POLI 490-003
Advanced Undergraduate Seminar: Research on Race and Criminal Justice
452 Hamilton Hall, Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:35-4:50pm
Fall 2018
Prof. Frank R. Baumgartner
This course is designed for students who have already taken POLI 203, POLI 248, or equivalent coursework and who are interested in conducting their own research project into an aspect of the criminal justice system with a focus on racial differences. Each student will pick a particular research project and play a lead role on that, as well as participate in another project led by other students. Everyone will also participate in an on-going project throughout the term, which we will use as a running example and illustration. Readings will be specific to the research projects themselves, with some common background reading for all. Each student group will make periodic presentations to the class on the progress on their research and be expected to follow the research of their colleagues in the class as well. Grades will be based on participation, presentations, and a final group project. The final project must be written in the form of whatever publication outlet one seeks: law review, book chapter, academic article, etc. Each project will also lead to a popular publication such as an op-ed or significant blog contribution. In the last two weeks of class and again during the final exam period, the leaders of each group will present the project in the format of an academic conference presentation, and everyone involved will answer questions from the audience.
click here for the syllabus. Look here for our final schedule of presentations for the end of the semester. Look here for the slides associated with our collective paper, and here for the current draft of that paper. These are, of course, templates for your own projects as well.
See this site for GIS resources through the university: https://unc.maps.arcgis.com
See below for the weekly assignments. During the semester, readings and other assignments will be posted below. Stay current with this.
Week 1. Aug 22, introductions.
Week 2. Aug 27, 29. A semester long collaboration: Officer Characteristics and Search Rates.
- Readings and structured literature review, each student responsible for a different reading. (Monday, Wednesday)
- Please go to the class Sakai site > Resources > Cites on Police Demographics for the set of 33 articles we are going to review. You each have an assignment of 2 articles. Come to class with a summary of the topic, the theoretical approach, the research conducted, and the findings. Be ready to say what parts of it would potentially be useful to us in thinking of our own research question.
- See these data for the City of Charlotte: http://data.charlottenc.gov/datasets/officer-traffic-stops/data. We need to see if there are more such databases available. Feel free to look and if we find more, we can incoporate. The key (minimum) variables needed are a) all traffic stops for some time period; b) whether or not a search occurred after the stop; c) information about the driver; and d) information about the officer. The more variables available, the better. This allows us to control for other factors that may predict the likelihood of a search.
Week 3. Sep 5. Develop testable research hypotheses from the readings last week.
- (No class on Sept 3, Happy Labor Day!)
- Revisit the readings and discussion from last week and translate these into testable hypotheses, given the data available for Charlotte, or other cities. (Wednesday)
Week 4. Sept 10, 12. Test the theory you developed last week.
- I will run the statistical tests you come up with and we will discuss. Maybe we need to revise / improve / clarify the theory. (Monday)
- Research teams established, initial meetings during class time (Wednesday)
Week 5. Sep 17, 19. Decide on the “Hook.”
- We will collectively decide what are the most powerful findings we have generated from the project above. Are we ready to write an article or do we need more data? (Monday)
- Research teams meeting in groups (Wednesday)
Week 6. Sep 24, 26. Develop a more powerful theoretical perspective on the precise question.
- Now that we have isolated a narrow theme for our article on officer characteristics, what are the relevant theoretical perspectives from outside the area of criminal justice, for example from psychology? Why do we think that officers differ in this particular way? What is our theory of this phenomenon? Why do we think it happens? (Monday)
- Research teams meeting in groups, first statements of the problem to the class (Wednesday)
Week 7. Oct 1, 3. Formalize the theory and hypotheses.
- Now that we have a theoretical perspective and a precise set of findings, let’s formalize the theory, state it clearly, and deduce the relevant hypotheses that we will test. (Monday)
- Research teams 1-3 (tbc) present to the class on initial plans. (Wednesday)
Week 8. Oct 8, 10. Structure the presentation of the data and results.
- What tables and figures do we need to make the case? In what order should they be presented? Exactly how should they look? (Monday)
- Research teams 4-6 (tbc) present to the class on initial plans. (Wednesday)
Week 9. Oct 15, 17. Write the results.
- Describe the results from the tables and figures. (Monday)
- Research teams 7-9 (tbc) present to the class on initial plans. (Wednesday)
Week 10. Oct 22, 24. Write the conclusions.
- What substantive conclusions and implications do we draw from this? Why did we do this study in the first place? How do we answer the question with which we started, and what are the practical, substantive, methodological, and moral implications of what we have found? What are the limitations we have to acknowledge? (Monday)
- Research teams 1-3 (tbc) present to the class on progress. (Wednesday)
Week 11. Oct 29, 31. Finalize the article.
- Go through the article from A to Z. Does it flow just right? Is it the right length? Are all the important people cited in the literature review, emphasizing their contributions, not their faults? Can an eighth-grader understand the results, so clearly are they presented? Are there any dead-ends or curly-cues that need to be eliminated so the article is as streamlined as possible, not posing any questions it does not answer? Is the reference list complete? Does it look professional? Are all the tables and figures just-so? (Monday)
- Research teams 4-6 (tbc) present to the class on progress. (Wednesday)
Week 12. Nov 5, 7. Draw out an op-ed.
- With the article completely drafted, is there anything newsworthy here? Can we distill it down to 1,100 words with one or two graphics and send it to the Monkey Cage (Washington Post), or down to 700 words with no figures and send it to a major newspaper such as the News and Observer? (Monday)
- Research teams 7-9 (tbc) present to the class on progress. (Wednesday)
Week 13. Nov 12, 14. Group projects and working in class.
- Make-up for any delays in weeks above, and office hours / consulting in class. (Monday, Wednesday)
Week 14. Nov 19. Group projects and working in class
- Research progress and consulting in class. (Monday)
- (No Class on Nov 21, Happy Thanksgiving!)
Week 15. Nov 26, 28. Final Projects I.
- Final research presentations, 12 minutes each followed by 7 minutes Q&A (Monday, Wednesday)
Week 16. Dec 3, 5. Final Projects II.
- Final research presentations, 12 minutes each followed by 7 minutes Q&A (Monday, Wednesday)
- Written projects due in class Dec 5.
Final Exam: Saturday December 8, 4:00pm, regular classroom.
The final exam will consist of conference-style presentations of each research project. The lead authors will present and all members will answer questions from the professor and the other students, serving as audience members. Timing for the presentation and the q&a will be determined by the number of projects to be presented. Time permitting, this will be a 12 minute presentation followed by 7 minutes of questions.
page last updated
November 21, 2018