Course Orientation

 

Course Orientation Download Course Orientation

CJL 6568 Course Orientation

General Information

Over the course of the semester, you will be completing module quizzes and writing assignments. Quizzes will be straightforward in nature with multiple choice and true or false questions. The information contained below is primarily related to the module writing assignments.

During the course of this semester, we will explore many topics such as the process of law and specific types of social control that you may not have considered as forms of social control but instead took for granted as facts of life. I agree that the topics of the course are quite broad. For example, in addition to textbook material, Module 3 includes articles about the “code of the street,” media representation of capital punishment, and social capital/social control, and Module 6 includes articles related to dangerous drug offender profiles, investigators’ assessments of victim credibility, and submission rates for DNA evidence from sexual assault kits. The important point is that even though the topics for each of these articles appear completely different there are common themes that flow throughout the readings assigned in each module. The goal of the writing assignments is to identify those themes and discuss their significance. Also, many of the research articles utilized advanced analytical techniques (e.g., hierarchical linear model, structural equation modeling, etc.), but don’t get hung up on whether or not you understand the technique. Focus on understanding what the results mean, which is what the authors will explain to you in the “Discussion” sections of their works.

Throughout the semester, the purpose of the readings is to explore and understand the subtlety of themes related to law and social control. Although the readings may be about differing topics, there will be some concept, theme, or pattern that link the questions/articles together. The third question for each writing assignment will be your opportunity to identify and describe the themes that you have identified during your reading. There will never be just one specific theme linking the questions/articles that you must identify; this question is your opportunity to take a position, explain why you have come to that position, and provide support for it. In Modules 2, 3, and 4, I have identified a theme to guide your discussions on Question 3, but in Modules 5, 6, 7, and 8 Question 3 will be open-ended.

I will return my feedback to your assignments as an email attachment. The attachment will be a Word file with my comments and corrections provided through Track Changes. If you cannot see the changes or my comments in the Word document, you can click on the Review Tab, then select All Markup from the Tracking drop-down menu. I will be commenting on a variety of areas in your assignments from factual content to writing style. Much of the feedback will take the form of leading questions. These questions are intended to get you thinking more deeply about the information. These questions are also intended to point you down the path of identifying and understanding what additional information you could have provided that would have improved your response. My feedback can be direct; this is not done to demean or belittle your work. In the online format, I try to be as straightforward with students as possible so that the meaning and intention of feedback is clear for everyone. I am always happy to discuss feedback and course material with students.

Your grades for written assignments will largely be determined by the substantive content of your responses. Your responses should be based on your understanding of the material, please provide direct answers to each question, not summaries of the assigned questions or readings. The questions are structured to require that you think critically and analytically about the material when providing your responses. Your responses should demonstrate your ability to analyze and synthesize the assigned materials into clear and concise responses to the questions. Overall, you will not find the answers to the written portion of the modules on specific pages in either of the texts or assigned articles. You should be identifying themes and concepts present throughout the assigned readings and noting how those assigned readings are related to each other. If you find yourself simply summarizing or directly paraphrasing the assigned readings when responding to a question, stop, review the assigned question, and consider how your response addresses the assigned questions. Adherence to APA style will be a minor factor in your writing assignment grades. Students frequently ask the maximum number of points that could be deducted for not following APA style when it comes to citations, references, line-spacing, etc. The maximum APA deduction on writing assignments is 2 (out of 50) points. All references for assigned readings, however, have been provided for you in the course schedule, modules, and Helpful Information and Examples section of the course. The references are properly formatted in only the document in the Helpful Information and Examples section. Therefore, all references should be correct in your written assignments. What is important in your written responses is your ability to synthesize and analyze the assigned readings, then communicate that clearly and concisely in writing. View the assigned questions as being about the concepts discussed in the assigned articles rather than solely about the assigned articles’ findings. When answering the assigned questions, be sure that you are addressing all parts of the questions. Also, when questions ask you to explain or address why, make sure you are providing examples and a description of how your examples and the concepts identified in the questions are related. Finally, ensure that you’re satisfying all module directions; this includes page limits for responses, not plagiarizing material, and not using direct quotations.

I am aware that you are able to view all modules for the course through Webcourses, but you are not able to access all assignments or quizzes. Organizing the course this way allows you to look ahead in the course so that you can make the course fit better into your daily lives. I understand that many of you are managing graduate school with other responsibilities, so it is my hope that this information will better assist you in organizing your workload. Due to the number of students in the class, it will not be possible for you to submit your assignments early and receive feedback prior to the due date. I will only grade assignments after the due date has passed. I am happy to answer any specific questions that you have about the active module. If you have questions about future modules, please hold those questions until the weeks of that module. Because you will be able to work ahead in the course if you wish, it will be important that you incorporate my feedback from prior assignments into future assignments that you may have already begun work on. Please remember that all assignments must be in APA style. A module assignment template has been included in the Helpful Information and Examples section of the course to assist you.

I encourage you to contact me by Zoom or telephone (407-823-3931) if you’re having difficulty in the course or you’d just like to discuss the material. Just because this is an online course, it does not mean that our communication is restricted only to the online environment. I’ve found many times that a quick phone call can clarify issues that email chains weren’t able to clear up. Do not feel that you are restricted to office hours to discuss the course. I frequently work in the office or forward my office phone, so I am available during business hours (8:00 am – 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday).

Plagiarism

Plagiarism can take multiple forms, but the underlying issue is consistent across forms: plagiarism is the use of someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as your own original work or ideas. Direct plagiarism consists of taking material from a source word-for-word without giving proper credit to the source. Purchasing an essay, paper, or other work from a writing service, friend, or any other source is also plagiarism, because you are turning in work that is not your own. Self-plagiarism occurs when you include ideas or phrases from prior assignments without proper citation; for the purpose of this class, self-plagiarism will only be defined as the submission of material that has previously been submitted for credit. Paraphrasing without a source amounts to plagiarism when you do not cite the sources from which you are drawing your non-original ideas. Close paraphrasing, or patchwriting, is a common form of plagiarism that occurs when writers add, remove, or replace several of an author’s original words. Use of the synonym function in Word is not equivalent to paraphrasing the author’s ideas in your own words. This practice is typically easy for the reader to identify as well because the replaced words do not fit contextually in the sentence. Paraphrasing is not plagiarism as long as you cite and reference the original sources of ideas or concepts. Mosaic plagiarism consists of copying and pasting from multiple sources and adding them together to create new material. Examples of these forms of plagiarism are identified below. Indiana University Bloomington’s School of Education also provides a number of helpful examples of patterns of plagiarism. Please click on the link (here Links to an external site.) and review those examples (a total of 18 pages).

Plagiarism Examples

Original: Matusiak et al. (2017). During the 1990s, police departments in the USA came under considerable pressure to adopt community policing. Many responded by establishing specialized community policing units or positions that left the core work of the agency to continue policing as usual. This enabled police leaders to report that they were doing community policing, thus satisfying demands from their institutional environment without disrupting routine operating practices (Maguire, 1997; Zhao et al., 2001). Research on the adoption of community policing in American police departments is consistent with propositions from institutional theory. For instance, some research suggests that police agencies may have claimed to practice community policing to enhance their eligibility for federal funding (Maguire & Katz, 2002; Maguire & Mastrofski, 2000). According to Crank (1994), community policing emerged largely out of concerns with police legitimacy. He argues that community policing resulted from two myths. The first was the myth that communities are comprised of like-minded individuals who share similar histories and perceptions and have similar expectations of police. The second was the historically romanticized myth of police officers as watchmen who look out for their community’s best interest. Taken together, these myths served as the basis for community policing and provided a legitimating mechanism that enabled police organizations to “ceremonially regain the legitimacy” they lost in the 1960s (Crank, 1994, p. 347).

Direct Plagiarism 1. During the 1990s, police departments in the USA came under considerable pressure to adopt community policing. Many responded by establishing specialized community policing units or positions that left the core work of the agency to continue policing as usual. This enabled police leaders to report that they were doing community policing, thus satisfying demands from their institutional environment without disrupting routine operating practices.

• This is an example of direct plagiarism, because it takes content of Matusiak et al. (2017) but does not cite the source of the material.

Direct Plagiarism 2. According to Crank (1994), community policing emerged largely out of concerns with police legitimacy. He argues that community policing resulted from two myths.

• This is an example of direct plagiarism as well. Even though this passage contains a citation for Crank (1994), this does not provide credit to Matusiak et al. (2017) for their paraphrasing of Crank’s work.

Paraphrasing Without a Source 1. Community policing seeks to address the issue of police legitimacy that was lost following the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It is based on two concepts: communities as groupings of individuals with similar backgrounds and goals as well as the perception of police officers as neighborhood watchmen that lookout for a community.

• This is an example of paraphrasing without a source, because even though the origin of the material can be identified as Matusiak et al.’s paraphrasing of prior work, the source of the material is not included.

Correctly Paraphrased Example 1. According to Matusiak et al. (2017), community policing seeks to address the issue of police legitimacy. Community policing is based on two concepts: communities are groupings of individuals with similar backgrounds and goals as well as the perception of police officers as neighborhood watchmen that look out for the community (Matusiak et al., 2017).

Citations and References

Citations

Writing in APA style emphasizes the use of paraphrased content, which means that you have described an author’s original intent in your own words. It is best to view paraphrasing as describing concepts/ideas rather than individual sentences from a source. When using APA style, it is important to remember that citations can have two formats: narrative and parenthetical. This becomes important when you’re deciding whether to use an “&” or the word “and” between the last names of two author sources. It is also important to identify both authors in all narrative and parenthetical citations for works with two authors. It is incorrect to create an abbreviated citation when there are two authors. When you cite information from more than one source in the sentence, you will need to use a string citation. String citations in APA style are presented in alphabetical order and separated by a semicolon.

For example, Various scholars have emphasized the need for empirical tests of institutional theory (Katz et al., 2002; Maguire & Uchida, 2000; Willis et al., 2007). Additionally, Matusiak and King (2020) highlighted the importance of clearly conceptualizing and defining scientific constructs (e.g., innovation).

Table 8.1. Basic In-Text Citation Styles from the APA Manual (2020, p. 266) has been adapted below using criminal justice articles as examples.

Reference List

Examples of references can be found in Chapter 10 of the APA Manual (p. 312–352). All of the references for assigned readings have been included in the course schedule for your convenience when completing the written portion of your assignments. You may, however, use additional outside resources if you would like. Journal articles, books, and book chapters are the types of sources that you are most likely to use during the course. Remember that the order of information and formatting of text are specific to the reference style that you are using. I have included several examples of journal articles, books, and book chapters in APA style below with the proper half-inch hanging indent and text formatting.

Journal Articles Follow this Basic Format.

Author, A. A. (year). Title of article. Title of Journal, Volume#(Issue#), page#–page#. https://doi:xx.xxxxxxxxxx

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (year). Title of article. Title of Journal, Volume#(Issue#), page#–page#. https://doi:xx.xxxxxxxxxx

Journal Article with a DOI.

Loftus, B. (2010). Police occupational culture: Classic themes, altered times. Policing & Society, 20(1), 1–20. https://doi:10.1080/10439460903281547

Callanan, V. J., & Rosenberger, J. S. (2011). Media and public perceptions of the police: Examining the impact of race and personal experience. Policing & Society, 21(2), 167–189. https://doi:10.1080/10439463.2010.540655

Journal Article Without DOI, Print Version.

Shane, J. M., Lawton, B., & Swenson, Z. (2017). The prevalence of fatal police shootings by U.S. police, 2015–2016: Patterns and answers from a new data set. Journal of Criminal Justice, 52, 101–111.

Books Follow this Basic Format.

Author, A. A. (year). Title of the book. Publisher.

Entire Book, Print Version.

Bayley, D. H. (1994). Police for the future. Oxford University Press.

Chapters in an Edited Book Follow this Basic Format, Print Version.

Author, A. A., & Author B. B. (year). Title of chapter. In E. E. Editor, & F. F. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (pp. page#–page#). Location of publisher: Publisher.

Snipes, J. B., & Maguire, E. R. (2007). Foundations of criminal justice theory. In D. Duffee, & E. Maguire (Eds.), Criminal justice theory: Explaining the nature and behavior of criminal justice (pp. 27–49). Routledge.

Selecting Sources

At the graduate level, you should be focused on obtaining information from peer-reviewed sources. Most frequently, peer-reviewed sources are academic journals (e.g., Journal of Criminal Justice, Justice Quarterly, Police Quarterly, Criminology). Peer review is important because the published research has been assessed and critiqued by outside subject matter experts that were not involved in the specific research project. Therefore, published research has been validated by the broader research community in a subject area. Additionally, peer-reviewed journal articles are frequently the most up-to-date information available related to a topic. Academic books are also good sources of information. An easy way to identify an “academic” book is to identify the publisher of the book. Those books that are published by university presses (e.g., Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Harvard University Press, etc.) or the publishers of peer-reviewed journals (e.g., SAGE, Routlege, Taylor & Francis, West, etc.) are generally easy to spot. You want to avoid books that are self-published or those that do not clearly identify the publisher. The best way to identify peer-reviewed sources and academic books is through the UCF Library’s Primo Search or Google Scholar. When searching for specific articles or books, I have found searching for the title works the best. If you’re doing a general search for articles related to a topic, I recommend a standard keyword search like you would use for any other search engine. A step-by-step guide for locating journal articles is available in the “Helpful Information and Examples” section on the course homepage. If you are off-campus, you will need to sign-in to the UCF Library using your NID and password to access full-text articles. A note of caution when using UCF’s Primo Search, Primo Search casts a wide net. In some instances, it returns results that are not from peer-reviewed sources. Primo Search tends to include trade journals with its peer-reviewed journal results. Trade journals (e.g., Police Chief Magazine and Corrections Today) are not peer-reviewed sources, so they have not been assessed at the same standard as an academic journal article.

For the purposes of this course, do not use websites, trade journals, or newspaper articles as sources. If you would like to cite government reports, you may do so, but make sure that you are citing/referencing an actual government report and not the agency’s website. If you have questions about appropriate sources, please feel free to contact me.