CCJ 6705 RESEARCH METHODS SPRING 2021

CCJ 6705 RESEARCH METHODS SPRING 2021

RESEARCH PROPOSAL REQUIREMENTS

Throughout the semester you have been reading and will continue to read academic research articles in which

the authors 1) identify a topic and explicate its importance, 2) review what is known about the topic, 3) identify

gaps in knowledge on the topic or limitations of previous research on the topic, 4) present an analysis that seeks

to fill the gaps, and 5) provide a summary of the article with some discussion. A research proposal does all of

these things, minus the presentation and discussion of the results of data analysis. You will not actually be

collecting and analyzing data for this course requirement.

Your task for this assignment will be to identify a topic or issue loosely related to the field of

criminology/criminal justice and to develop a research proposal based on that topic. There are three restrictions

pertaining to your proposal. First, you must propose a quantitative study; it cannot be qualitative. Second, you

must propose a study based on the collection of individual-level data; macro-level data is not acceptable for this

assignment. Third, you must propose a study that examines cause and effect (as simple as an IV/DV

association, or by proposing to examine mediating and/or moderating effects). As previously stated, it is highly

recommended that you conduct a preliminary search of the literature on topics of interest to you prior to seeking

approval to ensure that there is enough existing literature on the topic that you will be able to construct a

thorough literature review for your proposal. This step will also be important because it will help you to identify

the “gaps” in knowledge that your proposal would potentially help to fill.

Your research proposal should contain the following sections, clearly identified by headings in your paper:

1. Introduction

Introduce the topic that your research proposal will address. Provide an explanation as to why the topic is

important and worthy of study. It may be helpful to draw on previous studies that provide their own explanations

as to why the topic is important. If you do comment on the work of others, be sure to cite those studies. Briefly

provide an overview of the ensuing research proposal. In other words, provide readers with a “road map” of what

you will be addressing in the remainder of the paper. The introduction section should be about 2 double-spaced

pages.

• NRNP/PRAC 6645 Comprehensive Psychiatric
• John Thompson, a 14-year-old male, was brought in by his father for complaints of fear of being exposed to disease.
• Summarize the factors that contributed to the chosen disease’s prevalence with respect to the affected population, including the following discussion points:
• What are the steps in the quality improvement model and how is benchmarking involved?
• LZT2 – Power, Influence & Leadership

2. Literature Review

In this section you will be providing readers with an overview of previous research on your topic. Describe what

past studies have addressed and how the topic was studied. Be careful not to simply list the articles in order, and

do not use bullet points. Rather, present the topic and explain how other scholars dealt with it. If your proposal

will be geared toward testing a theory, be sure to provide an overview of what the theory hypothesizes. If your

topic is a criminal justice policy or prevention/intervention program, be sure to explain what the policy or program

is about. You must cite/discuss a minimum of 10 different scholarly sources in this section of your proposal. As

you have already learned by now, this usually means peer-reviewed academic journal articles.

Once you have reviewed the literature on your topic you should then identify the gaps in knowledge in the

literature that still remain. This will be the “jumping off” point for your proposal. In other words, this will be the

section of your research proposal where you say (and I am paraphrasing here), “We know x, y, and z about this

topic from previous research, but we still don’t know much about a, b, and/or c.” The prior literature section

should be about 5 double-spaced pages depending on your topic and how much information you feel needs to be

provided so that readers can leave this section feeling that they 1) have a good understanding of the topic and how

it has been studied in the past and 2) how your proposal is going to advance our understanding of the topic.

3. Methodology and Data Collection

The methodology section should be the “nuts and bolts” portion of your proposal where you explain for readers

what you plan to do in order to study your topic and how you plan to do it. In other words, all of the issues we

have been/will be covering in class should be addressed in this section. Obviously, your research design will vary

depending on the issue and type of study you have selected. Will you be using an experimental or quasi-

experimental design? A Non-experimental design (correlational data)? Are you conducting a public opinion

study? Be sure to identify the measurement of the IVs and DVs, experimental groups and control/comparison

groups, etc. This is also were you should clearly explain how you are operationalizing key concepts in your study.

Give consideration to issues or reliability and validity as well.

Regardless of the type of study you propose, you will need to identify the data you would be using and how it

would be collected, and from whom. In other words you will need to identify the population you will be studying

and how that population will be sampled. Will it be a random or non-random sample? Will data be collected in a

field setting? Through observations or interviews? Via the mail or telephone? Will information be taken from

public agency records or an existing data base? Will you be collecting original data or conducting secondary data

analysis? By the end of this section a reader should have a clear understanding of the methods you are proposing

to conduct a study so that your study could be replicated by anyone else. This section should be about 4 double-

spaced pages.

4. Discussion

Because you are proposing research, there is no results section where data analysis is described, so you can proceed

directly to the Discussion section of your proposal. In this section, give a brief recap of the topic your proposal

addressed and how your proposal has the potential to add to what we know about the topic. You should also

discuss any potential policy and/or theoretical implications your findings might have for your intended audience.

For example, the findings of your proposed research might speak to the need to refine or modify one of our

theories. Or, it might suggest that we need to add, change, or remove certain criminal justice policies or practices.

You should also identify in this section any potential limitations of the methodology you chose for the study, and

any future research that still needs to be done on the topic. This section of the paper should be about 3 double-

spaced pages.

Other issues:

Your topic for the research proposal must be approved by me. You can seek approval for the topic at any time

prior to our class meeting on March 16th. As noted in the syllabus, failure to seek approval by this date will

result in the loss of 10 points, without exception. Your research proposal must be at least 13 complete pages

but no more than 15 pages in length, double spaced, with 12 point Times New Roman font, and 1” margins all

around. You should not leave an extra blank line between paragraphs or sections, simply stick to the double-

spaced formatting throughout. Your paper must also have a title page and reference page(s) for the scholarly

sources you cite in the body of the paper. You must list these references using the standard presented to you the

day of class in which we discussed how to locate, read, and cite research. Neither the title page nor any of the

references pages count as one of the required minimum 13 pages. You may not submit a paper that was

previously submitted for another class. E-copies of the proposal sent to rmeldrum@fiu.edu, in addition to

electronic submissions through Canvas (see Week 15 Module), are due no later than April 20th at 5 PM.

Grading: Your score for the paper will be based upon the following set of criteria:

Content 70 points

Organization/Clarity 10 points

Formatting 10 points

Spelling/Grammar 10 points

Total 100 points