This assignment is worth 30% of your final grade. Due by 11:59pm on Monday, November 11 Submitted via the D2L Course Website (Assignment Submission Link) Discretionary decision-making occurs throughout the criminal justice system, and even beforehand in decisions on what behaviours / omissions of behaviour society criminalizes. This assignment asks students to explore and critically analyze discretionary decision-making in a selected area (your choice) of the criminal justice system (legislation, policing, courts, or corrections). You should describe the discretionary decision-making that occurs in the selected area and discuss how this decision-making is an ethical issue. If it is helpful, you are welcome to select a specific real-world situation as a basis or exemplar for your exploration. For example, describe the prosecutor’s discretion in the manner that law can be enforced and adjudicated. How is their discretion an ethical issue? What are some potential implications? Consider plea bargains and/or wrongful convictions. Take time at the beginning of this assignment to define your research topic carefully. Keep the topic narrow and within clearly defined parameters so that it remains manageable. Be sure to keep in mind what specific question (or set of questions) is guiding your research. Goals of the Assignment To provide students an opportunity to “put theory into practice,” by examining ethics in discretionary decision-making and how it can affect day-to-day lives. To provide students an opportunity to read, define, and use theoretical and criminological language to assist with preparation for the final exam. Assignment Specifics Students will prepare a 5-7 page essay (double spaced, 12 point font, 1” margins) that brings together: At least one assigned reading (from the textbook and/or another assigned reading) lecture content 3 peer-reviewed, academic sources (such as a journal article or a chapter from an edited collection). The reference list and the cover page do not count towards your 5-7 pages. You may go over the 7 pages, but only by one (1) page.2For this assignment, you are required to use the textbook along with content from at least one lecture – these sources must be properly cited throughout your paper. When you cite a lecture, please use the following conventions: in-text ……(Ehret 16 September 2019) or Ehret (16 September 2019)….. in the reference list Ehret, Stephanie (16 September 2019) “Thinking ethically. What’s the point?” CRM 322: Ethics in Criminal Justice [lecture]. Ryerson University. Papers should follow these conventions Cover page, including an interesting title (something other than Written Assignment. Look at books and journal articles – writers spend a lot of time coming up with catchy titles). APA citations for both in-text and reference list. Proper paragraph formatting. Headings and subheadings are preferred because they help to keep the writer and the reader on-track and they assist in the overall structure and flow. Again, pay attention to journal articles and books, they all use headings and subheadings. Page numbers. Please keep in mind that writing short papers can be challenging as they require you to distil assumptions, ideas and information. Therefore, these assignments will help you become both concise and precise in your writing. Do not be repetitive. Make sure everything you say is significant and contributes to the overall argument and flow of your paper. Avoid ‘filler’.
