8-10 page research paper! Doubled spaced (12 pt font) On “Examining the use of excessive force by law enforcement personnel during encounters with minority populations in the state of Texas, myth and/or reality.” Must include all 11 steps in paper Cover Page Table of contents Abstract - summary of whole paper Research question- fully state and discuss research question Literature review - where you do all the research (should take up majority of the paper) hypothesis- what is your hypothesis in relations to the research question methodology page- explaining the who you are examining and how you will be collecting you data (further explained in instructions) 8. statement of compliance - will there be anybody harmed are abused while conducting this research. (further explains din instructions) 9.disuss how you will input all data ( such as frequency stables contingency tables or however you want to do it) 10. report results of your analysis and finings. 11. discussion

It is said in the syllabus that you are required to present a 8 to 10 page double space (Font 12) research project. The project is worth 15 points and represents 15% of your overall grade. It is an important project. The project will be written in a journal article format and will report the results of a survey research consistent with the knowledge gained in this course or based on other related knowledge. Pick up any journal article written according to the APA style, and see the format that is used, that is, the different sections of the journal, the font, the space between lines, the reference system, etc. (The Journal Article Summary you did earlier was in preparation for this Research Project) The project should follow the following structure, that is, every paper should contain the following 11 items: (1) a cover page which contains the title of the project and the names of the authors as specified at the end of these instructions. Each paper needs to have a title. In this case, the title could be one of the following, depending upon which one you choose: “Examining the use of excessive force by law enforcement personnel during encounters with minority populations in the state of Texas, myth and/or reality.” (Write only on one of the two topics suggested here; Do not write on any other topic of your choice) (2) a table of content (3) an abstract. An abstract is a succinct description of the whole research project. It includes the purpose of the study, the methodology used (describing the procedure, the population, the sampling, the data source -in this case, it probably will be secondary data or data from Agencies- the analysis), the key findings and the implications or recommendations. All this should be said in less than 150 words (about a third to a half page). (4) a clearly stated research question (what the researcher wants to investigate), the importance and relevance of the topic. In chapter 3 of the textbook we discussed this issue. In this case your research question should be related to the title. (5) a complete literature review: you should put together a review of the literature related to the topic to be investigated. It means that you have to go to the library or go to the internet and read articles or books that have dealt with the topic you are investigating. The literature review helps you learn about what has been said by previous researchers on this topic, what were their findings, what were their successes or shortcomings (limitations), what new orientation they propose, so that you, as a junior researcher, can see what stone was left unturned, and you can fill that gap in your present or future study. Once you get a good idea or finding or discussion from those previous studies, you can include them in your study as an argument or counterargument in what you are doing. If you quote somebody or paraphrase someone else, you need to give a proper reference, that is, you have to give the credit where it belongs. Generally, every scholarly paper you read always starts with the literature review before going into the methodology and data analysis; this is a good model you must follow as you write your paper. We do this to avoid to re-invent the wheels: your work should lean on the work of others who have done similar research before you. Remember that a good literature review takes the shape of a reversed pyramid. That is, you start with a broad area, and you narrow it down to the point you like to focus your study on. What you would like to do here is to find the gaps or some of the good ideas that you can explore in your study to make it stand out. The gaps could be in the methodology, the sample, the sampling technique, the analysis or an aspect that the previous researcher completely overlooked. It is advisable to start with the most recent articles and to go backward in order to capture the most recent findings. For example, start with the articles written in 2019 and move back to those of 2018, then 2017, then 2016, etc. You may easily have three or four pages here, as this is one of the most critical parts of this research project, and one that will take you more time to complete. (6) hypotheses: after you have reviewed the literature you should state your hypotheses in relation with your research question. This is nothing else than what you would like to test (evaluate) with the data that you use. This is a statement of a relationship between two or more variables to be tested. The data will allow you to reject or retain the hypothesis. You may have one, two, three or more hypotheses, depending upon your interest and your data. Having one or two may be more manageable for this kind of time sensitive exercise. For example: There are more minority population in the Justice system in Texas than the white majority. Or, law enforcement personnel use more excessive force on minority populations than on white majority, etc… Normally, after you examine the data you have collected, you should be able to see through the data whether or not there is good reason to believe these hypotheses. (7) a method section explaining the population under investigation, the sampling method and procedure of data collection, the source of data used. This is an area where the researcher is the more creative. Are you going to use experimental designs or other types of data gathering strategies (survey, interview, participant observation…). For the purpose of this project, it is required that you use secondary data or data from Agency records (see Chapter 10 in the book). N.B.: It is a type of academic dishonesty to use a paper or a research that was previously done for another class, or school (and for which a credit was claimed), as a research project for this class; or to use a paper written by others. What I want to see is how you apply the knowledge gained in this course to start something original. Choose a sample wisely, that is, a sample that is appropriate for the types of data you want. Next is the question of how the sample is selected. Statisticians would recommend a random sample. If you use one like this, explain what sampling procedure you used (the book gives you different sampling techniques); if you did not, justify why the departure from randomness and how it will affect the generalizability of your findings. This is often one of the concerns reported in the limitations of the study. What you do here is to provide the reader with enough information for him or her to replicate whatever you have done; that is why, in writing this section, you should provide enough details. (8) a statement of compliance with the regulation on the protection of human subjects. In chapter 2 we learned about how human subjects have been abused in research, and the precautions that are to be taken when one is engaged in a research involving human subjects. If you think that your investigation will cause some harm or embarrassment, discomfort to the respondent, then you need to seek the consent for their voluntary participation, and you have to submit a protocol to the Institutional Review Board (IRB). In the present case we do not have enough time to go through this IRB process and we are likely to use secondary data with no people’s names, so we mention that as a reason for not going through the IRB. (9) data analysis procedure: Describe how your data will be input (it goes even to describe what software you will use –SPSS, SAS or Excel or others) and analyzed: what statistical procedure will be used. Normally, in this section, you tell the reader what procedure you will use (frequency, percentages, t-test, regression, correlation, ANOVA, etc), and why it is the appropriate procedure. Since most of you are not yet fluent in statistical analysis, you will be fine if you perform the basic descriptive statistics, such as frequency tables, means comparisons, contingency tables, or the likes whatever you can afford thru Excel or SPSS. (10) a results section: you report the results of your analysis as they appear in your computer printout. They can be in narrative or tabular form followed with a narrative explaining the table. (11) discussion, implications, limitations and recommendations. Here is where you explain the result you obtained, whether or not they are significant in relation with your hypotheses – whether or not you have enough confidence to retain or reject your hypotheses. The analogy is that of a spin doctor, who tries to give his or her interpretation of the findings. You also will show here if your findings confirm or not (are consistent with) the findings by others that you reviewed in the literature. You can use sources from your literature review section or some additional sources to support your arguments. Talk about the implications of your findings, and the limitations of your study – these could be due to your sampling, your data source or your analysis. Finally, what do you recommend that society should do or future researchers should do in the light of your findings? This can be increasing the sample size, diversifying the sample, trying the study with a different population, using different data analysis technique, changing the existing policies or proposing new policies, etc. Just remember that the American Psychological Association (APA) style is required for writing all papers in the area of criminal justice and criminology. It is important for you to review the manual to see how the other sections of the research paper are presented.