The Political Process and Crime Control Policy

Week 2 – Assignment
Recommendation: Review the requirements for the Final Paper, and tie your research to its requirements. Who has the most influence on crime control policy? The president? The governor? Our representatives? Chapter 3 of Criminal Justice Policy, “Street-Level Bureaucracy: From Policy to Practice” takes us from theory to reality. Arsneault states,
“Without someone to implement it, policy is nothing more than words on a page. Furthermore, what is written as policy is often more theory than reality, because implementing a policy at the street-level is seldom as neat and clean as it appears on the page.” (p. 37).
First, select a crime control policy (e.g., the three-strikes law, legalization of recreational use of marijuana, combatting terrorism and the Patriot Act, gang initiatives, or gun control, etc.). In your paper:

Summarize the key elements of the selected crime control policy.
Explain the political process that sets the foundation for the selected crime control policy.
Examine the role of the federal government when it comes to formulating crime control policy.
Discuss how the U.S. Congress influences crime control policy of the states and ensures consistency of laws among the states (Note: Traditionally, crime control legislation falls under state legislatures. There are articles on various policies in the Arsneault, 2014, chapter.)

Your paper must:

Be three to five double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center (Links to an external site.).
Include a separate title page with the following:

Title of paper
Student’s name
Course name and number
Instructor’s name
Date submitted

Use at least five scholarly sources in addition to the course text.
Document all sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
Include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

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