Guns and Violent Crime

This will be a research paper in which you will research a Violent Crime that will be selected by you. The paper will be worth 150 points. You can pick any one of the following four areas we covered in this course OR you can pick and a Violent Crime that interests you. If you want to pick a violent crime other than the following four areas, you must send me a BBLearn Message identifying the area you wish to research for my approval. You MUST send that message by 11:00 PM on October 1. 1. Guns and Violent Crime 2. Mass Rampage Shootings 3. Terrorism 4. Sexual Assault This paper must contain new work and your own research. This is a RESEARCH PAPER and it cannot be a personal opinion piece. You may not use the word “I” in this paper. Everything you write in this paper must be documented with appropriate in-text citations to the sources you use and those sources must be in your list of References. Paper Organization and Requirements Organization At a minimum, you must organize the paper using the following questions as major headings for your paper. 1. Who are the victims of the violent crime? 2. Who are the perpetrators of the violent crime? 3. What does the research say about what motivates the perpetuators to commit the violent crime? 4. What does the research say about preventing or mitigating the violent crime? Failure to use these headings will result in a major reduction of points. Paper Length The written body of this paper must be a minimum of 3,000 words. Minimum means exactly that. Papers that do not meet the minimum will likely receive a score of 104 points or less which is equal to a grade of D or less. The word count does not include: Running Heads (Not Necessary) Title Page (Not Necessary) Table of Contents (Not Necessary) Abstract (Not Necessary) Tables (Optional But Will Not Count) Figures (Optional But Will Not Count) Reference Pages (Required) Certifications of Original Work and Documentation of Sources (Required) Student’s Name or Other Identifying Information on Any Pages (Not Necessary) I have created a Security Issues Final Paper Discussion Group where you can ask questions about the final paper. Scholarly Peer Reviewed Source Requirement for Paper You will be required to document the sources you use in the paper using the American Psychological Association (APA) format for in-text citations and references. You will be required to cite a minimum of 8 scholarly peer reviewed sources (scholarly books and scholarly peer reviewed journals). You cannot use any of the readings we are using in class for these 8 sources; however, you may use them as supplemental material. You cannot use Wikipedia or any other on-line or print encyclopedia or dictionary as a source for this paper. Minimum means exactly that. Papers that do not meet the minimum will likely earn a significantly reduced score on the paper If you are not sure what the term “scholarly peer reviewed sources” means I have provided a Paper Research Guide. You will find a link to this Research Guide in this folder. It provides resources for identifying scholarly peer reviewed sources.