What Do You Have to Do?
You will need to conduct research on your chosen criminal behavior using a combination of 7-10 resources (e.g., textbook, books, internet sites, sociological journals, news magazine articles, videos, DVD’s, interviews, etc.) Each slide will include an MLA citation at the bottom. After you have conducted your research, you will analyze your information using the following questions as a guide:
Provide a definition of the criminal behavior. On the same slide discuss how prevalent this crime is in our society, be sure to include statistics.
Who are the victims? Do they fit a particular profile in terms of age, class, race, education, etc?
Who are the perpetrators? Do they fit a particular profile in terms of age, class, race, education etc?
How do members of society perceive the criminal behavior? For example, many Americans feel that illegal file sharing is a harmless crime even though it causes $422 million dollars in damages each year.
What is the cause of this criminal behavior? In other words, why do people engage in the criminal behavior? (Note: there may be several causes, just list the top 4 causes)
Find a recent (last 7 years) notable example of your chosen criminal behavior from the media. For example, if you chose cybercrime, there was the Equifax data breach where many social security numbers were compromised.
What major laws or policies have been put in place to help curb the criminal behavior? What specific penalties are there for the criminals involved in the illicit behavior? ( Feel free to mention any proposed legislation or policies that have yet to be passed)
Have the laws or policies you discussed in question 8, worked to reduce criminal activity? Why or Why Not?
Do you think this criminal behavior should be criminalized or decriminalized? And do you have any recommendations for sentencing?
Include 2 slides that analyze the criminal behavior from two different criminological theories. (So far you’ve learned about Rational Choice Theory and Trait Theory) Use one slide per theory.
You will then organize and submit your information in outline/bulleted format on a PowerPoint (11 – 15 pages) or other slidesharing presentation format. Don’t forget to include your MLA citation at the bottom of each slide.
