For this draft of the initial paper for the Body Worn Camera project, you should write a 3-5 page paper which describes the content and findings of each of three studies that you selected from your literature review, their methodologies and the coding schemes they used. The coding schemes should be described in terms of the type of information collected, the types of variables used to gather this information and the coding categories for each variable in the coding scheme. Each coding scheme should be included in an appendix for this paper (which does not count toward the 3–5-page paper length).
In this paper you should also specify the following choice regarding your work in the second phase of this project: 1) your film coding will follow an inductive model, in which case you code the individual BWC films and from analyzing the results you formulate a hypothesis about BWC footage and police use of force that can be tested in future research. This hypothesis must include at least one independent (IV) and one dependent (DV) variable. OR ALTERNATIVELY: 2) you can follow a deductive model, and propose a hypothesis before you do the film coding, with at least one IV and one DV. Your hypothesis could be based on those from the articles you collect in your literature review. You will then use the data you collect from the film coding to determine if they support or do not support your original hypothesis. You should fully explain why you made the choice you did. I will post a separate assignment thread for you to indicate your inductive/deductive decision by April 10 and send your proposed hypothesis if you choose the deductive approach. I will review all hypotheses to make sure they are on target and can be used for this assignment.
Finally, this paper should also include a coding scheme from the literature that you will use to code the BWC footage later. You can add your own variables to an existing scheme if you like and/or change those that were used in the original research study so that it can most easily be used in your own coding. It should also be included in an appendix labelled “Coding Scheme for Lynn Police Department BWC Film Coding.”
