe specifically are you going to protect confidentiality?
What steps are you going to take?
Discussion:
Drawing your conclusions
· Synthesize potential findings. Speculate on possible
explanations (findings support or reveals or confirms that)
· Includes showing how you answered your initial question

6. · What does this mean for the big picture
· Limitations of the research Restrictions faced; Focused only
on; Ethical considerations precluded; Based on sample unable to
generalize confidently
· Policy implications and/or recommendations
· Data analysis suggests
· Research implies policy changes in ____ because
· Future research ideas Future research needs to address
· Research on ___ would strengthen
Appendices
: Materials “used”, hypothetically
· Consent forms
· Data collection instruments
Annotated Bibliography
Other guidelines for writing and presentation:
1.
Times New Roman, 12-point font, double spaced, 1-inch
margins
2.
Cover page:

7. Title, course, name
3.
Number pages after the cover page
4.
All papers should be between
8-10 pages
including Bibliography (in APA style).
5.
Proper in text citations
(Introduction, Literature Review, Discussion) – must cite any
stats, quotes, ideas that are not your own
Before submitting the final product, ask yourselves these
questions:
1. What is my topic?
2. Does my literature review correspond with that topic?
3. Do my research question/s and hypotheses correspond with
the topic and literature review in that was used?
4. Is the population definition relevant and appropriate for the
topic and research question?
5. Does my sample size allow me to achieve the goals of my
proposed research?

8. 6. Is the sampling technique I am offering appropriate for the
proposed research?
7. Does the design correspond to the literature and question?
8. Is the data collection method I offered the most appropriate
for the scope of the study? *Each of the above questions/
guidelines will help you determine how solid the proposal is
(i.e. how valid it is).