Purpose In this assignment, students are expected to complete an evaluation research prospectus (or a short proposal) by using the knowledge they have acquired. In particular, students are asked to se

Purpose

In this assignment, students are expected to complete an evaluation research prospectus (or a short proposal) by using the knowledge they have acquired. In particular, students are asked to select one of the experimental designs we have discussed to complete this prospectus to evaluate one criminal justice policy they are interested in. This assignment is the signature assignment of this course.

Students will investigate this question by complete the following tasks:

• 1. Select a criminal justice policy you are interested in and design an experimental study to evaluate the effectiveness of the policy.
  • a. Here are some lists of justice interventions, policies and programs for your reference.
    • Programs: https://crimesolutions.ojp.gov/rated-programs
    • Practice: https://crimesolutions.ojp.gov/rated-practices
    • Washington State Institute for Public Policy: https://www.wsipp.wa.gov/BenefitCost
  • b. Identify the policy you selected.
  • c. Briefly describe the policy, its goal and potential beneficiaries.
• 2. Select the type of evaluation design you choose to evaluate the efficacy of your policy.
  • A student must choose one of the following experimental designs that were introduced:
    • (1) One-Group Posttest Only Design (One-shot Case Study)
    • (2) One Group Pretest-Posttest Design (One Group Pre-Post Design)
    • (3) Non-Equivalent Two Group Posttest Only Design (One-Group Ex Post Facto Design)
    • (4) Randomized Controlled Trial/Experiment
    • (5) Quasi-Experimental Designs with Individual Matching
    • (6) Quasi-Experimental Designs with Aggregate Matching
    • (7) Double-Blinded Experiment
    • (8) Two-Group Posttest Only True Experimental Design
    • (9) Solomon (Four-group) Design
    • (10) True Experimental Design with the Same Treatment but Different Levels of Treatment Conditions
    • (11) True Experimental Design with Different Treatments for Different Groups
    • (12) Factorial Design
    • (13) Time-Series Design – Interrupted Time-Series Design
    • (14) Time-Series Design – Multiple Interrupted Time-Series Design
• 3. Use notations (symbols/letters) to represent the design you selected to use to evaluate this policy.
  • X = Treatment = Intervention = Policy = Independent Variable = Presumed Cause
  • Y = Outcome = Dependent Variable = Presumed Effect
  • G = Group = Collection of The Unit of Analysis
  • O = Observation of the Dependent Variable
  • R = Random Assignment
  • E = Equivalence
  • NE = Non-Equivalence
  • IM = Individual Matching
  • AM = Aggregate Matching
• 4. Discuss the reason why you choose this particular design to evaluate this policy over other evaluation design(s)? You must address the following aspects:
  • a. The ability of your design to establish causality.
  • b. Any practical concern(s) you considered when selecting this type of design (Optional).
  • c. Any ethical concern(s) you considered when selecting this type of design (Optional).
• 5. Identify all the potential threats to Internal Validity.
  • Explain why it is a (or they are) the potential threat(s) to the internal validity of your study.

Assignment Format

• Write-up your answer in the short answer format, and present your answer to these questions in a word document and submit it on Canvas.
• The nonconforming assignment format will result in losing credit(s).
• Do not create a cover page.
• Do not write your name, course information, professor’s name and your ID number in the paper.
• Font size: 12 and Times New Roman
• 1” Margin on left, right, top and bottom of the page
• Double-Space between all lines or paragraphs
• Use formal and academic language
• Students are expected to complete this assignment on their own and have all the class materials to complete this assignment.
• No Plagiarism, any form of plagiarism will be dealt with seriously