Essay on "Australian Criminal Justice System Is Shaped Largely by Society Discuss This Statement"

Quoted Instructions for "Australian Criminal Justice System Is Shaped Largely by Society Discuss This Statement" Assignment:

CCJ11 ��*****" Introduction to Criminal Justice

Tips for the Minor Essay

Topic: The Australian criminal justice system is shaped largely by

society. Discuss this statement.

General advice

For some students, this will be the first piece of academic writing that you have undertaken ��*****" or may be the first in some time. As a result, I have provided some general tips about tackling the essay writing process, and a couple of tips specific to the question. My general advice is:

*****¢ Develop an informed argument or point of view (this means you indicate clearly that you have sources/references for what you say).

*****¢ In the end, there is no substitute for careful thinking and planning ��*****" and taking care with your written expression. It is always advisable to start the assignment a couple of weeks before it is due ��*****" and gradually refine each draft you write ��*****" from first rough draft to the final polished product.

*****¢ Normal academic conventions apply for essay writing ��*****" including proper referencing. Some tips on these are provided below.

Specific tips

*****¢ Check out any weeks in the study guide that might be relevant to the topic before going too far with preparing your essay (e.g., what is the criminal justice system; what are the internal and external constraints on the system identified in week 3, etc.). While the topic is not a trick question, students will still need to think critically about what has been covered in the course to date, and how it might apply.

*****¢ Think about the question and break it down. That is, do not just examine factors shaping the criminal justice system. Are there concepts that need to be introduced and explained? How are factors shaping the system?

*****¢ There are a range of ways that students could respond to this question. One way would be to examine:

o The purposes of law and the criminal justice system (i.e., police, courts and corrections);

o How the law and criminal justice system are related to society (i.e., how law reflects community values, legitimatised through the liberal-democratic system of government);

o Social factors that shape the criminal justice system and their role. These may include:

 Composition and beliefs of society;

 Type of crime, crime rates and reporting;

 Politics, mass media and public opinion;

 Advocacy groups;

 Technology;

 Resource constraints; and

 Any others?

*****¢ A good answer will also consider some of the internal factors affecting the criminal justice system, such as:

o Budgets and staffing levels;

o Policies/practices;

o Discretion;

o Occupational culture; and

o Any others?

Writing Tips

Structure and Presentation

*****¢ Students should consult the CCJ Survival Guide provided in a folder under the Assessment menu item (Assessment -> Resources for Essay Writing) for more information about writing and structure, including what to contain in your introduction and conclusion.

*****¢ Must be written in paragraphs, with each paragraph only covering one topic or theme.

*****¢ Each essay should contain a formal introduction and conclusion, but headings should not be used.

*****¢ Don*****t use rhetorical questions.

*****¢ Don*****t give personal opinions and avoid the use of first person or personal pronoun (e.g., I, we, you, etc.).

*****¢ Provide signposts. For example, *****Four important research results were discovered in a study by Johnson (1999). Firstly, *****¦ Secondly,*****¦ *****.

*****¢ Need to work on logical flow of ideas (don*****t leave it to the reader to figure out the logic)

*****¢ Ensure your assignment adheres to the Assignment Format Guidelines outlined in pages 3 and 4 of the Unit Outline (e.g., 12 point font ��*****" usually Times New Roman or Arial, margins, line spacing requirements, page numbers, etc.).

Referencing

*****¢ Consult an APA referencing guide. A link to the Referencing Tool has been provided on the website (under Unit Information). This tool (and the CCJ Survival Guide) will provide a brief insight into this.

*****¢ In the reference list, ensure you use capital letters in the correct places (e.g., for journal titles but lower case for article titles and book titles) and italics for book and journal titles (not for articles). Different sources (e.g., books, articles, etc.) appear differently in the reference list.

*****¢ Avoid floating references (e.g., ***** *****¦ conducted a study in America. (Johnson, 1999)*****). The intext reference comes before the full stop, otherwise your reference then relates to the following sentence.

*****¢ The only things that should appear in-text are the authors***** names, the year of publication, and if it*****s a quote, the page number.

*****¢ The use of *****˜et al.*****. This is used when there are three (3) or more authors, but only the second time you*****ve mentioned that article and thereafter. On the first mention you must list all authors. When you have more than five (5) authors, you use it in every in-text reference (e.g., ***** ... conducted a study in Australia (Little et al., 2010)*****.

*****¢ If you say, *****˜many researchers found *****¦***** then you need to reference all of these researchers.

*****¢ Don*****t just put a reference at the end of paragraph. Each sentence that uses information from a source should be referenced.

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