In this assignment, you will apply the theories
you have studied to a particular crime. Conduct an Internet search and
find an article about a crime in which you are interested. Crime stories are in the news every day, so this
should be easy to accomplish.
Then, analyze three theories in terms of how useful they are in
explaining the crime that you selected. You may also choose to use other
theories based on your own cited research.
For instance, if you chose a violent crime, such as rape, you would
analyze how useful each of three theories (one from each category) is in
explaining why the offender in the case you chose committed the crime.
Your paper should have the following sections:
Introduction (Introduce the topic and mission of the paper to your reader.)
The Crime (Describe the characteristics of the criminal incident you
found, then describe what we know about this type of crime more
generally. . . prevalence, trends, costs, etc.)
Theory I (Describe the main features of the chosen theory, then discuss
how useful a specific theory from this category is in explaining the
crime.)
Theory II (Describe the main features of the chosen theory, then discuss
how useful a specific theory from this category is in explaining the
crime.)
Theory III (Describe the main features of the chosen theory, then
discuss how useful a specific theory from this category is in explaining
the crime.)
Conclusion (Explain, in your view, which of the three theories is most
useful in explaining the criminal incident you chose. Then, discuss the
implications of this theory for criminal justice policy in general. What
should the criminal justice system do to try to address the kind of
crime that you chose in light of the explanation for the crime that you
found to be most useful?)
The sources you use for this assignment should include the article on
the crime you chose, the textbook, and two peer-reviewed journal
articles, either from the article you researched in Project One (if
applicable) or other articles you identify to connect theory to crime.
Significant amounts of information from peer-reviewed journal articles
and your textbook should be incorporated into your paper.
In addition to presenting information from your sources, do some
significant critical thinking in applying the theoretical material we
have covered to the real case that you select.