Briefly About Criminal Justice Papers: Main Rules

As its title indicates, a criminal justice paper is related to various matters of justice and different types of crimes. Notably, the moral aspects of these questions are not taken into consideration. While the main focus is made on the right side of these matters. 

In the course of your preparation, you may concentrate your attention on the studies of crimes, their detection, investigations, and prevention. Another object to focus is justice. You may cover in your paper issues related to the operation of courts, prosecution authorities, rehabilitation, etc. 

Keep in mind that all topics are more or less complex. Therefore, it is desired to choose only those you can explore comprehensively. 

Afterward, think about the purpose of your research, about things you want to share with your future readers. Generally, papers with practical implications interest readers most of all. 

Things to Know When Writing

Criminal justice papers should be more precise than any other type of paper. As they are related to very serious issues, all statements should be:

• clear – articulated explicitly, without ambiguities, uncertainties or deficiencies;
• neutral in tone – keep them formal;
• detailed – the lack of sufficient information may result in wrong conclusions.

Even touching some general categories, avoid the misleading assumption that you should not explain such because everybody knows that. No, such an approach does not work for these papers. Clarify all general definitions using relevant resources (manuals, glossaries).

Case Study

Before starting your essay writing, provide a sufficient case study. Such kind of research is based on a thorough review of all relevant resources, emphasizing the details and peculiarities of your topic.

Make sure you select only resources related to your topic directly and contain data sufficient for your analysis. You can find such information in:

• official sources (legal acts, websites of the state authorities);
• reputable sources (reports of international organizations);
• articles of the recognized specialists (practitioners).

Emphasizing all details of your research will prevent you from making deficient or misleading conclusions. This way, you will reach one of the main goals of your writing – form a clear understanding of your topic.

Your case can have certain peculiarities – facts that make it distinctive from similar cases. Missing these peculiarities will definitely result in wrong conclusions. So, pay attention to these important matters.

Prewriting

Research work

Before starting your work, make sure you have completed your comprehensive research. In this course, you should see the difference between primary and secondary resources. The primary resources comprise official legislation, original documents, and similar sources of information. The secondary is usually derivate and supplementary, often contain private opinions. 

Various resources can provide you different types of information:

1. The legislation is the primary source of information for your paper. It is obligatory to find out legal definitions, if any, of all terms you use in this paper. The legislation will also help you to analyze the applicable legal procedures. This way, you will make your paper not only correct from the legal perspective, but also make it sound in a professional manner.
2. Court practice can make your paper juicy. Searching for the relevant court decisions can give you the first view about legal trends and help to form a clearer vision of your paper. Consequently, the results of your writing work will be more practically applicable. 
3. Dictionaries and manuals will bring more clarity if you face with unfamiliar terms. It is extremely important to check whether you apply all terms according to their meanings. 
4. Books will give you information about analytical and writing methods, existing theoretical approaches. 
5. Journals and newspapers can contain fresh news and opinions about your subject. If you read the ready-made professional analysis – you may grasp the essence of your subject more quickly. 
6. Online videos – can contain interesting information about cases and examples for your study. 

This list is not exhaustive. So, you may find other sources of information you think appropriate. Just make sure any such source of information is:

• reliable;
• accurate;
• clear.

After you have completed your research, you can move to the next stage – your analysis. 

Analytical work

During your research, pay special attention to analytical methods appropriate to explore your kind of topic. You will apply them during the subsequent analytical work.

Analyze all resources critically. Ask questions and have doubts concerning all statements you read. This will help you to select the most reliable information for your writing.

Afterward, make your brainstorming. Write down on a separate paper all the ideas you have. And range them in view of their relevance and importance.  

If you have any doubts about your content – consult with the specialists. They can help you with useful advice and recommendations to bring more clarity. 

Writing Itself

Structure your criminal justice paper

The structure of your paper can vary depending on your topic. However, here is an example of a structure you may use during your work:

1. Introduction 

State your problem in this part of your paper. This should be done in the way of convincing your reader that your text is worth their time and attention. To reach this result, you may:

• add some hook (for instance, some astonishing statistics data);
• indicate the benefits of your research briefly;
• describe the costs for ignorance of this problem;
• briefly describe possible adverse consequences if the problem remains unresolved;
• promise to describe solutions for this problem.

In this part, you should express your thesis statement that will be expanded further in your text.

2. Body 

Here you may cover the following aspects: 

• briefly describe the methods you used;
• explain the results of your research;
• list and compare various opinions, if any;
• state your opinion and arguments;

support your arguments with sufficient examples (like court cases).  

3. Conclusion

This part of your paper should contain your initial thesis statement expressed in a different way. Also, you should:

• indicate your gist of the solution;
• emphasize what has remained unknown, if any;
• call for the next actions. 

Your conclusion should not contain new information but summarize all previously explored opinions and arguments.

Writing Tips

In the case of criminal justice papers, it is very difficult to give some general algorithms everyone should follow. Topics are always field-specific, highly diversified, and require comprehensive researches. 

However, these basic tips can help during your writing:

1. Write in a plain manner, so even a non-professional reader could understand your topic – keep your text simple and clear.
2. Synthesize and summarize information from various sources. 
3. Think and write critically – try to find deficiencies or ambiguities in your text to correct in time. 
4. Formulate your arguments clearly and explicitly – your reader should grasp your point of view at once. Make sure your opinion and its premises are logically connected.
5. If appropriate, compare different opinions concerning the subject matter of your paper and make your own conclusion. 
6. Keep to the structure of your text – if new ideas arise, it is better to write them on a separate paper and think about the best place to include in your text. 
7. Read your paper impartially – answer for yourself first is it easy to understand your text or not. 
8. Check your document for any misspellings, grammar errors, and ambiguities. 

Topics for You

To develop required skills beforehand, here are some topics for you to practice:

Crimes

• Theories of crime and their basic principles
• Elements of crime 
• Classification of crimes 
• Ways to eliminate the promotion and propaganda of crimes
• Aggression and crimes
• Crime control approaches  
• Crime and age
• Correlation between the level of education and crimes 
• Capital punishment and its ethical issues
• Violence and abuse
• Recidivism and its premises
• Approaches for improving criminal legislation 
• Types and elements of robbery 
• Forgery specifics 
• Peculiarities of environmental crimes 
• War crimes
• Specifics of terrorism 
• Sexual harassment
• White-collar crimes and their peculiarities 
• Kidnapping and its characteristics 
• Specifics of organized crimes 
• Challenges of cybercrimes

Justice and public order

• How to address correctly human rights violations in the course of justice?
• Rehabilitation of victims
• Issues related to gun control
• Basics of legal education for crime prevention
• How to make restorative justice workable?
• Rehabilitation of crime witnesses
• Programs for crime prevention 
• Ethical matters in the course of criminal justice 
• Ways to prevent domestic violence
• Problematic issues of juvenile justice
• Police brutality and ways to handle it
• Limitation of rights of police officers
• Police and its role for crime prevention

Final Words

Criminal justice papers enable you to express thoughts about crimes and ways to prevent them. Take this chance to conduct your comprehensive research, analyze information critically, and form your opinion with its practical implication.