The Use of Police Discretion in Your Community

Using available sources, select a recent (within the past year) news article(s) that describes an incident involving police in your community. The article(s) may be about a specific criminal event, a series of criminal incidents, an on-going police investigation, or a police-related incident that is before the courts. Drawing from the information included in your news article(s), include a short description about the event, incident, or case.

Using your description and other available resources, discuss how officer discretion, the task environment, and legislation/policies influenced the outcome of the event. Do you believe police officers have too much discretion? If so, how should the discretion of police officers be confined or controlled? If not, why is it important to maintain or increase police discretionary powers?

Remember that your answers to these questions are likely to have real-life consequences so you should think critically about your responses. Be sure to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of increasing/maintaining/limiting police discretion.

For this assignment, you will need to locate and use at least one recent news article that discusses crime in your community. You will also need to obtain and use at least six academic (peer-reviewed) journal articles.

Paper Guidelines

In addition to adhering to the above information, each of the following components should be included in your paper:

Title Page
The title of your paper should convey the subject matter in approximately 15 words or less. Do not call it anything like "Crim 1120" (this gives no information about content), or "Criminology Paper" (not specific enough). Your title should capture what the paper is about. Your name, student number, title of the course, institutional affiliation, date and your instructor's name should appear somewhere on this cover page.

Abstract
The abstract should provide a concise (less than 200 words) summary that includes the purpose, findings, and conclusions of your paper. This should be on its own page following the title page.

Introduction
The introduction should do exactly that - it introduces your topic and contextualizes it within the broader literature as appropriate, states your objective (thesis statement) and should end with an outline of what your paper discusses. Most importantly, it should provide a useful framework to the paper. My advice is to be specific about the topic you are addressing and if appropriate be sure to explain your approach to the topic. Make sure that you properly cite sources of the information you include (see below).

Discussion
The body of your paper should provide a discussion that addresses each component of the topic you selected. It should also include a discussion of the newspaper article(s) you selected for inclusion in your paper. Do not forget to attach the newspaper articles to your paper. Academic journal articles do not need to be attached.

Conclusions
The conclusion should provide a summary of what you found. Having examined the literature and comparing it to the media source(s) you found, what can you conclude about your topic? Are there questions that remain unanswered? If so, be sure to discuss them briefly.

The importance of editing:

The final step you engage in prior to submitting any paper you write should be to edit your work meticulously for grammar, punctuation and spelling errors. In addition, you should proofread your work carefully for unnecessary wordiness, repetition, and space-filler. Your paper should be 4-6 pages in length; part of your challenge is to remain within the page limit.

Including Academic Sources

Outside research for your paper is required in addition to using the course readings and lectures (NOTE: you should only cite the lecture as a last resort when there are no readings available that make the same point; cite the course texts whenever possible). At least six additional academic articles should be included as resources for your paper. Your paper should be referenced using APA 6 style and follow the Instructions for Referencing below. Please consult the Library website noted below for guidance on how to properly cite your work if you are unsure. Please note: you must include full APA 6 style reference citations for material that you include in your paper.