Question: The assignment for this week provides you with an opportunity to practice preparing a brief summary of scholarly literature that meets both academic and legal standards for court admissibility that could be used to inform a court decision. You will review the given scenario, choose a topic, and then select scholarly material that you believe would be most informative for the court. Such resources must meet these criteria:

1) Evidence of peer review, and

2) Reference citations in text and in a reference list. Websites such as Wikipedia and WebMD do not meet criteria for being scholarly sources. Use scholarly articles, books, and academic websites that have evidence of peer review and citations similar to APA format.

You will summarize your findings, making sure your summary is well written using correct grammar, good organizational skills, and correct APA format. You certainly wouldn't want the judge to rule your summary inadmissible because it is not readable or the sources you used are not easily recognizable!

Scenario: Your agency's supervisor asks for a literature search on a specific topic (see the following list that includes topics that represent both forensic research and clinical issues). Considering your career interests as either a researcher or as one who works from a clinical perspective, pick a topic related to the type of job you hope to have.

Possible topics: • Sex offender victim grooming

• Ethical issues in child custody evaluations

• Assessment measures for psychopathy

• Current statistical trends in juvenile crime

• Another topic in forensic psychology that can be summarized in 1-2 pages.

Assignment: • Find empirical literature (minimum of three scholarly sources) on your selected topic.

• Prepare a 1- to 2-page memo summarizing your findings, being sure to cite sources in APA style.

• Be sure to review the Writing Example in this week's Learning Resources, which will help you with formatting and requirements.