Andersons Code of the Streets Theory

 Inthis course, you will complete a presentation using PowerPoint with avoiceover, which will allow you to demonstrate your grasp of theory and theapplicability of theory to policy and future research.  The other purpose is for you to have theopportunity to engage with a theoretical perspective of interest to you in moredetail. Finally, this project serves to advance your research, analytical, andwriting skills. There are several components to this assignment. Address thesecomponents in the order listed. I also provide a list of theories from whichyou must choose at the end of this document. I restricted you to those theoriesbecause there is sufficient research to permit you to complete the assignment.Quotes are restricted in your presentation. They should only be something thatis suitable to quote. Otherwise, paraphrasing is required so that I can be surethat you understand the material. When explaining concepts or theoreticalprinciples, you MUST paraphrase for this reason. If you do not already haveOffice software, the Office of Information Technology has made it available tostudents. “Students can go to  todownload and install the latest version of Office. They should log in withtheir SJU email address and password. “ 

 
Your audience ispolicymakers. Therefore,do not talk as if you are doing an informal presentation to your instructor.You want to be formal in layout of the presentation and the style in which youpresent. You are trying to convince policymakers to embrace your ideas.
 
Presentation

Title slide with the name of the theory and theorist(s), your name, and your affiliation (i.e., the university name)
Outline slide (provide an outline of the presentation): The content here must match the major headings used throughout the presentation. For instance, if you have more than one slide for the introduction, keep the major heading as Introduction. Do not add continued to additional slides.
Introduction (Discuss in the order listed.):

Reiterate the name of the theory and the theorist(s). The information in this section means that you must pick a single theory (not a theoretical school) and that includes identifying the theorist(s). You cannot say that you focused on control theory when there is more than one control theory. Whose control theory is your focus, and what is the name of that theory?
Discuss the origins of the theory you chose (e.g., historical events, earlier theories that influenced its development, and/or the background of the theorist(s) that influenced its development). 

Theoretical Provisions: Discuss the causal arguments/principles of the theory you chose (i.e. what are the provisions used to explain crime?).
Theoretical Testing: Describe and analyze the empirical/scholarly/peer-reviewed studies that researchers used to test the causal arguments of your theory, and discuss your responses to the following questions. The bulk of your sources should be tests of your chosen theory, such that they allow you to address this section. All of those sources must be addressed in this section in a literature review format rather than a discussion of each source individually. Discuss the content in the order listed.

a.     Whattypes of offenses did researchers testing your chosen theory examine?
b.    Whatconclusions did the authors draw about the ability of your chosen theory toexplain, in whole or in part, the types of offenses examined? Specifically, didthey find the theory offered a viable explanation for the commission of theseoffenses, or did they find the theory was ineffective in explaining thecommission of these offenses?
c.     What wasthe basis of the conclusions that the researchers drew?
d.    Whatlimitations did the researchers note about their studies, and what did you findto be limitations?
e.     Based onyour assessment of the studies testing your chosen theory, how valuable do youfind your chosen theory for explaining crime generally, a specific category ofcrime (e.g., violent/personal) or a specific type of crime (e.g., terrorism,robbery, murder, theft)?
6.    Future Research:
a.     Based onthe points you raised in section five, what are general issues that you believefuture research needs to address?
b.    Based onyour assessment in section 5e, what offense(s) would you study if you conducteda study testing this theory? You need to have a foundation for what you proposeto study, so you need to consider what you believe the theory is best atexplaining.
c.     Whatwould you hypothesize about the offense(s) given the provisions of your chosentheory? Remember that a hypothesis is a predictive statement (not question)about the relationship between two or more phenomena. For instance, one mighthypothesize that men are more likely to commit robbery than women. Thepredicted relationship is between gender and committing robbery.

Conclusion: Summarize the main points of your presentation and then discuss at least one policy recommendation that you would advocate to address the offense(s) you discussed in section 5e. Remember that you must ground the recommendation(s) in the provisions of your chosen theory, so indicate the link.
References: You must provide references in APA format. Use the Hacker and Sommers book 8th edition 2020 Update for the 7th edition of APA. See pages 113-139. Be sure to cite images that you do not own.

 
In presenting, youwant to make sure that you are not reading from the slide without elaboratingon points when you do your voiceover for the presentation, as the audience canread the slide. The audience wants details. That is where your narrationarises. Do not try to put everything into the slide. Put information on theslide that provides context for the points you will address.  Test the font clarity by putting thepresentation into slideshow and step back from the monitor about six feet tosee how readable your text is.
You need to use a minimum of eightsources. Preferably, all of the sources should involve a test of your chosentheory, but at minimum, six of the sources must be a test of the theory. If youcannot find that many sources for your presentation that meet that requirement,then you need to pick a new theory that allows you to meet this requirement. You should obtain academic research articleslike those assigned for the course and if the theorists wrote a book solely onthe theory, you can use that book in your research [e.g. Travis Hirschis Causes of Crime; Steven Messner andRichard Rosenfelds Crime and theAmerican Dream; John Braithwaites ReintegrativeShaming].  No textbook is anacceptable source.  Allin-text citations and reference list citations, as usual must be in APA format.You can put in-text citations in as part of the script that you put in thenotes area of PowerPoint.  Use the library website to find appropriatesources. Sources must be from 2008-the present unless a source is a landmarkdocument (e.g., original source where the theory was introduced) or I approveyour use of the source. Check with me if you are unsure about whether you havea landmark source.
 
Youcan submit the presentation a maximum of three days after the due date, butexpect that to lower your score. If you submit it more than three days afterthe due date, you will receive a 0 for this assignment.
DOsand DONTs

Choose a font type that is readable; cursive fonts are difficult to read so avoid them. Usually PowerPoint templates provide font types that they think are suitable for the slide.
Choose a font size for the slide titles that is not too large or too small. Some recommendations are to have title sizes on slides between 36-44 points.
Choose a font size for the body of slides, the title slide, and the references slide that are not too large or too small. You want to strive for no larger than 32-point font and no smaller than 24-point font for the body of the slides. If you cite sources on the slide rather than in the notes section, you can use between 18-20 point fonts, since that is not the information you want the audience to focus on during the presentation. The same 18-20 point font restriction applies to the references slide(s). You want to use appropriate font size on your title slide too so that the information does not overwhelm the slide, but also so it is not too small.
Amount of text on a slide: You want to have no more than six lines per slide, but you should strive for between 2-3 important lines of information. You are to elaborate on content in your narration. Put a space between bullet points. Do not overwhelm slides with sentences or paragraphs. You want to avoid cluttering a slide.
Background and text colors: Avoid using distracting background colors for slides and ensure that your text color contrast enough with the background color that the audience can read it. If you wish to use color to emphasize important words, pick one color and stick with it.
Use of photographic images or clip art: It is not required that you use any images, including clip art, but you may find that such material enhances the audiences understanding of your ideas. Any clip art or photographic images you choose to use should be professional in appearance. Do not overwhelm your slides with photos or clip art. They are only to be used strategically. You also want to avoid having more than one photo or clip art per slide, as you want it to enhance the presentation rather than distract the audiences attention. You must cite any photographic images that you do not own.
Use of animations: If you choose to use animations in your slides, do so sparingly and choose a consistent animation scheme.
Slide numbers: You need to number each of your slides.