Jack Roller

I am an Assistant Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at the University of Cincinnati. After receiving a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from Rutgers University, I have been a professor for roughly six years. I have taught courses in research methods, statistics, and juvenile justice during that time. My main areas of research are in developmental, life-course criminology, juvenile delinquency and juvenile justice, and research methods and statistics. I have led or worked on multiple studies surrounding key juvenile delinquency and juvenile justice issues and have published several papers on related topics.

A link to my full academic record is found in the Course Documents section of the Blackboard site. Please feel free to email me with your questions and concerns. Email is likely the best way to contact me during the course. I will also hold a couple of 60-minute office hour sessions (chats) during the term. I will post the time and date for each on the Blackboard site and/or send out email notices. These are opportunities to ask questions about the material for the class, the papers, or any information provided in this syllabus. This also provides a good opportunity for you to communicate with me and others who are writing about the same topic, so take advantage of this if you can. WHAT IS A SPECIAL TOPICS COURSE?:

Special topics courses are designed to allow students to probe a topic in greater depth than is possible in a regular class. They are administered like an on-campus readings course or independent study. You are given the opportunity to read in an area so as to develop your expertise on the topic while writing intensively about it. COURSE MATERIALS:

You will be required to read a book and several related readings for this course. I will place links to the assigned readings on the Blackboard site (see Assignments). The full listing of assigned readings appears at the end of this document. You can write the course assignments primarily from the assigned materials for this class. In other words, you will not be penalized if you only use the readings provided to you for this course. You are encouraged, however, to also incorporate outside resources in writing your paper. You are required to utilize materials analytically and provide evidence to support points that you make in your paper. Outside materials may be secured from a variety of sources. For example, readings that you have from other courses may be relevant to the paper topic.

You may also want to consult www.ncjrs.org. This is the National Criminal Justice Reference Service and it contains a number of reports that are relevant to the subject of this demonstration project. Once at their home page you would select Search Abstract Database and type in the subject of interest; this will provide you a listing of articles and printed 2 . It also offers a subject guide on criminal justice resources that may be helpful to you in finding other relevant literature to incorporate into the project paper. . 3 This should be approximately 15-17 pages. The final portfolio will be assessed on the degree to which you establish some connections between the separate essays in your introduction. More importantly, it will be evaluated on the degree to which you provide solid revisions based on my comments on the earlier submissions. GRADING:

Papers
Each paper will be worth 28% of your final course grade (Total of 84%). Your papers will be graded on the following criteria with the noted proportion contributing to your final grade: (1) accuracy and comprehensiveness in addressing the assigned question (50%), (2) integration and application of knowledge/information in assigned readings (and/or others identified by the student) to the topic (i.e., how well do you utilize evidence to support the points made in your paper? Do you draw from it broadly enough?) (30%), (3) organization of paper (10%),

(4) clarity of writing style and associated quality issues (e.g., grammar, spelling) (10%) Writing Portfolio
In addition to potential upward adjustments that could come from revising your previous papers (10%), 6% of your grade will come from the evaluation of the degree to which you can draw some links between the three essays in the introduction to your portfolio (Total of 16%). Final Grades

Final course letter grades will be calculated as follows¦ 100-93 (A), 92-89 (A-), 88-86 (B+), 85-83 (B), 82-79 (B-), 78-76 (C+), 75-69 (C), 68-Below (F) COURSE SCHEDULE:
The University has scheduled this course to run from June 20th to July 29th. I have set the final deadline for course work as July 29th. It is important that I receive your papers on or before that final date so that I may evaluate them and assign you a grade in time for you to graduate if you are completing the program. Please use the View/Complete option from the Assignments tab and type your outline using Microsoft Word (or a Rich Text Format). If you use Word or RTF, I will be able to enter comments directly on the draft and return them to you. If you do not have Microsoft Word, you may still upload your outline; however, I may not be able to type comments directly on your outline and abstract. If you are unable to use this form of submission, you may fax your outline and abstract to me at 513-556-3303. Just be sure to send me an email message to let me know its being submitted that way (and when I should expect it). 4 The schedule is as follows:

University Rules, including the Student Code of Conduct, and other documented policies of the School of Criminal Justice, college, and university related to academic integrity will be enforced. Any violation of these regulations, including acts of plagiarism, cheating, verbatim use of previous course submissions, deception of effort, or unauthorized assistance will be dealt with on an individual basis according to the severity of the misconduct. Academic dishonesty in any form is a serious offense and cannot be tolerated in an academic community. This may result in a failing course grade and/or suspension or dismissal from the program. N.B., all papers will be submitted through Blackboards Safe Assignment feature to check for plagiarism. 5 READING LIST:

Required Book
Shaw, C.R. (1966). The Jack- Roller: A Delinquent Boys Own Story. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Required Articles
Albert, D., & Steinberg, L. (2011). Judgment and decision making in adolescence. Journal of Research on Adolescence 21: 211-224. Elliott, D.S., Elliott, A., Huizinga, D., Rankin, B., Sampson, R.J., & Wilson, W.J. (1996). The Effects of neighborhood disadvantages on adolescent development. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 33: 389-426. Maruna, S., LeBel, T., Mitchel, N. & Naples, M. (2004). Pygmalion in the reintegration process: desistance from crime through the looking glass. Psychology, Crime and Law 10: 271-281. Moffitt, T.E. (1993). Adolescent-limited and life-course persistent antisocial behavior: A developmental taxonomy. Psychological Review 100: 674-701. Sampson, R.J., & Laub, J.H. (2003). Desistance from crime over the life course. Pp. 295-310 in Handbook of the Life Course,
edited by J.T. Mortimer and M. Shanahan. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.

Paper 1:

Characterizing Stanleys Risk and Offending History

(A) Using the material from Stanleys first-person account as well as the information provided by other observers in The Jack-Roller (e.g., Shaw, Healy), describe his risk factors for delinquency and subsequent pattern of offending. (B) Define the characteristics of each of Moffitts (1993) two groups of offenders. Based on the response to the previous questions, (C) identify which of Moffitts two offending groups would be the better fit for Stanley and then indicate why. Be sure to support your conclusions with evidence from The Jack-Roller and Moffitts paper.

DUE BY JULY 5, 2011 AT 5:00 PM (EASTERN TIME)