Assignment 1: LASA 2: Predicting Crime with the Uniform Crime Reporting System

In your final consulting assignment, the mayor of Centervale and the city counsel have asked you to help them understand how to better predict crime rates.

An important part of the criminal system is tracking data to help society develop a better understanding of crime and to prevent further crime in the United States. Every year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) releases a statistical report on crime in the United States, called the Uniform Crime Report (UCR). In this assignment, you will access this report, familiarize yourself with its functionalities, and analyze the data to develop a prediction.

All the information you provide is to be presented in a formal 3- to 6-page paper that properly uses subheadings to categorize information. Be sure to use specific information from external sources to support your ideas.

Part 1: Learning the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting System

Access the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting System at http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/ucr and familiarize yourself with the site.

Using research and data from the site, address the following:

• Explain how individual agencies classify information that is compiled into the report.
• Analyze and identify resources public safety officials, like sheriffs or police chiefs, have to classify or categorize crimes in their cities, counties, and states.
• Discuss the pros and cons of the Uniform Crime Reporting System and the yearly reports.

Part 2: Analyzing Specific Data

An important goal of the criminal justice system is to use the information gathered about crimes to understand and predict criminal behavior. Access the homepage of the UCR (http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/ucr) and complete the following steps:

1. Select a type of crime to research (e.g., “Violent Crime” or “Property Crime”). Then, choose a specific crime within one of those categories (e.g., Violent Crime: Murder).
2. You will need both national data and your state’s data for the crime you chose.
1. Choose your state to research that type of crime: Under “Browse By,” click “City Agency,” click “Table 8,” and choose a state.
2. Gather the national data for that type of crime: Under “Browse By,” click “National Data”; use the tables to answer the questions.

Using research and data from the site and other external sources, address the following:

• Explain how the UCR can help public safety officials predict crime and present crime rates to the American public.
• Based on the data and what you have learned in the course, forecast the criminal activity for the nation, your state, or a selected city.
• Compare the UCR data for the crime you selected with the same statistical information for that crime in 1950 (you will need to search for these statistics). Are there similarities or differences or can you infer from the data that the trends have remained the same?
• How can government officials use the crime statistics data from the 1970s to predict crime twenty years later? How reliable are the statistics in the UCR? Are law enforcement agencies required to report their criminal incidents for compilation in the yearly UCR?

Include a title page with your name, date, and assignment title and check for correct spelling, grammar, punctuation, mechanics, and usage. Provide at least three references (one may be your textbook) in the APA format that you used in writing your paper (make sure all your in-text citations link to a reference in your list). You should read the grading rubric before starting your paper to ensure you cover all the material appropriately.

Assignment 2: LASA # 1: Literature Review Paper

The purpose of this assignment is to provide you with the opportunity to select a topic in the particular area in which you have an occupational or research interest, and to complete a literature review of the topic, using a minimum of ten scholarly references. This will allow you to demonstrate mastery of the program outcomes for the B.A. psychology program at Argosy University. A helpful Web site for organizing and writing a literature review iswww.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/ReviewofLiterature.html.

You may also want to review the following documents that are available in the Doc Sharing area of the course:

• A sample literature review,
• a PowerPoint document illustrating how to set up your word processor for APA style
• a “Guide for Writing a Literature Review”

Based on your review of the most recent, relevant research findings on your chosen topic, submit a final version of your literature review paper, integrating feedback received from your instructor. Be sure to include a research/focal question, synthesis of the literature you reviewed, well-established conclusions, and points of discussion and/or future research. 

• Begin the review by defining the objective of the paper. Introduce the reader to your focal question. What is this question intended to address? You may state your “question” in the form of a problem if you like. Describe the topic for your literature review and why you chose this topic. Explain why you think it is important. It is also useful to tell the reader how the review is organized in your introduction section, before you the transition into the body of the review. 

• Organize your literature review paper by themes/theories/concepts, rather than article by article. If there is one major theme you want to highlight, state the theme. If there are three major themes or streams of thought on the topic, briefly name them—and then organize the balance of your literature review around those three streams. Think of themes, theories, concepts, lines of thought, and ideas as organizing strategies for your literature review. Your creativity in this assignment is not the content or findings but the clarity with which you organize the review and create a context for understanding the focal question.

• When you are done introducing the first line of thought, create a new paragraph to discuss studies which present another line of thought or opposing view.

• Your literature review should hit the high points of each article. You should not discuss a single article, one by one, like a grocery list. Zero in on the main theme or finding and then move on to the next theme. Remember, this is a synthesis, an integration of all the things you have learned. You are creating a discussion on paper, which in turn gives the reader a context for understanding where the scholarship has been, where it is currently, and where it likely will be heading next. Provide enough details to help the reader understand the significance of the studies you cite without “rebuilding Rome.” Be sure to evaluate the studies and offer critical comments on any shortcomings you’ve observed or that have been reported by the authors.

• Discuss the main findings and their implications. Given the results of your literature review, what is/are the prevailing argument(s)? What research question could you ask in order to further develop this area of study and contribute to the existing body of knowledge? Complete your review by drawing conclusions about your body of research and identifying gaps in the research which still remain to be explored, maybe even by you! Make an argument as to why your research question is important and relevant to the current work being done on your topic.

Requirements

Apply current APA standards for editorial style, expression of ideas, and formatting of the text, headings, citations, and references. Remember to use your own words to describe and evaluate the articles. Avoid quoting the material and also cite works when you are discussing someone else’s ideas. Your paper should be double-spaced and in 12 point, Times New Roman font with normal one-inch margins, written in APA style, and free of typographical and grammatical errors. It should include a title page with a running head, an abstract and a reference page. The body of the paper should be no less than 5–6 pages in length.

Submit your review paper to the M3: Assignment 2 Dropbox by Wednesday, March 11, 2015.