Research Methods in Criminal Justice. GRADUATE SYLLABUS School of Criminal Justice

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1 Research Methods in Criminal Justice GRADUATE SYLLABUS School of Criminal Justice CJ 5113/CRN: T/TH 8:00-9:15 LAR 237/LAB 129 CJ 5113/CRN: T/TH 12:30-1:45 LAR 237/LAB 129 Rashi K. Shukla, Ph.D. Ph Office: COM Office Hours: Tuesdays (9:20am-11:20am, 1:00pm-1:30pm, & 3:00pm-4:15pm), Thursdays (9:20am-10:45am) & by appointment. COMPUTER LAB: LAR 129 on group meeting dates & as otherwise scheduled. Lab time will begin after lecture/discussion on days when additional time is needed. is needed. Texts: 1) Required: Maxfield, Michael G. & Babbie, Earl Basics of Research Methods for Criminal Justice & Criminology. 3rd ed. Thomson Wadsworth. ISBN: ) Required: Mosher, C. J., Miethe, T., D., & Hart, T., C The Mismeasure of Crime. 2 nd ed. Sage Publications. ISBN: ) Required: Additional course readings available via D2L 4) Recommended: American Psychological Association Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 6th edition. ISBN-13: Prerequisite(s): CJ 3643 and SOC 3633 with a minimum grade of C or permission of the instructor. Course Description: According to the University of Central Oklahoma Graduate Catalog, this course is described as follows: Research Methods in Criminal Justice is designed to acquaint students with quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, including an in-depth analysis of the following: conceptualization of research, types of sampling strategies, data collection methods, research design and proposal writing. 1

2 Course Objectives: Successful completion of this course will prepare the student to: 1) Identify the purposes of conducting scientific research and address methodological issues necessary for conducting and critically analyzing criminological research; 2) Differentiate between the various forms of data collection and sampling techniques used in criminal justice research; 3) Demonstrate knowledge of the general issues in research design, including criteria for causality, types of validity, units of analysis, types of research design, and stages in the research process; 4) Analyze the problematic issues associated with the conceptualization and measurement of criminal justice topics; 5) Compare and contrast the diverse ways crime is measured and demonstrate knowledge of the strengths and limitations of each method; 6) Synthesize the different types of data used in criminological research and the key issues associated with evaluation research, policy analysis and general analyses of criminological data; 7) Prepare an original research proposal that addresses the various aspects of research design. Transformational Learning Outcomes University of Central Oklahoma is a learning-centered organization committed to transformative education through active engagement in the teaching-learning interchange, scholarly and creative pursuits, leadership, global competency, healthy lifestyles, and service to others. This course addresses two of the university s transformative learning goals. Scholarly and creative pursuits and leadership will be addressed through the collaborative creation of an original research proposal and presentation of research and other course materials to the class. Course Requirements: Students are responsible for the timely completion of all assignments and exams, and are expected to come to class prepared each week for class discussion. This course will include lectures, class discussion, in-class writing assignments, and videos. You will be held responsible for all materials presented in class regardless of whether you are present or not. Attendance: Graduate students are expected and required to attend all scheduled classes and work on their own research proposals individually in the computer lab on undergraduate group meeting days. Graduate students are expected to participate in class discussions. 20 points may be deducted from the final grade for failing to attend class and/or participate. 2

3 Reading Assignments & Mini-Quizzes: Students are expected to complete weekly reading assignments and come to class prepared for lectures and class discussion. There will be 10 mini-quizzes throughout the semester over assigned weekly readings. Each mini-quiz will be worth 10 points. Mini-quizzes will either be administered in class or online. For in-class quizzes, students must be present to be eligible to receive credit. Missing a mini-quiz will result in a loss of points. Students are responsible for all assigned reading materials regardless of whether they are covered in class or not. Lack of classroom participation may result in a pop-quiz at any time. Exams: There are two exams in this course. Exams may consist of true-false, multiple-choice, matching, short answer and/or essay questions. Each exam is worth 100 points. Students are required to bring a green scantron, #2 pencil, and ink pen to each exam. Graduate students should expect that there will be essay questions on each exam and should bring a SMALL blue book for the essay portion of the exam. Essay answers must be legible to receive credit. The mid-term exam will be taken over two separate class periods to allow for adequate time for the exam. Details on the precise format of the exam will be discussed in class. The instructor reserves the right to determine the precise nature of the final exam on the basis of classroom participation and cooperation. An exam covering the most recent materials reviewed will be provided for good classroom behavior and participation. Continual class disruptions throughout the semester will result in a comprehensive, essay final exam for the entire class. Make-up Exam Policy: Students are expected to take class examinations on the day they are scheduled, and are expected to be on time for exams. Missing an exam for any reason will result in a 10 point grade deduction on the exam. Arriving to an exam up to 15 minutes late will automatically result in a 10 point grade deduction. Students arriving to an exam after the 15 minute grace period will not be allowed to take the exam. Advance notification and approval are required for make-up examinations, and official documentation must be provided to the instructor in cases when make-up exams are approved. Make-up examinations will only be considered for students attending Provost-approved, university-sponsored activities, or students with serious illnesses or injuries. The right to determine whether or not a student is allowed to make-up a missed exam will be determined solely according to the discretion of the instructor. Students will have only one opportunity to take the make-up exam. Missing the make-up exam for any reason will result in a zero for that exam. Research Proposal: The Board of Regents and the College of Liberal Arts require writing assignments for 3000, 4000, and 5000 level classes. Each graduate student is expected to complete an original, research proposal. Specific guidelines for this assignment will be discussed during the first weeks of school. Proposals will not be returned. 3

4 Graduate students are required to work on their proposals during scheduled computer lab and will be encouraged to assist one another and work with the instructor. Students will be required to present their preliminary research design during a mid-semester mini-presentation; a final present on the proposal and research design will be presented the last weeks of class. Chapter Presentation Graduate students will be expected to take a leading role in classroom discussions, and will be required to present a segment of the course-related materials. Each graduate student will pick a topic/chapter and will be responsible for taking a leading role in the lecture on the scheduled day. Graduate students are encouraged to create discussion questions, in-class activities and/or bring in outside materials to complement course readings for their presentation. Further details will be discussed in class. Mismeasure of Crime Lecture & Presentation Each graduate student will be required to complete a presentation of materials presented in the text Mismeasure of Crime. Further guidelines will be provided the first weeks of class. No late work will be accepted. Term papers and other assignments must be turned in at the beginning of class on the day they are due. Late assignments will not be accepted. Students caught cheating on an assignment or during an examination forfeit that grade. NO EXCEPTIONS WILL BE MADE. A zero will automatically be given. Students are advised to refer to the UCO Student Code of Conduct for more information. Students do not have permission to sell course lectures or notes. Use the function within D2L to contact the professor. By default, course s are forwarded to student UCO address. The course instructor will regularly check the course during the week. Students can expect to receive a response to an within hours (i.e., on business days). Please follow these instructions when sending s to the professor: 1) Include a subject heading that describes the topic of the (e.g., Question about exam 2) Include the course number, name, or time of class in the subject line (except for s sent within D2L) 3) Include a proper introduction at the beginning of the (e.g., Dear Professor or Dr. Shukla) 4) End the with your name D2L This course will utilize Learn@UCO (Desire2Learn/D2L) and be accessible from any computer with access to the Internet. To access Learn@UCO, log in to the University of Central Oklahoma s campus portal page, UCONNECT at and access the course through the course list or login to D2L directly via 4

5 Students unfamiliar with the technological requirements and settings for D2L should complete the following online student tutorials and orientation modules provided under the UCO Student Resources tab on the D2L homepage. Technical Support Students experiencing technical problems should contact the University of Central Oklahoma Service Desk / Technology Support via phone at (405) , (support@uco.edu) or in person at the walk-up desk. Detailed information about obtaining technical support is available online at Tutoring (if available) A course tutor may be available to assist students with the learning of course materials. Tutoring sessions will not be like formal class sessions. Students should go to tutoring sessions prepared with their course materials and use the time to discuss concepts and issues that were covered in class and ask questions. The goal of the tutoring sessions is to assist students with course information, not to provide specific feedback on the proposal assignment. The instructor retains the right to take tutoring attendance into account when deciding borderline grades. Plagiarism All writing assignments that you submit for this course must either be entirely your own, or properly referenced/cited. Violations constitute plagiarism. Students who plagiarize may receive a failing grade on the assignment and in the course. A case involving plagiarism is usually referred to the Discipline Committee, which can recommend in extreme cases dismissal from the University. There are two major types of plagiarism: 1. Word-for-word copying, without acknowledgement, of another writer. Having another person write or dictate all or part of one s composition is plagiarism. In addition, you should not copy a printed passage, no matter how brief, without acknowledging its source. 2. The unacknowledged paraphrasing of an author s ideas. You should not take credit for another person s thoughts. Any distinctive, original idea taken from another write should be credited to its author. If you are uncertain about the distinctiveness of an author s idea, it is best to acknowledge the author. Rejection Policy The instructor reserves the right to reject all assignments, including research proposals and research papers, deemed inappropriate for the assignment. Examples of reasons for papers to be rejected include the following reasons: failure to follow specific guidelines and instructions, incorrect citation format, not using the minimum number of required references, plagiarism. Rejected work will be returned, ungraded, to the student. The student will be notified via , with an explanation detailing why the paper is rejected. Rejected products will receive a grade of zero. The instructor reserves the right to determine whether a revised assignment or paper will be accepted. If a make-up opportunity is allowed, the student will have one week to resubmit the assignment; revised papers will be considered late and will be penalized with a loss of points. 5

6 Fatal Error Policy 1 Students should know (or learn) how to write properly and in a professional manner. All written work should meet certain standards. For this course, there are three (3) main areas of writing that students will be expected to know. If students do not do as instructed, there will be consequences. The three areas are citations, following directions, and grammar and spelling. Citations Sources, quotations, and materials directly or indirectly obtained from external sources must correctly be cited. Failing to cite sources will result in an automatic zero for the assignment. Following Directions- Failing to follow the directions for an assignment or course activity will result in an automatic 30% reduction in grade for the assignment. Grammar and Spelling Assignments and other work should be free of grammar and spelling mistakes. If submitted work contains an 5 or more grammar and/or spelling mistakes, the final grade will be penalized with a 30% reduction in grade. Examples of common mistakes include: Misspelled word Sentence fragment Run-on sentence Capitalization mistake Serious error in punctuation Error in verb tense or subject/verb agreement If you have trouble writing, please visit with writing center on campus (part of Tutoring Central). It helps to read your work out loud. You will catch many mistakes that way. Additionally it is always a good idea to have someone else proofread your work. Turnitin.com Plagiarism Syllabus Statement UCO subscribes to the Turnitin.com plagiarism prevention service. Students agree that by taking this course, all required assignments may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. All submitted assignments will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com restricted access reference database for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such assignments. Use of the Turnitin.com service is subject to the Terms and Conditions of Use posted on the Turnitin.com website. Turnitin.com is just one of various plagiarism prevention tools and methods which may be utilized by your faculty instructor during the terms of the semesters. The UCO Student Handbook outlines the process for contesting plagiarism allegations. ADA Statement Regarding Special Accommodations The University of Central Oklahoma complies with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of Students with disabilities who need special accommodations must contact Disability Support Services in room 309 of the Nigh University Center, (405) It is the student s responsibility to contact the instructor as soon as possible after the DSS has verified the need for accommodations to ensure that such 1 Modified from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville s Fatal Error Policy--Adopted by the School of Business faculty on November 13, Retrieved 12/7/12 from 6

7 accommodations are implemented in a timely fashion. Additional information about the Office of Disability Support Services (DSS) is available at Spring 2014 Syllabus Attachment Refer to the UCO Fall 2013 syllabus attachment for additional course information. The syllabus attachment is posted online and is also available from the UCO Office of Academic Affairs website. Expectation of Work OSHRE II-2-34 Statement: It is expected that a full-time college student will spend time each week in class attendance and study out of class approaching a 40-hour work week. A person employed on a full-time basis should not simultaneously expect to maintain a full-time schedule. At the undergraduate level, this means that for each hour in class, a student is expected to spend at least two hours doing homework. Course Points Grading Scale / Points Exam points A = [ ] Exam points B = [ ] Chapter Presentation 30 points C = [ ] Mismeasure of Crime 30 points D = [ ] Proposal Presentation 10 points F = 65 & fewer [307 & fewer] Mini-quizzes 100 points Proposal 100 points Total Points 470 points Course Outline The following reading plan ad exam schedule is tentative and subject to revision during the semester. Announcements about changes to this schedule will be made in class and/or posted in D2L. Students are responsible for checking the course homepage and announcements weekly for updates or revisions to this schedule. Additional assignments and/or points may be added to course structure as the semester progresses. Week 1 January 13-17, 2014 Introduction to course Maxfield and Babbie Ch. 1 Criminal Justice & Scientific Inquiry 7

8 Week 2 January 20-24, 2014 Maxfield and Babbie Ch. 2 Ethics & Criminal Justice Research Article: Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience Preliminary proposal work Week 3 January 27-31, 2014 Article: Klinger, D. (2003). Social Theory & the Street Cop: The Case of Deadly Force Proposal Work (Jan. 30) Mini-Quiz #1 Week 4 February 3-7, 2014 Maxfield and Babbie Ch. 3 General Issues in Research Design Proposal Work (Feb. 6) Research Questions, Literature Review Mini-Quiz #2 Week 5 February 10-14, 2014 Maxfield and Babbie Ch. 4 Concepts, Operationalization & Measurement Article: ONDCP. (1994). Fact Sheet: Drug-Related Crime Article: Horney et al. (1995) Criminal Careers in the Short-Term: Intra-individual variability Proposal Work (Feb. 13) Mini-Quiz #3 Week 6 February 17-21, 2014 Maxfield & Babbie Ch. 6 Sampling Proposal Work (Feb. 20) Mini-Quiz #4 Week 7 February 24-28, 2014 Measuring Crime Presentation & Discussion graduate students Preliminary proposal mini-presentations Week 8 March 3-7, 2014 EXAM #1: Part I Tuesday (March 4) / Part II Thursday (March 6) 8

9 Week 9 March 10-14, 2014 Maxfield and Babbie Ch. 7 Survey Research & Other Ways of Asking Questions Article: Titus et al., (1995). Victimization of Persons by Fraud Proposal Work (March 13) Mini-Quiz #5 Week 10 March 17-21, 2014 Spring Break No Classes Week 11 March 24-28, 2014 Maxfield and Babbie Ch. 8 Field Research Article: Shearing & Stenning. (1997). From the panopticon to Disney World: The development of discipline. Article: Low et al., (2005). Battery Park City: An ethnographic field study of the community impact of 9/11. Article: Biernacki & Waldorf. (1981). Snowball Sampling: Problems & Techniques of Chain Referral Sampling. Proposal Work (March 27) Mini-Quiz #6 Week 12 March 31-April 4, 2014 Maxfield & Babbie - Ch. 9 Agency Records, Content Analysis & Secondary Data Article: Shukla et al., (2012). An evolving problem: Methamphetamine production & trafficking in the United States. Proposal Work (April 3) Mini-Quiz #7 Week 13 April 7-11, 2014 Ch. 5 Experimental & Quasi Experimental Designs Article: Sherman & Berk. (1984). The Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment. Research Proposals Due: Thursday, April 10, 2014 Mini-Quiz #8 Week 14 April 14-18, 2014 Maxfield & Babbie - Ch. 10 Evaluation Research & Policy Analysis Mini-Quiz #9 9

10 Week 15 April 21-25, 2014 Maxfield & Babbie Ch. 11 Interpreting Data (selected info. to be announced) Proposal Presentations begin Week 16 April 28-May 2, 2014 Proposal Presentations continue (if needed) Article: Managing Increasing Aging Inmate Populations OK Department of Corrections (October 2008) Article: Chiu. (2010). It s About Time: Aging Prisoners, Increasing Costs & Geriatric Release Article: LAPD Chief Bratton Speaks Out: What s Wrong with Criminal Justice Research & How to Make It Right Article: Wilson, J.A. (2007). Habilitation or harm: Project Greenlight and the potential consequences of correctional programming. Mini-Quiz #10 Week 17 May 5-9 [Final Exams] 2 CRN 25294: Thursday, May 8, 2014 from 7:00am-8:50am CRN 25280: Tuesday, May 6, 2014 from 11:00am-12:50pm Confirm date/time with Final Exam Schedule 2 Confirm date & time with UCO Final Exam Schedule. The instructor reserves the right to give the course final exam in-class or online. 10

11 Research Methods Criminal Justice Additional Assigned Reading List 3 Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal & Social Psychology, 67(4), [UCO Library online] Klinger, D. (2003). Social theory and the street cop: The case of deadly force. Ideas in American Policing #7. Washington, D.C.: Police Foundation. [ U.S. Department of Justice. (1994). Fact Sheet: Drug-Related Crime. NCJ ONDCP Drugs & Crime Clearinghouse. [ Horney, J., Osgood, D.W., and Marshall, I.H. (1995). Criminal careers in the short-term: Intraindividual variability in crime and its relation to local life circumstances. American Sociological Review, 60(5), [UCO Library online] Titus, R.M., Heinzelman, F. and Boyle, J.M Victimization of Persons by Fraud. National Institute of Justice Reprint from Crime & Delinquency, 41(1), [ Shearing, C.D. & Stenning, P.C. (1997). From the panopticon to Disney World: The development of discipline. [ Low, S.M., Taplin, D.H., & Lamb, M. (2005). Battery Park City: An ethnographic field study of the community impact of 9/11. Urban Affairs, 40(5), [ Biernacki, P. & Waldorf, D Snowball sampling: Problems and techniques of chain referral sampling. Sociological Methods & Research, 10(2), [columbiauniversity.us/itc/hs/pubhealth/p8462/misc/biernacki_lect4.pdf] Shukla, R., Crump, J. L., & Chrisco, E.S. (2012). An evolving problem: Methamphetamine production & trafficking in the United States. International Journal of Drug Policy, 23, [UCO Library online] Sherman, L.W. and Berk, R.A. (1984). The Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment. The Police Foundation Reports. [ Oklahoma Department of Corrections. (2008). Managing increasing aging inmate populations. [ 3 Links to all additional assigned readings have been posted in the D2L course 11

12 Chiu, T. (2010). It s about time: Aging prisoners, increasing costs and geriatric release. New York: Vera Institute of Justice. [ Ritter, N. (Ed.). (2007). LAPD Chief Bratton Speaks Out: What s Wrong with Criminal Justice Research & How to Make It Right. NIJ Journal No [ Wilson, J.A. (2007). Habilitation or harm: Project Greenlight and the potential consequences of correctional programming. NIJ Journal No [ 12