Specifying and explaining the kind of violence you are trying to control and its origins. 

1. You should begin by specifying and explaining the kind of violence you are trying to control and its  origins. And should consist of evidence that supports your claim about the origins of this violence. This evidence (statistics, other studies, statements by prominent sociologists, criminologists, psychologists, etc.) is the KEY part of your paper. It’s sources should be footnoted (i.e. where you got the evidence)

2. Sociological concepts:

a. You must tie your discussion to at least one theory of crime or of sociology more generally (e.g.

structural strain theory, conflict theory, symbolic interactionism, behaviorism, functionalism, etc.). .

Make sure that you prominently label this section.

b. You must also make use of either the concept of power or culture somewhere in your paper. Make

sure that you prominently label this section.

3. You must have two proposals (preferably from some respected source, though original ones are

acceptable) for lowering your form of violence. The proposals should fit together and be inter-related. In a sense, you should have one major proposal with two inter-related parts. For example, you are proposing to reduce the “culture of violence”. Your focus is violence in the mass media. You propose to: 1. tax each episode of violence on T.V. or the movies. 2. Take this money and fund a lobbying group, Mothers against Television violence (MAVTV); 3. create a mandatory rating of violence for all television shows.

Please avoid unrelated proposals (e.g. 1. immediate use of the death penalty; 2. counseling all males

involved in domestic violence; 3. social workers assigned to all gangs).

4. You need to discuss whether your proposals are practical. They do not have to be practical, but you must admit this fact, and discuss the circumstances that would make them practical. Again, label this section

You must create an annotated bibliography with the following information:

You must also find two journal references related to violence from an on-line Library based data base

and two references from SocIndex. All four of these references must be 2008 or more recent. That is,

the oldest reference is to be no later than January 1, 2008.

Make sure evidence comes from high quality sources, and that it is reasonably recent (depending on the topic). In general, the highest quality sources are

(in order of importance):

1. scientific journals—particularly

sociological

journals;

2. responsible news magazines and newspapers (e.g. Time, Newsweek, New York Times,

L.A. Times, etc.);

3. major political journals (National Review, Nation, etc.);

4. the tabloids (National Inquirer, People magazine, Opra, etc.).