Research Project Paper
Students are required to write a research paper for this course that is due onSunday, November 10th by 11:59PM.Late papers will not be accepted. The paper is worth 40% (40 pts. out of 100 pts. total) of your final grade. The paper must be submitted through the Turnitin link on Canvas. Only one submission is allowed (no multiple submissions). There are no re-submissions.
Potential topic areas include, but are not limited to [Excluding Religion and the Death Penalty]*:
- Empirical evidence of the penological justifications for the Death Penalty (i.e., deterrence)
- Gender Bias and DP administration
- Death Penalty Study Commissions
- Juveniles and DP
- The Costs of Processing Death Cases
- Arbitrariness and the Death Penalty
- The Felony Murder Rule and the Death Penalty
No Overlap:You cannot write papers on the Capital Jury or Race as they are discussion topics. You also must avoid writing your research papers on any topic used for your essay papers. If you overlap your topics, it will result in a 0 grade for the assignment that duplicates a topic that you have already used.
*The papers that I have received concerning Religion and the Death Penalty in the past have almost always failed to reach the level of empiricism required for the assignment. In large part, students want to write about how their faith fosters a belief in or opposition to the death penalty by citing religious texts. This is a personal statement, which is fine for refining what any student believes personally and I applaud it, but it is not an empirical study of the death penalty. Therefore, I have made the decision to exclude Religion and the Death Penalty from available topics for the research paper.
The research paper is to be at least 15 pages in length (size 12 Times New Roman font, default 1 inch margins, double spaced). The "15 pages" refers to contentexcludingthe title, abstract, and reference pages. The paper must follow a formal research paper presentation in APA Style (e.g., Abstract, Introduction, Headings/ subheadings, Discussion/conclusion). Please present a comprehensive presentation of your topic using adequate resources (at least 8 “academic” sources; e-journals from the FIU library are fine –web based sources are limited to 2 articles, e.g., DPIC website). If you have any questions regarding your topic area, please email me. The paper will be based oncomprehensiveness, scope, analyses, synthesis, logic, grammar, spelling, organization, clarity, APA style and citation, empiricism, and content.
*** The paper MUST discuss and overtly relate to the death penalty.