Describe how a selected criminological theory explains why individuals decide to commit crimes.

Part 1 of the Research Paper includes both an overview of the research project and an Annotated Bibliography. In the overview section, students must identify the criminological theory that will serve as the basis for their research project and briefly describe how that theory explains why individuals decide to commit crimes. The overview section should be no more than two pages in length. The Annotated Bibliography must include a minimum of six scholarly resources that the student plans to utilize in the Research Paper. Each resource must be formatted per APA (6th ed.) guidelines, include a brief description of the information included in the resource, and why it is relevant to the research paper. Students will be allowed to utilize more scholarly resources in the Final Research Paper as appropriate. The intent of the Annotated Bibliography is to demonstrate that the student is headed in the right direction with his or her research for the paper. Part 1 of the Research Paper should be approximately four-five pages in length (a two page overview and two-three page Annotated Bibliography), not counting the cover and reference pages.