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Criminal Justice Research Methods

For this assignment, you will complete the process of identifying variables and specifying them into something measurable. There are multiple steps involved in this assignment.

  1. You will start by choosing a topic related to criminal justice. If you wish, you may continue with the topic you chose for Assignment 1. If not, make sure you choose a topic related to criminal justice – if you are worried about if your topic meets the criteria, please email me and I will let you know. After you choose a topic, you need to either write a hypothesis or research question related to your topic. This question/hypothesis should be clearly stated an include both your dependent and independent variables in the statement.
  2. Next you will identify and operationalize your dependent variable(s) AND at least one (1) independent variable.
  • Make sure you identify if the variable are your independent or dependent variables, with a brief explanation as to how you identified it as such.
  • As part of your operationalization for each variable involved (i.e., dependent AND independent), identify the level of measurement for each variable (e.g., nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio).
  • Remember operationalization is when you explain how you will measure your variable. For instance, if one of your variables is income, you may want to measure this is dollars earned per year. Specifically, you may ask people to choose from the following categories: $0-10,000; $10,001-25,000; $25,001-50,000; $50,001-75,000; more than $75,000.
    • Make sure that if you provide categories, they are exhaustive (cover all possible attributes) and exclusive (you can only choose one category).
  1. You will then describe how your study will be best completed by identifying what method you might use and what type of study you may conduct.
  • Is this study basic or applied? Explain.
  • Is this study cross-sectional or longitudinal? Explain.
  • What method might you want to use? Interview, survey, direct observation, official records, something else? Explain
  1. Finally, are there any ethical concerns that you can foresee for your study? Ethical concerns could include using special populations, privacy concerns, potential harm to participants, etc. (There will be at least one ethical concern.)

Be aware: This assignment should be written like a paper – in paragraphs. Additionally, this paper should be at least 400 words (Title page (does not count toward word requirement), Times New Roman, 12 point font, double-spaced, APA format, 1-inch margins).