For your finalproject, you will develop a basic departmental policy recommendation to addressa public need. You will analyze historical data and relevant state or federalpolicies, apply relevant criminological theories, and evaluate the potentialimpact 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 policyissue is at the center of public policy, and the state and federal governmentreact to the issue and make decisions such as creating laws and regulations tohelp address the public policy issue.Public policies also provide guidance anddirection to public safety organizations and are the principles that guide theactions of the personnel. The term public policy is not normally used to denotewhat is actually done. Departmental policies are the procedures or protocolsthat are created to address this public policy issue, andthese departmentalpolicies are what will be scrutinized in a highly publicized incident.Therefore, it is vital that departmental policies are developed and updated tobe consistent with public policy, to address issues within public policy, andtobest serve the interests of the department and the community. To dosoeffectively, criminological theories are applied to address specific motivesand underlying factors influencing the issue at hand. Thesetheories assist indeveloping departmental policies that can stand the test of time, not conflictwithpublic policy,and remain flexible enough to adapt to societal changes.

This assessment addresses the following course outcomes:

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

 Assess the extent to which public policies address theneeds of the public and criminal justice system by applying criminologicaltheories

 Evaluate the potential impact of policy recommendations oncommunities and the criminal justice system for informing appropriate policydevelopment and implementation

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

 Propose policy recommendations for improving the deliveryof criminal justice services

Prompt

For this project, you will play the part of an individualrecently promoted in a criminal justice organization. Your new supervisorrecognizes that you are an up-and-coming asset for the departmentandacknowledges that your advanced degree gives you an edge over some of the otheremployees in a project that needs to be completed as soon as possible. Yoursupervisor tells you that after some highly publicized news events, manydepartmental policies have been found to be outdated and insufficient inunspecified areas in relation to issues within public policy. The departmentalpolicies need to be revised to include justification for the policies, as wellas relevant theory to support the operations. Your supervisor has provided alist of public policy issues, and you will select one public policy issue aswell as a related departmental policy that attempts to address the issue. Youwill be tasked with analyzing the public policy issue and developing

recommendations to improve the corresponding departmentalpolicy to better address the specific issue. To develop an informeddepartmental policy recommendation, you will also analyze relevantcriminological theories and relevant public policies.

Specifically, the following critical elementsmust beaddressed:

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

II. Historical Analysis: To inform yourrecommendations for the departmental public policy, you will analyze thehistory of the selected public policy issue, identifying key influentialtrends, and predict the potential future direction of the state or federalpolicies in supportingthis issue. Specifically:

a) Identify key trends, both modernand historical,that have shaped the evolution of the state or federal public policiessurrounding your selected public policy issue, justifying your identifications.How have the policies around this issue evolved, and what trends haveinfluenced this evolution?

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

c) How have the previously identified historical eventsimpacted thepublic’s perceptionof the relevant state or federal publicpolicies? Provide specific examples. How has public perception evolved inrelation to these specified events?

d) Predict the potential future directionof the stateor federal public policies based on the previously identified historical andmodern trends. How might the state or federal public policy continue to evolve?

III. Criminological Theory:Now that you have analyzedthe related state or federal public policies, you will analyze relevantcriminological theory.

a) Selecta criminologicaltheorythat bestexplains the development of the public policies related to the issue,justifying your selection. Consider how the theory explains the previouslyidentified influence of the trends or court cases on the development of thepolicies.

b) Draw connections between the selected criminological theoryandthe departmentalpolicy. Where are there specific connectionsbetween the theory and the departmental policy?

c) Draw connectionsbetween the selectedcriminological theory and the related stateor federal public policies.Where are there specific connections between the theory and the selected stateor federal policies?

IV. Needs: Now that you have analyzed the relevantstate or federal policies and selected a related criminological theory, youwill focus your analysis on your selected departmental policy. In relation tothe departmental policy, you will identify the needs of the public and therelevant branch of the criminal justice system, and assess the extent to whichthe policy currently addresses these needs. Specifically:

a) Identifyspecific needsof the public and therelevant branch of the criminal justice system at the center of thedepartmental policy, justifying your identifications.

b) To what extent does the departmental policy addressthesespecificneeds?

V. Policy Recommendations: In this section, you willprovide specific recommendations to the existing departmental public policy toimprove the delivery of criminal justice services, justifying yourrecommendations, and examining the impact of the recommendations on the publicand specific branch of the criminal justice system. Be sure to:

a) Outline the specific aspects of the departmental policyyou are targeting for your recommendations, justifying yourselections. What specific aspects of the departmental policy need improving andwhy?

b) What specific recommendations do you have toimprove the existing departmental policy?

c) Justify how the recommendations will improve the deliveryof criminal justice services. Provide specific examples.

d) How does criminological theory support yourrecommendations? How do the recommendations support the public’s needs?Consider how theory justifies the appropriateness of the recommendationsfor the departmental policy.

e) What are the potential impactsof the departmentalpolicy recommendations on the public and the relevant branch of the criminaljustice system? Provide specific examples. If the potential impacts arenegative, how might you alter your recommendations?

f) How does your assessment of the potential impacts informyourdepartmental policy implementation? For example, how can you capitalizeon positive reactions in the implementation of the departmental policy? Howmight you create buy-in where there is possible conflict?