Policy Brief

CCJ 4390 Research Brief Assignment
As part of the final capstone experience, students will be expected to write a research brief. Research briefs should describe and advocate a specific policy or program designed to address a significant, current crime problem. The brief should include two main parts: students must identify a problem and propose and advocate an intervention or policy to address the problem.
The assignment is worth 40 points. The research paper should be no more than five pages in length, double spaced, and in Times New Roman 12 point font. Written work should also have one-inch margins and be devoid of spelling and grammatical errors. All written assignments should conform to American Psychological Association format. A minimum of four refereed journal articles must be cited in this assignment, and a total of eight references are required. Information gleaned from Wikipedia or similar websites is not appropriate for this assignment.
Draft Outline for
CCJ 4390 Research Brief
IMPORTANT: Please remember, your paper should be designed to advocate for a specific policy change in St. Louis.
Introduction (Less than one page)
The goal of the section of the paper is to outline the general problem. In addition, the reader should be given a roadmap for your paper. Draw the reader in with important statistics or other information that illustrates the scope and importance of the problem.

Example text:
With the dramatic increase in the imprisonment rate over the last two decades, the
negative consequences of incarceration have stimulated several recent national meetings
of policy makers and researchers (Travis, Solomon, & Waul, 2001). A central collateral
consequence of incarceration is the disruption of families. In 1999, an estimated 336,300
U.S. households were affected by imprisonment of a parent (Mumola, 2000).
This proposal will document the impact of maternal incarceration on child involvement in delinquency, and will0 advocate for the development of parent-child video conferencing.

Crime Problem Description (2 pages)
I. What do we know about the problem?
a. In addition, students must include specific crime or demographic information in your proposal. Crime data can be found from ncjrs.gov (or other governmental sources). Information on poverty and other factors can be gleaned from the Google assignment.
II. What has already been done to address the problem?
Policy Intervention (2 pages)
I. How will you address the problem?
a. It is important to address the target population. Who will be served by this program? Please be as specific as possible.
b. Describe the program model. What type of services or intervention will you provide?
c. What are the underlying theoretical assumptions of the model? In short, why do you think this type of model will work? It is important to link your intervention to existing criminal justice theory.
Conclusion (Less than one page)
• Remind the reader of the problem
• Summarize the research
o What did you learn?
o What do you need to learn more about in the future?
o What was left out in this discussion?