Week 9 Final Project

For your final project, you will develop a basic departmental policy recommendation to address a public need. You will analyze historical data and relevant state

or federal policies, apply relevant criminological theories, and evaluate the potential impact of the departmental policy on the general public.

Public policy can be defined as the decisions, actions, laws, and positions of both the state and federal government. A public policy issue is at the center of public

policy, and the state and federal government react to the issue and make decisions such as creating laws and regulations to help address the public policy issue.

Public policies also provide guidance and direction to public safety organizations and are the principles that guide the actions of the personnel. The term public

policy is not normally used to denote what is actually done. Departmental policies are the procedures or protocols that are created to address this public policy

issue, and these departmental policies are what will be scrutinized in a highly publicized incident. Therefore, it is vital that departmental policies are developed

and updated to be consistent with public policy, to address issues within public policy, and to best serve the interests of the department and the community. To

do so effectively, criminological theories are applied to address specific motives and underlying factors influencing the issue at hand. These theories assist in

developing departmental policies that can stand the test of time, not conflict with public policy, and remain flexible enough to adapt to societal changes.

The project is divided into three milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality final

submissions. These milestones will be submitted in Modules Three, Five, and Seven. The final product will be submitted in Module Nine.

This assessment addresses the following course outcomes:

 Analyze criminological theories for their influence on the development of departmental and public policies

 Assess the extent to which public policies address the needs of the public and criminal justice system by applying criminological theories

 Evaluate the potential impact of policy recommendations on communities and the criminal justice system for informing appropriate policy development

and implementation

 Analyze trends impacting the evolution of public policies for drawing informed conclusions on future policy development

 Propose policy recommendations for improving the delivery of criminal justice services

Prompt

For this project, you will play the part of an individual recently promoted in a criminal justice organization. Your new supervisor recognizes that you are an upand-

coming asset for the department and acknowledges that your advanced degree gives you an edge over some of the other employees in a project that needs

to be completed as soon as possible. Your supervisor tells you that after some highly publicized news events, many departmental policies have been found to be

outdated and insufficient in unspecified areas in relation to issues within public policy. The departmental policies need to be revised to include justification for

the policies, as well as relevant theory to support the operations. Your supervisor has provided a list of public policy issues, and you will select one public policy

issue as well as a related departmental policy that attempts to address the issue. You will be tasked with analyzing the public policy issue and developingrecommendations to improve the corresponding departmental policy to better address the specific issue. To develop an informed departmental policy recommendation, you will also analyze relevant criminological theories and relevant public policies.

Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:

Roman One

Introduction: Describe your selected public policy issue, corresponding departmental policy, and explain the connection between the public policy issue and specific departmental policy.

II.

Historical Analysis: To inform your recommendations for the departmental public policy, you will analyze the history of the selected public policy issue, identifying key influential trends, and predict the potential future direction of the state or federal policies in supporting this issue. Specifically:

a)

Identify key trends, both modern and historical, that have shaped the evolution of the state or federal public policies surrounding your selected public policy issue, justifying your identifications. How have the policies around this issue evolved, and what trends have influenced this evolution?

b)

Identify court cases that have shaped the evolution of the public policies related to your chosen public policy issue, justifying your identifications.

c)

How have the previously identified historical events impacted the public’s perception of the relevant state or federal public policies? Provide specific examples. How has public perception evolved in relation to these specified events?

d)

Predict the potential future direction of the state or federal public policies based on the previously identified historical and modern trends. How might the state or federal public policy continue to evolve?

III.

Criminological Theory: Now that you have analyzed the related state or federal public policies, you will analyze relevant criminological theory.