Perform a search for a crime case or situation

Perform a search for a crime case or situation. 
Cases may be found in a variety of places, such as:

Regular news reports
Our textbook’s bibliography case list (then searching online for that case in more detail). Do not use a case excerpt contained in the chapter. These will not have sufficient information for a complete analysis. Only use full cases. 
ASU library tools (e.g., https://libguides.asu.edu/az.php?a=n (Links to an external site.) and then select Nexis-Uni or HeinOnline), and
Targeted websites about criminal cases, such as:

https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases (Links to an external site.);
https://www.justice.gov/usao (Links to an external site.);
https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/famous-murders/ (Links to an external site.);
https://www.insider.com/true-crime-us-2018-4

Select a case or situation that interests you, which is based on a real event and concerns a crime accusation or prosecution. Pro Tip: Use a case that has an appellate opinion. This will help you with the facts for the case and will give you some insight regarding the analysis of the case. Using a case that is reported in a newspaper can cause some issues, as the facts are not thoroughly reported and the analysis is usually very poor. 
Note: The case may be prior even to an arrest, if there is enough information about the case.  But most cases will be after arrest and/or prosecution, so that information is available for your analysis.  The case may be something from years ago, or it may be relatively new or ongoing.  Select a crime from a crime type that interests you, e.g., white collar, sex, drug, public order — this assignment provides an opportunity to focus on a crime type/category for students’ own individualized interests. 
Complete a case study report on your selected case. Be sure to consider the following in your report: 

Use our Unit 1 textbook chapters’ concepts and key terms to analyze your crime case and demonstrate your comprehension of our first course unit (Chapters 1-4).  To do this, focus on three significant ways in which the chapters we’ve studied connect to your crime case.  For example, you could discuss how sources like statutes or case law, noncriminal wrongs/criminalization, or constitutional issues relate to your case study, from chapters 1 and 2.  You could discuss how the actus reus and/or mens rea elements, or other elements, relate to your case study, from chapters 3 and 4. 
Do not move ahead and use chapters that we haven’t yet covered.  
Avoid having all of your connections relate to one chapter.  Likewise, there is also not room in this report to bring in every topic we’ve covered.  Your choices for discussion, and their associated chapters and concepts, should be selected to best demonstrate your level of comprehension.  You want to show both breadth and depth of learning.
You must be able to make clear connections to our chapters, demonstrating that you’re meeting the learning objectives for the course.  Therefore, make sure that you choose a case with topics that allow you to make these connections.  This is part of the assignment, to demonstrate that you can find and select such a case and develop these chapter connections.

Format:  Your report must be in the following modified APA format:

APA title page
[no abstract – please skip this]

Body of report – 3-4 pages following APA style on spacing, margins, etc. Don’t use any subheadings. 

Introduction paragraph – an introductory paragraph, which (1) notes your selected case, (2) lists your 3 connections/topics concerning Unit 1 and what chapters they relate to, and (3) summarizes your main conclusions or learning from the report project.
Discuss each of your 3 connections in turn, using appropriate paragraph structure and including details from your case to help develop and explain your connections.
[Do not include a conclusion paragraph. This is a simplified report; use your Introduction to note your main points.]

APA References page

Include your case’s sourcing/citation and the citation for our textbook.

Therefore, your report will be approximately 3-4 pages (APA style double-spaced, etc.), plus a title page before and a references page after, for a total of roughly 5-6 pages. 

Additional suggestions and submission details:
You should cite any quotations and specific information appropriately for a college paper, using APA style.  This is not truly a research paper, however.  It is an analysis paper over one case study.  You probably won’t have many sources, and that is fine.  Just two sources, in fact, is perfectly acceptable — the key sources are our textbook and your source of case information.  It is alright to use an additional source or two if you wish, but it should not eclipse the focused nature of the assignment.  You won’t get extra points simply for finding and using extra sources. 
Be sure to use in-text citations correctly.  I know that APA style only requires page numbers when citing quotes, but I think it’s wise to cite page numbers for specific information too, even if it’s not quoted:
              “quote from the textbook” (Samaha, p. 15).
              specific information from the textbook (Samaha, p. 15).
Note that the reports are run through Turnitin.com, so avoid plagiarism – do not copy/paste online content as your own writing, for example.  Plagiarism or cheating (academic integrity) violations will result in an academic integrity report submitted to the university, as well as no credit for the assignment and thus failure in the course.  See the course syllabus for details.