Purpose of the Assignment: . This paper is meant to outline your debate and provide a written summary

This assignment entails reading what we have so far in the paper, organizing the reference list, and writing a 2 page conclusion.
Purpose of the Assignment: . This paper is meant to outline your debate and provide a written summary
of the material you are going to present. You are required to use the theoretical discussion we have had
in the lectures to make your argument in addition to peer reviewed articles. Remember, although
criminology is not a hard science, it is part of social sciences, thus its practice requires rigorous
discipline and knowledge of the scientific method. In other words, your arguments must be logical,
supported by evidence, and methodically presented. To do that, you must put any personal opinion
aside, and only present arguments that are supported by logic and evidence, even if they contradict your
previously held belief. At the end of the day, your opinion is as valid and important as the evidence that
you have in its support. Furthermore, all of your arguments and evidence must be grounded in your
theoretical framework. This all might sound difficult and abstract, but once you read a few good papers
you will get a hang of what it is that you are expected to do.
Beyond everything else, we are interested to see if you can make a good logical argument that represents
a particular point of view. Remember you MUST take sides. A good way of making sure that all your
points relate and fallow one another is to ask yourself one question after making a statement or
presenting a supportive data: “so what?” You can list pages of facts but if you don’t frame them within a
theoretical framework, they become useless. As an old professor of mine used to say, “social science
without theory is stamp collecting.” In your paper you should:
(1) Provide an introduction that is informative, and summarizes all the material that are to come
(about 1 page)
(2) Using theory, provide a critical overview of the history of the problem including initial
introduction of the policy, its evolution over time, and the socio-historical factors that gave rise
to its introduction and evolution. (about 2 pages)
(3) Continuing to apply theory, present both sides of the debate in a coherent and organized manner
using peer reviewed articles to support your position (about 3 pages)
(4) Tell me which side of the debate you have landed on and why? Here, you are freer to make an
argument that is based your overall conclusions and frame of reference. Feel welcome to use this
opportunity to make policy recommendations. (about 2 pages)
(5) Provide a conclusion that ties your paper together (about 2 pages) ADD 2 NEW REFERENCES
You are mostly focusing on writing the conclusion and organizing the paper as well.
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO EDIT THE PREVIOUS BUT PLEASE ENSURE TO HIGHLIGHT THE PARTS YOU EDITED.