Prior to beginning work on this assignment, watch Crimes of the Powerful, available through the Films on Demand database in the University of Arizona Global Campus Library. Additionally, read Chapters 5 and 6 from the textbook. Our justice system tends to focus on street crime, often ignoring much more significant problems such as white-collar, corporate, and state crime. The video also discusses euthanasia, although the point of this reference is to illustrate how the law can be used as a tool for social change. The video also discusses moral values with a focus on media coverage of harm to children. Laws have changed in direct response to these incidents and the resulting media coverage. In effect, this coverage becomes an engine for social change. The video ends with a discussion of crime theory, reminding us that many criminological theories fall short when applied to people with wealth and high status. Write a paper discussing the myths and realities of crime.
In your paper,
- Imagine asking 100 strangers to describe a criminal.
- Predict whether those descriptions would be likely to focus on street criminals, or the variety of topics covered in the Crimes of the Powerful
- Evaluate how society defines crime.
- Do not provide a definition – instead, explain how the definition is reached.
- Present a clear statement about a particular crime, something we know to be absolutely true.
- Illustrate how we know that this is an accurate statement.
- Present an example of a widely-held myth or misconception about crime and society.
- Determine how we know that this is a myth. Explain why this myth is so difficult to abandon.
The Myths and Reality of Crime paper
- Must be three to four double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the UAGC Writing Center (Links to an external site.)’s APA Style (Links to an external site.)
- Must include a separate title page with the following:
- Title of paper
- Student’s name
- Course name and number
- Instructor’s name
- Date submitted
- For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Word 2013 (Links to an external site.).
- Must utilize academic voice. See the Academic Voice (Links to an external site.) resource for additional guidance.
- Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.
- For assistance on writing Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.) as well as Writing a Thesis Statement (Links to an external site.), refer to the UAGC Writing Center resources.
- Must use at least two scholarly sources in addition to the course text.
- The Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
- Must document any information used from sources in APA style as outlined in the UAGC Writing Center’s Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.)
- Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the UAGC Writing Center. See the Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.) resource in the UAGC Writing Center for specifications.
Carefully review the Grading Rubric (Links to an external site.) for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.
