Question:
The goal of this assignment is to apply what we know about the correlates of crime to current events. Your assignment is to write a minimum of a two paragraph essay in which you will compare your criminal event to the known correlates of crime that we have discussed in class. Additional information regarding the prevalence of crime and the correlates of crime can be found in your textbook and lecture notes.
First, you will identify two different articles (online or in the newspaper) that describe a criminal event that occurred in the past year. One should be at the local level, and one should be at the national level. For the assignment, you need to be able to describe the criminal event in detail. Upon reading these articles, you should be able identify the offender (name is not needed just demographic information such as gender, race/ethnicity, age, repeat offender, etc.), the victim (name is not needed just demographic information such as gender, race/ethnicity, age, repeat victim), the nature of the crime (type of crime, level of severity, level of injury), and the circumstances of the crime (When it occurred? Where it occurred?). If you cannot get this information from your article, then you should pick a new article.
You will then write one or more paragraphs for each criminal event. To successfully complete this assignment, you will need to describe the criminal event, offender, and victim, and then compare this information to the known correlates of crime that we have discussed in class. Here are some questions to help you in your analysis.
- What type of crime occurred? Is it a minor crime or serious crime? Is it a property crime or a violent crime? Is it common? What do our data sources say about the occurrence of this crime?
- Where/when did the crime occur? Is this common?
- Is the offender(s) a male or female? What is the age of the offender? What is the race/ethnicity of the offender? Does the offender have an arrest history? Are these characteristics of the crime typical with respect to what we know about offenders?
- Is the victim a male or female? Is it one victim or multiple victims? What is the race/ethnicity of the victim? What is the age of the victim? Was the victim an innocent bystander, instigate the crime, or commit a crime as well? Are these characteristics of the crime typical with respect to what we know about victims of crime and theories of victimization? Is this a common victim of this type of crime type of crime?
Your first assignment should be 1.5 to 2 full pages. This means that your assignment should be at least 1.5 pages in length without the title page in order to receive full credit. It should be in APA format. It should include the following elements: Title Page, Body of Paper, and References Section. Please provide the correct reference for the article in the text and your reference section so that I can look up the criminal event you to which you are referring.
Any cases of plagiarism will receive an automatic grade of 0 and will be submitted to the Office of Student Conduct for further review.