CRJU-691: Public Policy and Criminal Justice

Case Study Paper
This paper is worth 3 points and should be uploaded to the appropriate D2L assignment dropbox
no later than the start of class time on the due date. Please refer to the paper grading criteria
that are posted on D2L.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to consider the role that federalism, government structure, policy
actors, and budgets can play on criminal justice policy.
Writing Skill
This assignment will require you to write a case study of a criminal justice policy issue. Recall
our prior reading and discussion of the case study on Prohibition; this will take a similar format,
written as a story, in plain language, and with the potential to guide discussion. One distinction
will be that your paper should not end with a neat conclusion, but rather should leave the
reader with one or more questions about what to do, or about what should happen next.
Word Count
This paper should be a minimum of 1,200 words but no more than 1,500 words.
The Task
Consider the theme of federalism as reflected in the readings for that topic (see the course
schedule). For this paper, select a criminal justice policy issue, one that is fairly specific, and tell
a story about it in such a way that it illustrates several themes of federalism. That is, after
reading the case study, your reader should be able to look back at the federalism readings and
say, “I see how those points were illustrated in this story!” Further guidance follows.
1. The Case Study. This may be a real or hypothetical case. If hypothetical, please stay
within the bounds of reality. Whether real or hypothetical, any statements of true fact
must be accompanied by a citation. As you write the case study, prepare it as a story.
Explain the issue, problem, and context; what happened; who did what and why (if we
know); the results; and so on. This should not read like an academic essay, but rather
like a story you might find in a newspaper or magazine; allow your storytelling voice to
shine through! Do not directly reference the concepts of federalism; allow readers to
discover those themselves. Leave the case study with an unfinished conclusion,
requiring the reader to contemplate the best course of action. Recommended length:
1,000 words
2. Connection to Federalism. On a separate page, provide a bullet-point list of how various
concepts from the readings are illustrated in the article. Use bullet points, first listing
the concept (along with a citation to the source) and then followed by a sentence of how
it is illustrated. Here’s an example of what that should look like. Recommended length:
100-250 words
• Policy Diffusion (Weible, Chapter 7). The context is that the Gotham Police
Department is studying what other agencies do while trying to develop its own
hot spots policing program.
3. Questions for Consideration. Accompany the case study with a series of discussion
questions. This should be a list of questions to guide conversation about the case study.
Generally speaking, these should not be questions with a clear right or wrong answer,
but should be fairly open-ended. Be creative. AI can help (see below). Recommended
length: 100-250 words
AI Permissions
You may use AI in this paper for one, very limited, purpose. After you have completed the case
study in its entirety, copy it into the AI site of your choosing and ask AI to help in developing
discussion questions. Review the list that it generates. You may find that some of these
questions cause you to think about revising the case study, either for clarity or content. If so,
please do so. You may find that others are helpful in preparing the questions for consideration
that accompany the case study. Along with your paper (but separate from its wordcount),
include a statement as to how you used AI and specifically how it contributed to the preparation
of the assignment, within the parameters described here.

CoPilot How to write a Case study paper 3.17.26.

RUBRIC.Case Study Paper