CJUS 357

Research Proposal: Meta-Analysis Assignment Instructions

Overview

The discipline of correction faces many challenges today. Overcrowding, financial constraints, and reentry programming, and rising rates of recidivism are a few of the more pressing issues facing corrections officials and our elected legislatures. Perhaps one of the more significant issues is that recidivism rates have hovered near 60% in recent years; recidivism being defined as offenders who are rearrested within three years of release from prison. At least part of the reason for this and other problems is the that corrections’ officials have historically been reluctant to rely more on evidence-based practice to inform policy. The underlying theme for this course is that it is a best practice to rely on evidence-based programming and policy to rehabilitate offenders and prepare them for release back to society. This may take the form of programs offered inside the prison, on probation, or while being monitored on parole. It may also involve specific policy that influences sentencing and parole decisions. This assignment is important because it helps you to understand the process of identifying relevant problems, researching literature related to the topic, and proposing a research study that can address one of the significant issues in corrections. It is essential that our corrections’ officials rely more on evidence-based practice; this assignment prepares students to work in those fields as professionals and leaders who can assess problems and propose solutions. The fourth part of the research paper assignment requires students to provide a meta-analysis, combining several studies from the literature review and providing analysis as to their relevance to your proposed study.

Instructions

A meta-analysis is conducted when a researcher wants to combine and analyze the results from several scientific studies to compare and contrast them and to summarize their conclusions. It does not involve conducting original research but does allow the researcher to look at multiple studies and what they found about the topic for your proposed study. You will discuss the results or findings from other studies that were part of the literature review assignment. This may involve charts and graphs, statistical analysis, or coding of qualitative interviews. You will read the results/findings sections from studies you cited in your literature review assignment and provide results/findings for your meta-analysis. Think of this assignment as a summary of the studies you cited in your literature review. Make sure you fully understand what you are writing. Explain it to me as if I know nothing about research.

· This assignment will be 4-6 pages

· Use at least five references and be written in APA (current edition) Style.

· Acceptable sources are textbooks, peer reviewed journals, and websites from .gov and .org domains.

Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool.