The research you do should start out with an outline of the information you are researching. In my case, I needed to research what occurred during the colonial times, how the criminal justice system has changed, and the types of crimes that are on today’s news. I also needed to research the type of questions I would likely to be asked during the exam. This is especially important if you have not taken this type of course before. You will definitely find yourself in a familiar position asking questions you have heard hundreds of times before.
Your colonial times research should begin by learning about the history of the criminal justice system in America. There is a lot of information available on the historical societies of various states, such as Texas or Alaska. Then, you should read as many books as possible about these topics. If there are no books in your local library, I recommend getting a few of them online.
After learning as much as you can about the historical topics you have researched, you will need to begin writing your essay. Your essay should not be too wordy; it should be a very clean and organized piece that sheds light on each of the issues you researched. In the introduction to your essay you should include a brief history of the criminal justice system in your state. Explain the reason why the system is the way it is now, discuss some problems that are still being worked on, and then draw some conclusions.
One of the most important parts of your essay should be your discussion of what you learned from your research paper. You should answer why you did what you did, why the other party did what they did, and how you plan to prevent the same thing from happening again. This is actually pretty easy; all you have to do is find several different examples of cases similar to yours from newspapers, TV, radio shows, movies, and the internet. You should then include a small paragraph about each case study answer and then write a conclusion stating why you think this is an example of what happened in your specific jurisdiction.
There are many ways to approach your argument in your essay, but I recommend using the progressive delivery method. This is where you start with an introduction statement and then go on to describe the information you used. You can do this in two different ways. The first way is to use the progressive delivery in the body of the essay and just write the introduction in the introduction. The second way is to use the progressive delivery after you have described the main points in the body of the essay.
One way to approach your argument is to begin your essay with your introduction and then go on to describe the criminal justice system in your jurisdiction, explain why you selected one model of criminal justice and then tell a story about a person who has used that model or tell a short anecdote about something you heard about, saw or read about. For example, if you are writing about the juvenile justice system in your state, then you would start out your essay this way: “In juvenile delinquency, at least one out of eleven teenagers or young adults returns to prison within five years. This is a disturbing statistic. What can be done to lower the rate of juvenile delinquency?” Then add your Progressive mode essay conclusion: “Juvenile delinquency is costly to the community because it results in expensive corrections, increased school dropouts and a greater number of teen-age births.”
If you choose to use the Progressive mode in your essay, remember to make sure you do not turn your sentences into mere advertisements for a specific business. In other words, do not tell your story about your triumph over a competitor just to end up saying “I am selling a bag of potato chips.” Also, if you want to get attention from your readers, you should avoid writing on the “us vs. them” subject. Your criminal justice research paper will be much more successful if you tell your story and then explain why.
