Introduction to Criminology

One of the major forms of research conducted by criminologists is searching for and analyzing information in published materials. These materials include

• peer-reviewed journal articles (articles published in academic journals)
• government documents (reports such as those published by the National Institute of Justice [NIJ], FBI, etc.)
• mass media reports (articles in major newspapers [The New York Times, The Washington Post, etc.] and electronic media outlets [ABC, Fox, CNN, etc.])

Each of these kinds of information sources has its strengths and weaknesses. Depending on the kind of research a criminologist is conducting, one of these may prove more useful than the others.

Your mission in this assignment is to find three examples of publications, articles, reports, or stories from each of these kinds of information sources. You will have a total of nine sources‚ three for each information source type. The topics of the works must be pertinent to some aspect of crime and justice.

Use the Internet to locate the government documents and mass media reports, and use the UMUC online library to obtain the peer-reviewed journal articles. Then, write a report on what you found. In your report, please do the following:

• Provide an APA reference for each of the nine works.
• Annotation – After each APA reference, provide a brief description of the work. Each of the nine descriptions should be at least 100 words in length. The description should tell your reader what the work is about.
• Summary – After this, write an analysis of the value of each of the three types of information sources (article, report, media news item) from which you gathered examples. In other words, after describing each of the nine works, present a discussion of what you learned about the value to criminologists of peer-reviewed journal articles versus government documents versus mass media reports. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each? We are looking for some critical thinking about these sources here!

Format Requirements

· Paper should be in American Psychological Association (APA) format

· Double space

· 12 pt. font

· 1” margins

· Use APA citations for all sources

· Include reference page using APA format guidelines (not included in word count)

NOTE: Support materials are available in the classroom to assist you with APA formatting requirements.