Choosing an Issue in Crime/Criminology

Choose an issue in crime/criminology from one of the following areas:

1. Choose an issue in crime/criminology from one of the following areas:

(a) Race, Crime, and Urban Inequality

(b) Drug Dealers 

(c) Thieves

(d) White-Collar Crime

(e) Delinquency and Parental Controls

(f) Urban Black Violence

(g) State-Organized Crime

(h) Black Violence in Chicago

(i) Fraternities and Rape on Campus

(j) Women who commit serious violent crimes

2. Based on the issue in crime which you have chosen you will be provided with an article from a sociological or criminological journal on your topic.

3. Relate your article to one of the following criminological theories that were covered in class and in your text:

(a) Social Disorganization theories

(b) Strain and Subcultural theories

(c) Social Learning (Differential Association), Neutralization, and Social Control theories

(d) Conflict and Marxist theories

(e) Feminist theories

4. Discuss the following topics as they relate to your article and the criminological theory that you have chosen:

(a) Basic Idea and Major Theorists

(b) The Role of Law, the Definition of Crime, and the Image of the Criminal

(c) Causal Logic

(d) Criminal Justice System Implications, including Criminal Justice Policy and Correctional Ideology and Techniques of Crime Control.

5. Conclude by providing an evaluation/criticism of the article that you have chosen.  The criticism can come from a different criminological theory than the one that you have chosen, which looks at your issue of crime in a different light.  For example, Strain theories of crime are criticized by Marxist and conflict theories for only focussing on lower-class crime because strain theory provides little analysis of how crime is constructed by the powerful and it is based on official statistics.

6. Adequate citations, endnotes, and references must be provided in order to avoid PLAGIARISM.  In class, we will go over the proper format that you should use for references.