Week 5 – Final Paper

Treatment Versus Punishment: That Is the Question!

[WLOs: 1, 2, 3, 4] [CLOs: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

When looking at the relationship between social justice and juvenile justice, there are two overarching concepts when addressing juvenile delinquency: treatment and punishment. These two concepts have driven a cycle of changes in the juvenile justice system over the years. Your task is to support your premise that your state or city should implement a philosophy of treatment for juvenile offenders, punishment, or a combination of the two (i.e., treatment and punishment) for a specific crime or criminal justice issue identified in your paper. In your paper,

• Explain the differences between the treatment and punishment concepts.
• Examine types of treatment versus types of punishment for juvenile crimes.
• Build the case for which one (i.e., treatment, punishment, or combination of both) you believe has the stronger position based on your research and the specific juvenile crime to which you will apply the concepts of treatment and punishment. The crime you choose can be violent (e.g., homicide, sexual assault, etc.) or non-violent (e.g., drug possession or sales, theft, etc.).
• Select your city (or state) and one other jurisdiction in the United States.
  • Identify the prevailing thought in your city (or state) as well as the other jurisdiction you chose (i.e., treatment, punishment, or a combination).
• Analyze which of the two jurisdictions has lower recidivism rates.
  • Identify whether the recidivism rate is the best indicator of success or failure of treatment versus punishment philosophy.
  • Explain why or why not.
• Examine scholarly research on the most effective strategies for reducing juvenile crime rates.
  • Identify which strategy or combination of strategies the research appears to support.
  • Identify whether it is based on type of crime.
  • Explain whether a given strategy works best depending upon the nature of the crime (i.e., violent vs. non-violent).
• Support which juvenile justice intervention strategy would be most effective to counter the crime or criminal justice issue based on your research.
• Summarize which concept (i.e., treatment, punishment, or combination) best supports the overarching concept of social justice.

The Treatment Versus Punishment: That Is the Question! Final Paper

• Must be 2,000 to 2,500 words in length (approximately 10 to 12 double-spaced pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s APA Style (Links to an external site.)
• Must include a separate title page with the following:
  • Title of page
  • Student’s name
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Date submitted

For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Word 2013 (Links to an external site.).

• Must utilize academic voice. See the Academic Voice (Links to an external site.) resource for additional guidance.
• Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.
  • For assistance on writing Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.) as well as Writing a Thesis Statement (Links to an external site.), refer to the Ashford Writing Center resources.
• Must use at least six scholarly and/or credible (at least four of which must be found in the Ashford Online Library) in addition to the course text.
  • The Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
  • To assist you in completing the research required for this assignment, view this Ashford University Library Quick ‘n’ Dirty (Links to an external site.) tutorial, which introduces the Ashford University Library and the research process, and provides some library search tips.
• Must document any information used from sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.)
• Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. See the Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.) resource in the Ashford Writing Center for specifications.

Carefully review the Grading Rubric (Links to an external site.) for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.