Sociology of Crime: Interpretive Perspectives Custom Essay

The term paper has four parts. Each part should be clearly labelled. There should be no introduction and no conclusion. The term paper has exactly three references. There are no exceptions to this rule. You are not permitted to refer to any reference except the three explicit references that you are using.

In part one, select an article that explicitly applies an interpretive sociological theory, symbolic interaction or ethnomethodology, of the sort covered in this course to a specific aspect of the social construction of crime. The theory must explicitly refer to the police or the courts. The article must make an original contribution to theory and must not be a review. Outline and discuss the important concepts of the theory as developed in the article and review how the theory is used to interpret the activity.

In part two, provide a substantial critique of the analysis of the first article that focuses on the theory being presented in the article. The critique will be your critique. Provide a theoretical advance (such as a new concept, idea, variable, stage, or process) that deals with the critique that you have provided. Provide a reference for your critique and for your theoretical advance. Normally article #2 will make a theoretical contribution that is not in article #1. This contribution will be the basis for your critique of article #1 (in that that article #1 does not deal with it) and this contribution will be the theoretical advance.

In part three, select some ‘news events’ that take the form of the description of a case study. The case study will be found in a newspaper. Students are encouraged to use the library’s news resources at library.wlu.ca/subject/news or the news component of google at news.google.com for a suitable source. The ‘news events’ must refer to the description of some events which have not been subject to analysis of any sort. You must refer to exactly one news event as reported in one reference. The news events must not be a report of any government or official agency and must not be numerical in nature. The case study must refer to an activity similar to that discussed in part one. The case study must have sufficient detail to sustain a sociological analysis. Apply the theory of the first article so as to interpret the events described in the news. Your application of the theory should make use of the concepts discussed in part one.

In part four, make use of the theoretical advance (such as a new concept, idea, variable, stage, process, or interpretation) discussed in part two to further develop the news analysis. Discuss how the analysis of the news is improved by your use of the theoretical advance.

An article (references 1 and 2) used as a reference for the term paper must not be an article that is used or referred to extensively in this course. It must be a scholarly article from a refereed sociology journal. Each article must use a sociological theory of the sort used in this course. Each article must not be overly focused on the reporting of research. Each article must not report or use quantitative or statistical methods. Articles must not refer to deviance, mental illness, or the mass media. All aspects of the term paper must deal with crime: the theory, the substantial critique, the theoretical advance, and the case study. Each reference must clearly deal with the aspect of crime that is being studied.

Students will normally find references 1 and 2 by going to the library’s web page and using one of the database search procedures to find the articles. It usually works better if you find both references at the same time. Another tactic is to find an article, not discussed in this course, written by one of the author’s referred to in this course. Another tactic is to go to specific journals, such as those listed in the readings, that deal with the sociology of mental illness and consider what has been published there. Another tactic is to look at the references in the articles on the reading list for this course. If one tactic does not work for you, use another.
If you use words taken from an article, they must be in quotation marks. You may not paraphrase the words from any source. Any words not in quotation marks must be your words and not words from any other source.

Use an in-line parenthetical format to refer to references in the term paper, such as (Pilgrim 2007:536). Provide references at the end of the term paper using the format found in this course outline. Do not use footnotes. Do not use endnotes. There will be exactly three references: 1) for the theory, 2) for the critique and theoretical advance, and 3) for the news. You must have exactly one reference for each part of the first three parts; there are absolutely no exceptions to this. You must list your three references at the end of the term paper. You will lose marks if your references are incomplete, inappropriate, or in accurate.

The term paper is worth 30% of the final grade and is marked out of 30. You must put the word count of the term paper on the cover page; if you do not you will lose 2 marks out of 30. The term paper must have less than 3000 words. The word count must include absolutely every word. (That means every word including the cover page, the references, your name, your id number, every word without exception.) If your term paper has more than 3000 words, you will lose 4 marks out of 30.

The first page of the term paper absolutely must be a cover page with: “your name”, “your id number”, “SY242OC Term Paper Winter 2013”, and “the word count.” If this page is missing, misplaced, or incomplete you will lose 4 marks.
The term paper must be submitted by you directly to www.turnitin.com using the information below. The submission date posted by www.turnitin.com is definitive. You do not submit a print copy to anybody. The due date is Monday April 1 at
2: 00pm. The penalty for a late term paper submitted after due date is 4 marks out of 30; however, ultimately and absolutely the term paper must be submitted by A term paper will not be accepted after this deadline and your mark will be zero

Students are required to keep a printed copy and an electronic copy of their term paper. Students must record and retain their turnitin digital receipt id number to verify that they have successfully submitted their term paper to turnitin. If you cannot prove that you made a submission, your mark will be zero if a submission has not been made. The extended due date at turnitin is only for those who have been granted an extension for a legitimate reason. The class ID is the important number to use.

If for any reason you are unable to complete your submission of the term paper to turnitin at the deadline, promptly email a copy to me at mmanley@wlu.ca to establish that you have completed the term paper on time. Continue with your efforts to submit it to turnitin. I will only mark the term paper submitted to turnitin.
The term paper must be submitted with: “docx” or “doc” or “rtf” as the filetype. If you use any other filetype you lose 4 marks out of 30. In particular, if you submit a text file or a pdf file you lose 4 marks.