Wrongly Convicted based on faulty eyewitness identification

Students are required to complete a research proposal as a course requirement (15 pages, double-spaced, using font Times New Roman, size 12).  The purpose of this assignment is to help students gain some experiences in designing their own research.  Students will not be required to conduct this research and collect data.  While you write your proposal, please think that you will submit this research proposal to review committees of some funding agencies or foundations.  A well-written research proposal can bring you funding ($$$) for your research.

The research proposal is divided into the following three sections: 1) Introduction to your research topic, 2) Literature review of past studies on your research topic, and 3) Methodology overview relating to how you would collect and analyze data if you were actually completing the research project.  The breakdown for each section is included below:

Introduction

In this section you will need to provide an introduction to your topic.  This part includes a clear statement of your problem (the topic that you would like to do research on), the purpose of your study, why you think your research is important, and define the concepts you will study.

Statement of the Problem – This is where you will introduce the problem or area that you are to study.  This will require that you introduce your topic and explain the various dynamics of the topic – Length – ~ 1 – 1.5 pages.

Purpose of the Study – It is here that you will explain the purpose of your study.  What exactly do you intend to study.  More specifically, what answers will your study seek to address (Note: Be careful of allowing bias into your proposal at this stage.  For example, you can state that you seek to discover the impact education has on criminality, but do not state that you will show that education will reduce criminality – until you complete the study you cannot know this).

Length – ~ .5 page.

Research questions – What specific questions will your research try to answer? Given what others have found (through your literature review, you should know what others have found), what new information do you expect to find?  Research questions can be regarded as a more specific version of the problem or objective described earlier.

Length – ~ .5 pages.

Justification of the Study – Here you will explain why your study should be completed and the impact the results will have on the field of criminal justice or criminology.  When you write this section pretend that you have to justify someone providing you with money to complete your study – in reality this is many times what you will be doing.  Your justification for the study should include any arguments for how the results (positive or negative) will improve criminal justice or sociology or the understanding of an area of criminal justice and sociology.  Length – ~ 1 page.

Terminology – In this section you will define any relevant terms related to your     research.  Include any terms that may not be clearly understood by the general       population.  Length – ~ 1 page.

Total Page Count – 3-4 pages

Literature Review

This chapter is a summary of all other studies on your topic.  This is the equivalent of a research paper and should follow APA guidelines for citations.  This section will be the bulk of your research proposal.

Length – 5-6 pages

Total Page Count –5- 6 pages

Methodology

In this section you will discuss the procedures you will follow during the course of your research endeavor.  Please keep in mind that you do not have to actually conduct the research, so this section will only detail how YOU WOULD HAVE conducted your research.

Population and your sample – What is your target population? Who or what institutes/agencies/organizations etc. will you actually study?  How will these individuals or institutes/agencies/organizations etc. be selected for inclusion and why are them being included in the study.  Length – ~.5 – 1 page.

Data Collection – This section will include a discussion on how you will go about collecting your data gained from your survey instrument, etc.  For example, if you will use survey method, here you will briefly explain the data collection process in terms of who will receive your survey, how it will be administered, how the results shall be collected, and how the information shall be input into the computer.  Length – ~.05 -1 page.

Measurement — This part focuses on how you are going to measure your concepts or constructs. For example, if you use survey method, what types of questions will be included in your questionnaire, what information will be sought, and from what previous studies (if any) did some of the questions come from.  Length – ~1.5 – 2 pages.

Analysis – Describe the kind of analysis you plan to conduct.  What is your purpose and logic of your analysis?  Do you interested in precise description? Do you intend to explain why things are the way they are?  Will you analyze the impact of a new program?  What possible explanatory variables will your analysis consider, and how will you know whether you’ve explained the grogram impact adequately.  Length –  ~.5 page

Total Page Count – 3- 4 pages

References

Be sure to include a list of all materials you cite in your proposal.

Please follow the APA style when you cite other’s work.

Length – 1 to 2 pages.