Overview and Purpose of the Final Paper
For this final paper, you will write two stories to
demonstrate your understanding of developmental trajectories, risk and
protective factors, as well as some other key elements from the course.
Accurate risk factors and a cohesive, sensible and logical developmental trajectory are the core elements of this paper.
Expectations – Story 1
First, pick a superhero/comic villain from the list below. Second,
write their story from the time of their birth, through childhood,
adolescence, and into adulthood, ultimately arriving at their inevitable
villainous end (e.g. hatred and contempt for society, morality, etc).
As you write their story, you need to integrate your knowledge of
developmental and social learning theory, showing the reader the various
risk factors that led them closer to a life of crime, as well as pointing out any protective factors.
In sum, you want to illustrate their developmental trajectory
using the knowledge gained in this course, but do so by telling a
story. Use what you know from popular movies, books, comics, etc. to
explain how your villain became the way they did using research-backed
knowledge from this course and your own investigations.
I am limiting your choice of villains to
those below because it will be much easier since much is written about
their history. Although you will not be graded on ‘factual accuracy’ of
the villain’s history, it will be easier to write if you have known
information. If you are not familiar with any of these villains, you can
do a quick online search to learn more; there is a lot of information
readily available.
That being said, you will have to create some of the story for each villain from your own imagination/creativity.
For example, no comic/movie may have addressed your villain’s
upbringing, so you may have to invent a story about being born and
raised in a certain kind of family, environment, and situation that,
based on your knowledge of criminological theory, increased their risk
of turning out like they did.
This is NOT an Academic Paper – Don’t
say things like, “According to XYZ theory, some risk factors are 1, 2, 3
and 4. Mr. Villain has risk factors 3 and 4.” Instead, just write a story, but seamlessly integrate those risk factors into the narrative.
A Brief Example:
“Growing up, Mr. Villain was surrounded by gangs and lived in a
violent neighborhood; gunshots were common and Mr. Villain often saw
bloodstains on the sidewalk. Once, when walking to school, he saw the
body of man who had been killed in a gang fight the night before. By the
time he reached age, 14, he had fully integrated into the gang and
dropped out of school, learning to carry to his own gun and extort money
from local businesses to subsidize the gang.”
Notice how this example is just a story,
but it includes various factors that put Mr. Villain at higher risk for
becoming a criminal. This is the sort of knowledge and integration I’ll
be looking for in your stories. You will not do well if you try to turn this into an academic paper. The goal, again, is to just tell a story using accurate knowledge from this course built into it.
Remember: Accurate
risk factors and a cohesive, sensible and logical developmental
trajectory are the core elements of this paper, but you have the ability
to be creative with the background story of your selected villain.
Expectations – Story 2
For the second half of your paper, you will retell the same story of your villain, but this time with a different developmental trajectory and ending.
Assume your villain never became the
person we know them to be, but ended up a normal citizen or even the
hero of the story. As you retell the story, again, talk about the risk
factors that were present and how they were mitigated. Talk about the
protective factors that led them down a healthy, positive developmental
path toward productivity, health, morality, ethics, etc. Use your
knowledge of who becomes a criminal and who does not and integrate that
knowledge into your retelling.
Have fun but be realistic! No
one has the perfect story with no risk factors and all protective
factors. Use your knowledge of what we’ve discussed all semester and
create an accurate portrayal of someone who had some problems, but there
were other circumstances that led them another way.
Formatting and Page Length
7-10 pages (3-5 pages per story; no more than a max of 10 pages,
please) 12 point font, 1-inch margins, double spaced. Since there is no
research requirement, no title page, no running head, no bibliography,
no APA formatting or citations are necessary.
This is not a research paper, so you are not required to do the typical “find x many sources” and do citations. It is intended to read like a story – but an accurately informed one that uses the information we’ve covered throughout this course.
Grading for the Final
Your grade will be very largely based on your accurate use of
developmental trajectories, social learning theory, risk and protective
factors as well as the synthesis of these important concepts. I
want to see that you can fluidly apply the knowledge you have gained to
a ‘real’ situation; show me that you know how these risk/protective
factors would manifest in an actual life.
You will also be graded, to a slightly
lesser extent, on the use of a creative, narrative format. Once again,
the goal is writing a story, not listing theories, risk factors,
authors, etc. The story is the medium through which you will demonstrate
your knowledge and understanding of these concepts. View the rubric on
this page for a detailed list of the grading criteria for this paper.
Topics covered in the course that are pivotal for the paper:
Just-World Hypothesis
Classical Theory (a.k.a. Deterrence Theory)
Positivist Theory
Strain Theory
Social Control Theory
Self-Control Theory
Peer Rejection
Baumrind’s 4 Parental Styles
Temperament
Obedience and Authority
Juvenile Psychopathy etc.
