This task requires you to design a research project to determine whether a particular program or intervention ‘works’ and prepare a brief explaining your proposed research. Your brief must address each of the seven elements listed below, however you choose to do so.
(NOTE: the order of the topics and the suggested word counts below are offered as a guide only – they are not prescriptive).
Introduction: Research topic: what, who, where, how and why? (~300 w)
Background to the problem/issue/program and review of existing literature: (~1200 w)
• Policy context
o Outline the political setting and policy context of the problem/issue/program
• Has this problem/issue/program been researched/evaluated before?
• If so, gather and critically assess this research (What evidence or knowledge exists? Who produced it? What methodology was used? How reliable is the evidence or knowledge produced? What does it leave out?)
• If not, explain why not, and gather and critically assess research in a related area that could be applied to the problem/issue/program you’ve identified
• This review of relevant research literature must be critical, that is, you need to consider the strengths and limitations of any previous research. Also try and identify its political and/or ideological position, as well as its theoretical assumptions.
• Why is it important to research this particular problem/issue/program/intervention?
Proposed methodology (~1000 words)
• What is/are your research question/s?
• What measures/principles will you use to determine ‘effectiveness’?
• What research approach will you take to address the research question/s?
• What data will you need to collect and how will you collect it?
• How would you analyse the data?
Political issues/challenges (~500w)
• What political issues or challenges might arise in the course of the proposed research?
• g. consider funding and its implications, control of/access to participants and information, negative findings
• How might these be dealt with/addressed?
Ethical issues (~500 w)
• What are the ethical issues you would need to consider?
• How would you resolve/address these?
Timeline and associated activities (~200w)
• What would be a realistic time frame for such research?
• What activities would be undertaken and when?
• How would you disseminate the results of the research? (‘Outputs’?)
Conclusion and reflection on the process (~300w)
• What are the strengths of your proposed research?
• What are the limitations of your proposed research?
• Reflecting on the process of developing this research proposal, what would you do differently if you were starting again, or if you had access to a wider range of resources, in terms of design or scope of your proposed research? (Think about what questions/issues remain to be answered/understood, which are beyond the scope of your proposed work?)
Appendices (optional):
You may append 1-2 relevant pages to which you refer in your written brief, such as:
• Your logic model/logic map
• Your stakeholder map, a process diagram, or timeline of activities
• Your sample data collection instrument – eg survey or interview questions
• Anything else that helps explain or provides context for your proposed project.
Feedback from previous assignment that is important to this assignment!
You gave a good, comprehensive account of the Citizen’s Crime Watch program. Your slide provided details of the components of the program but didn’t add much more information. One area of your presentation that was a bit limited was in your account of the theoretical basis of this program. While creating a sense of social cohesion is important, the theoretical basis of local crime prevention programs lies as much in place-based and situational theories about crime (CPTED, opportunity reduction etc). Here are a few thoughts about how you can tackle the main assignment. There are many variants of local, “citizen-based” crime prevention programs – you noted that Neighbourhod Watch is one, but there are many others as well. What are the distinctive features of the Miami-Dade version? How do these features contribute to its effectiveness? What are its limitations? I thought the integration of civil safety & disaster response was an interesting variation. How does this feature relate to the more conventional “watch & report” activities of the program?
Attached are Grading Criteria to take into account.
