Practice Activity: Research Questions

Overview

In this assignment, you will create a research question to add to your ePortfolio.

Prompt

In your final course in the Criminal Justice program, you will create a research question that you will then investigate further. To assist you in this task, we will provide a list of current research topics covered in each course and ask you to submit for instructor feedback at least one research question based on a topic covered in that course. Using the topics listed below (or others covered in this course), create one to three research questions and submit them to your instructor.

This research question assignment is graded based on completion, and instructor feedback should help you strengthen your questions for future use. After you have submitted these questions to your instructor, upload the questions (and the list of potential topics below, if you wish) to your ePortfolio PDF.

For more information on creating research questions, refer to this research resource from the Shapiro Library. This page also has a helpful FAQ section on research question creation and expectations that you may want to explore further.

Note: If this is the first time you are submitting a research question to support your work in the final course, you should create a folder within your ePortfolio with the title “Research Questions,” as you will be adding questions to this folder throughout the program. Follow these ePortfolio folder instructions PDF on creating a folder within your ePortfolio.

Topics:

• The various goals of sentencing
• The notable surge in incarceration rates
• Different sentencing structures and their impacts
• Aspects of prison culture; the “inmate code”
• Different organizational structures within corrections
• Different physical structures within corrections
• Prison Rape Elimination Act; sexual violence in corrections
• The “invisible punishment” involved in being a felon
• Issues of race in corrections
• Corrections issues regarding women and persons who identify as transgender
• Programs that stress rehabilitation
• Issues in juvenile corrections
• Geriatric population in corrections
• How to decrease recidivism rates

Specifically, the following rubric criteria must be addressed:

• Submit one to three research questions based on a topic covered in this course.

What to Submit

This assignment must be completed in written format.