The Impact of Family Issues on Criminal Justice System

Task:

Task:

This paper requires that you identify a topic/issue you are interested in which relates to the family and the criminal justice system and provide an overview of the issue.In this paper you will need to:

1) Define the issue
2) Describe how the issue impacts the family and the criminal justice system
3) Review the research and empirical evidence on the issue
4) Give examples of interventions or programs that are currently being used to address the issue or if none currently exist, then an example of a type of program(s), policy or intervention(s) that you feel will best address the issue

Section 1: Define the issue

You will need to pick a topic that is associated with the family and the criminal justice system. In this section, you need to clearly identify and/or define your issue. Do not be vague, be specific and clear.

Note: If you would like, you could combine this section and the second section (how the issue impacts the family and the criminal justice system).

Section 2: Describe how the issue impacts the family and the criminal justice system Clearly state how your issue is connected to the family and the criminal justice system. Some topics may have obvious connections while others may not. Regardless, explicitly state how the issue is connected to the family and in addition, how this issue is related to the criminal justice system. Again, do not be vague or expect that the connection is apparent. Note exactly how it is connected. You are not expected to go in-depth here since you will need to do that in your next section (the research and empirical evidence). You can however, briefly list and note the impacts that you plan to discuss in the next section.
Example: Let’s say you pick the topic of divorce and the impact on future criminality of children. You would start by clearly defining the issue of divorce (examples include the definition, types of divorce, any relevant statistics, etc.) You would then note how divorce impacts the family and then briefly highlight the connection between divorce and the criminal justice system. You may note that while there are many different potential impacts of divorce on children, you will be focusing on the impact on future criminality. You can highlight the different types of crime effects that you will be reviewing in your next section.

Section 3: Review the research and empirical evidence on the issue Students are expected to search online databases for research that relates to their topic and write a brief review of the literature on the topic. Your goal is to identify and review what previously published research on your topic has found to date. A literature review is a survey of important articles, books and other sources pertaining to your research topic. It is NOT an annotated bibliography. The review of the literature should identify and review what previously published research on your topic has found to date. You are not trying to list all the material published. Instead, select a limited number of works that are central to your topic rather than trying to collect a large number of works that are not as closely connected to your topic. You are trying to identify relevant information, describe, synthesize and present the key findings/conclusions.Again, a literature review is different from an annotated bibliography. An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and documents. Each citation is followed by a brief descriptive paragraph. This is NOT what you are being asked to do. You should not discuss each source one by one and simply regurgitate and repeat the information from each article. It is expected that 5-7 references (in addition to any readings that have already been assigned for the course) from respected journals, edited volumes or books in the field will be used (five is the minimum – you may have more than seven). Official news outlet sources are also acceptable, just remember it should be grounded in empirical research and not opinion. Avoid “fake news” sources. Remember you are reviewing the empirical evidence for your topic, not presenting the opinions of various people.