Order Description
This essay has two equally weighted parts:
? Part A: application of criminological theories to a criminal event
? Part B: critical analysis of a criminological theory.
Part A: You are required to find a newspaper article published in The Age or The Australian
reporting on a criminal event. The article must not be a summary of a previous criminal event. Use
the Factiva database in the Swinburne library to find a link to your article and include this in your
essay (there is a tutorial on how to use Factiva within the Assessment 2 information in the unit
Blackboard site).
You will summarise the criminal event and explain the causes of the incident using three
criminological theories of your choice. There is one caveat: the theories must span the range of
theories discussed throughout the semester (i.e. all three theories cannot be sociological in
nature). Be sure to include the principle tenets of each theory as they relate to the criminal event.
Part B: Critically analyse one criminological theory (not used in Part A). Find one journal article
that supports your theory and one that does not support your theory – you must use only a peerreviewed
journal article such as Criminology, Criminology and Public Policy, Justice Quarterly, or
Police Quarterly. You are not limited to these journals, but are specifically restricted from using
Wikipedia or similar websites.
Submit copies of these articles as PDFs with your essay. In your own words, describe the theory
and then summarise the arguments made in both articles. Be sure to outline the principle tenets
that were supported and those that were not. After analysing the theory, state concluding thoughts
with accompanying rationale: should this theory be accepted or rejected when creating crime
control policies?