The paper for this course requires students to select one criminological theory and evaluate how that theory affects an individuals decision to engage in criminal behavior as well as how the theory assists criminal justice officials in understanding criminal behavior. 

This research paper is broken down into the following two components that will be completed during the course: 

1) During this unit, you will submit a draft of a research paper that discusses the selected criminological theory, including an overview of your research paper and a review of reference sources. 

2) During Unit VII, students will submit the final research paper. 

More detailed descriptions of each component are provided in the specific units. You will be expected to incorporate any recommended changes suggested by your professor to resources and the criminological theory section. 

Research Paper Part I 

For this assignment, you will submit part I of your research paper. Part I of the research paper includes both an overview of the research project and a review of source references. You will select the criminological theory you are writing about and locate four academic sources to support your paper. Then, you will give an overview of your topic and a brief review of the literature you have selected. This part of your research paper should have the following components: 

a) An overview of your selected theory. In this section, you must identify the criminological theory that will serve as the basis for your research project and briefly describe that theory. Then, relate that theory to the U.S. criminal justice system and explain how the components of the U.S. criminal justice system, law enforcement, the judiciary, incarceration, and rehabilitation, support this theory. 

b) A review of the literature that will be included in your final paper. This section should include at least four academic sources, and you should give a brief description of each source and describe why it is relevant to your chosen topic. It should also compare and contrast the findings of the sources you have selected in relation to your topic. The intent of providing a review of sources is to demonstrate the student is headed in the right direction with research for the paper. 

Your paper must be at least two pages in length, not counting the title and reference page. The references must include a minimum of four scholarly resources and/or legal cases (stare decisis) that you plan to utilize in the research paper. Your paper must be formatted using APA style, and it should include a title page, running head, and reference page. Any information from your selected sources must be cited both in-text and on the reference list.