Writing the Hypothesis

Your hypothesis is a statement or prediction of what you will discover through your research. You will submit your thesis statement as well as a brief summary of the methods you will use to research (what types of research projects will you include)
Begin literature review
Your literature review will be the most comprehensive portion of this project. Next week you will submit your literature review that will consist of 8-10 sources. It would be advisable to begin this process as soon as possible.
Reading – Literature Review
Researching Your Topic
By this point in your college careers, you have had the chance to take courses in several different areas within the criminal justice field. You have studied juveniles, domestic issues, corrections, courts, law enforcement and many others. As you finish up your degree and look to the future, think of the issues you learned about and what stands out as something you are either especially passionate about or have a peaked interest in learning more. This could serve as a way for you to choose your final topic.
For some, this task was an easy one, for others it may take some time. As you begin the process of researching your selected topic, keep in mind that you will be basing your findings solely on the research and data that you collect from secondary sources. Search for quality research projects, all of which will be peer reviewed research articles.
Peer reviewed research are studies or experiments that have been completed and reviewed by experts within the field of study. This type of research is the arguably second only to conducting the research yourself. The articles you review should be relevant to the topic you are searching and should include a range of time. For example, it may be appropriate to review and include information that spans decades or even centuries, depending on your topic.
Let’s revisit our assault weapon ban example. I may choose to include research on the other types of bans and how successful or unsuccessful they were. I may also choose to review the evolution of laws in terms of weapons and compare that to the crime rates. One you have selected your hypothesis, your next step is figure out how you are going to create a strong argument. This comes with finding strong, solid research.
Literature Reviews
A review of current research on a particular topic is known a literature review. Through this process you review existing research projects and papers and their findings. These reviews are helpful for several reasons. They can assist a researcher in determining what aspects of a subject require further research. Typically a research project concludes by explaining which aspects of the study or the study’s findings need further inquiry.
Often times after reading research articles scholars identify their own areas of interest for further research. Professionals working or teaching within a field will also keep up to date with current research by conducting literature reviews. Especially important for practitioners who create or modify policy, it’s important to understand the current trends.
Equally important to understanding successful studies is to understand policy or research that has been unsuccessful. What better way to learn then by learning from a previous study. By conducting literature reviews you can get an idea of why and how research designs might have been unsuccessful or how to modify variables so that they are measurable. Another important aspect of a literature review is the evaluation of the source.
When you review a study, it’s important to assess the overall research project as well (the author, the funding source, methods, etc.). Questioning research is a very important aspect of the research project. If you include a project as a source for your paper you want to be sure that the quality is in line with your standards. For example, if you are writing a research paper on assault weapon bans, you want to be sure that the author and/or the publisher is of quality (are they a professional in field, a researcher or simply a blog).
The quality of your argument is only as good as the sources you use to create it. In our everyday lives, we often times are casually conducting literature reviews. Reading articles or research to educate ourselves on issues (whether it be for purchasing an item, buying a home, choosing a professional area to study or anything else you are interested in) is a way to conduct a literature review. The goal is essentially the same, to act based on the information you find. Just as in everyday life, a choice made based on flawed information can have less than desirable consequences.
The literature review that you complete will consist of a brief overview of a source as well as an explanation of how the research contributes to the overall body of research in that particular area.
Ethical Research
Researchers choose topics for inquiry based on several different factors. There are different types of researchers and that can help determine what topics they focus on. Some social science researchers apply for and receive grants to study certain issues or phenomenon. This grant money can be used for a variety of social issues including: domestic violence, poverty, population, education, and countless others. Some researchers work on a contractual basis.
They may be sought after by an agency or company to complete research on a contract. Companies may also have a team of researchers that they use to study issues important to the company or agency.
When looking at the credibility of a study or research paper, it’s important to consider motivation of the author. Try to compare the motivation of contract researcher to that of an expert witness. If you are a defense attorney, you are going to try to search for an expert that is going to agree with the defense strategy.
Yet another example of questionable ethical research may be evident within the weight loss commercials that seem to play endlessly on television. They often times include doctors or cite research (users lost 50x more weight!). This type of research and the methods are typically not called into question by the consumer, so they can get away with it.
One of the most important aspects of reading and applying research is questioning it. How did they come up with that as an answer? What were the variables? What other factors were involved? How long did the study last? These are all questions that you should be asking when reading and reviewing the credibility and applicability of a study.
Not all researchers will say anything for the right amount of compensation. Many researchers complete experiments and social research because they are truly passionate about an issue. That being said, when searching for research to include as sources, it’s important to seek out quality.
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