Criminology 1100-3 Written Assignment

Criminology 1100-3 Written Assignment

Criminology 1100-3 Written Assignment

1. The topic of your paper 

2. Your thesis -- A thesis is one sentence that captures the central/core/key argument of your paper. Your thesis should explicitly express a stand/position that you are taking. By reading your thesis, the reader should be able to determine the general direction your paper is taking 

3. In order to provide an integrated review of the research on a particular criminological topic, your research paper must include at least 5-6 scholarly sources (a combination of scholarly textbooks and peer-reviewed academic journals)

 4. Evaluation – The paper will be graded on: appropriateness of topic and relevance to course materials; quality of academic and course sources lending support to the thesis statement; content, writing (e.g., grammar, spelling); adherence to APA style

Choose 1 of the following paper topics and write an informed paper by incorporating relevant academic (scholarly) sources:

1. List and describe several factors that are most important in shaping the public’s perception of crime and in influencing national crime prevention policies. 

2. Are criminals rational decision makers, or are they motivated by non-controllable psychological and emotional drives?

 3. Sociological perspectives are important to the study of crime. Select three social structural/social learning and/or social control theories and use these perspectives to account for economic crime.

 4. Would you recommend that young children be forbidden to view films and video games with violent content? 

5. Criminology benefits from integrating insights from other disciplines. Select three biological, psychological and/or sociological perspectives and utilize these frameworks to make sense of violent crime. 

6. Crime is rampant in the lower-mainland and it is said to be largely driven by the poverty-stricken living conditions many people find themselves in. Discuss social structural theories (social disorganization, strain and subculture theory) to help explain why places such as the Vancouver Downtown East-side 2 (commonly referred to as ‘Skidrow’) or Whalley (in Surrey) experience drug abuse, sex work (prostitution) and high levels of property and violent crime. Formulate an overall opinion on the utility of sociological explanations in aiding in the understanding of crime in specific locales.