Essay Assignment #1
Directions:
1.) This assignment provides three (3) options/questions. Choose one (1) option/question and write an essay (1,200 — 1,500 words) answering the question. You should be sure to address everything the question inquires about and to be thorough in your explanation. The essay should be between 1,200 and 1,500 words in length. Please keep in mind the fact that 1,200 words is the minimum length. The depth and detail of your essay will be taken into consideration when the essay is graded, so it is in your best interest to be thorough in your essay.
2.) Be sure to adequately address each key issue a question asks about and balance your essay. In other words, roughly equivalent attention should be afforded to each key issue. You should NOT, for example, dedicate two thirds of your essay to one of the issues inquired about and then just briefly touch upon the others.
3.) Regarding personal opinion/ideas/analyses of the issues: Some of the essay questions may ask you to provide an opinion or your personal ideas about or analysis of an issue. With respect to personal opinion/ideas/analyses, there is NOT a right or wrong answer. No points will be deducted because a student voices a specific opinion or expresses a particular idea. However, when presenting an opinion/idea/analysis, you MUST provide a clear explanation and rationale for your opinion/analysis/ideas. In other words, you need to describe and discuss your thoughts on the matter and provide a supporting argument for your opinion/views/ideas. Do NOT just provide an opinion/view/analysis without also providing a rationale.
4.) Regarding outside research/reference materials (i.e., any research/reference materials other than the required text and/or assigned readings), no outside materials are necessary, expected, or permitted for this assignment. The essay you write must be based on the materials assigned in this class.
5.) Regarding the use of quotes and the matter of plagiarism, you should feel free to use quotes from the textbook and/or assigned readings, but such quotes should be used sparingly. In other words, you should use no more than a few quotes in the essay (four or five, at the most) and the quotes should be short and relevant. There should be no long quotes (i.e., no quote should be more than a single sentence in length) in your essay nor should your essay consist primarily of a series of quotes from the text. You should NOT use any direct quotes from the online synopses of the assigned readings nor should any of your essays strongly resemble the online summaries of the assigned readings. In short, all essays must be original. They should be written in your own words and, in the event that a question requires you to present an opinion, the opinion you present should be your own.
When using quotes, all quotes should be in quotation marks and should indicate the author(s) and page number from the text (see examples below). Please keep in mind the fact that, as stated on the course syllabi, the penalty for plagiarism is a failing grade for the class.
Direct Quote Example #1: Worrall suggests that “Liberals often favor the protection of people’s rights and liberties to a higher degree than their conservative counterparts do” (p. 34).
Direct Quote Example #2: Research on police-public contacts has shown that roughly “607% of U.S.. residents age 16 or older initiated contact with police on one or more occasions to report a crime, disturbance, or suspicious activity, while 3.5% initiated contact to report a non-crime emergency” (Davis, Whyde, and Langton, p, 5).
6.) The essay submitted is the essay which will be graded. When submitting an essay in response to an essay assignment, students should be sure to submit the final draft of their essay. The essay which is submitted is the essay which will be graded. In other words, in the event that a student accidentally submits an incomplete essay, a preliminary draft of the essay, or even the wrong essay (e.g., an essay prepared for a different class) and later realizes that the wrong essay was submitted, there are no options for re-submitting the essay. The essay which is submitted is the essay that will be graded, so when submitting an essay all students should be certain that the work submitted is the correct work for the assignment.
Essay Assignment #1 Options/Questions (Choose and Respond to One [1] Option/Question)
Option/Question 1: Chapter 5 of the textbook, “Community Involvement in Policing,” contains a discussion of “procedural justice” and building trust in the police (see sections titled “Procedural Justice” and “President’s Taskforce on 21st Century Policing”). The federal report Contacts Between Police and Public, 2015 contains considerable discussion of public satisfaction with the police, inclusive of analyses of data on the impact that an explanation for a traffic stop has on citizen evaluations of the police (i.e., the discussion of how people perceive the police when an officer provides an explanation for a stop versus how people perceive the police when an officer does NOT provide an explanation for a stop). Write an essay which briefly summarizes (1) procedural justice and some of the research on procedural justice, (ii) the results of the federal study of police-public contacts and citizen evaluations of the police (paying special attention to the matter of police explanations for traffic stops), and (iii) what the results of the federal study of police-public contacts suggest about the value of procedural justice and police efforts to provide procedural justice (i.e., does the federal research indicate the police are polite and professional in their dealings with the public).
Option/Question 2: Chapter 5 in the textbook., “Community Involvement in Policing,” contains considerable discussion of community policing efforts, inclusive of some discussion of efforts to enhance the public image of the police (see section titled “Improving the Police Image”), The federal report Contacts Between Police and Public, 2015 contains discussion of research on public satisfaction with the police. There is for example, discussion of the demographic characteristics (gender, race/ethnicity, etc.) of persons stopped by the police who are most likely to believe the officer acted properly and discussion of satisfaction with the police among persons who contacted the police,. Write an essay which briefly summarizes (D the basic concept of community policing, (ii) some efforts by the police to improve their image, (iii) what the results of the federal study of police-public contacts suggest about police efforts to improve their public image. Please note because the text contains discussion of multiple different efforts by the police to improve their public image, such as hosting community meetings, citizen contact patrol, disseminating newsletters, etc., you should NOT try to discuss all such efforts, just pick two or three such efforts.
Option/Question 3: Chapter 4 in the textbook, “Proactive Policing, Directed Patrol, and Recent Advancements,” contains a discussion of less-lethal weapons, inclusive of a fair amount of discussion of conducted energy devices such as the Taser (probe and touch stun). The federal report Contacts Between Police and Public, 2015 contains a discussion of the research on police threats to use force and actual use of force by the police. Write an essay which briefly summarizes 0) less-lethal weapons, (ii) the frequency with which the police threaten to use force or actually use force, and (iii) what YOU THINK the police use of less-lethal weapons and the research on police use of force indicates about police use of force (e.g., do you believe the research suggests that police officers typically behave professionally, that police officers respect the rights of the citizenry, that the police use force too frequently, etc.).
REQUIRED TEXT: John L. Worrall. (2019). Crime Control in America: What Works? (4th Edition). New York, NY: Pearson. ISBN 13: 978-0-13-484818-1 ISBN 10: 0-13-484818-7
ADDITIONAL REQUIRED READINGS: There are three (3) additional required readings, all of which are freely available online from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Reading #1 (Federal Report), Contacts Between Police and the Public, 2015 (NCJ 251145)., by Elizabeth Davis, Anthony Whyde, and Lynn Langton. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics.