Research Methods in Criminal Justice and Criminology

Research Methods in Criminal Justice and Criminology

Unit VI Research Report
Rough Draft
You have been compiling the four parts of the research report:
1. Part 1 – Research topic, research questions, and research design
2. Part 2 – Literature review
3. Part 3 – Research methodology
4. Part 4 – Discussion and conclusion

You now have the opportunity to tie all four parts together in a rough draft and to make final revisions before presenting your research report for the course’s final project.
For this assignment, you will prepare a rough draft of the research report. The rough draft incorporates Parts 1 through 4 of the research report. MCJ 5532, Research Methods in Criminal Justice Administration 8 To prepare your rough draft, complete the following tasks:
1. Prepare an introduction which synthesizes Parts 1A and 1B of the research report.
a. This section of the rough draft should be a fluid discussion of your topic, research questions, and/or hypothesis.
b. Remember that Part 1C was incorporated into Part 3 of the research report and should not be discussed here.
c. Remember to incorporate any suggested changes you received in feedback from your instructor for Parts 1A and 1B in the Unit II assignment into the rough draft.
2. Add Parts 2 through 4 of your research report to the rough draft.
a. Remember to incorporate any suggested changes you received in your instructor’s feedback for Parts 2 through 4 of the research report into the rough draft.
3. Incorporate appropriate transitions between each part of the research report.
4. Prepare a reference list that includes APA style references for all the sources cited in-text in each section of the research report rough draft (i.e., Introduction, Parts 1-4).
5. Prepare an abstract (150 words or less) that briefly addresses the following:
a. what topic you are studying,
b. why you are conducting your study,
c. how you plan to conduct your study,
d. what you would expect to find if you conducted your study, and
e. how your research could impact the field of criminal justice.
6. Prepare a title page that includes the title of your research report, your name, and the name of your institution.
7. Order the rough draft as follows:
a. Title Page
b. Abstract
c. Introduction
d. Literature Review
e. Methodology
f. Discussion and Conclusion
g. References
8. Ensure your rough draft is a minimum of six double-spaced pages (not counting title and reference pages).

Remember that you can return to the studies you discussed in your literature review to assist you in developing the abstract and introduction to your research report and the transitions between each part of your research report. There you will find varying examples of abstracts, introductions, and transitions used in research reports.

Good work completing the Unit IV Project or this course. A research methodology is the part of the research report in which you thoroughly and specifically discuss the methods that you will use to evaluate your research questions and/or hypotheses. It is in the methodology that the researcher is able to present his or her study design so it is clear to the reader how the data will be collected to allow the researcher to explore his or her topic as discussed in the previous sections of the research report. Expand further on census sampling and why you chose this for your paper. How did you determine the disadvantages of closed-ended questionnaires? Also, be sure to list all references in alphabetical order.