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White Paper:
Prompt:
In light of George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police officers in 2020, but also the over-the-top
violence visited upon nonviolent protesters, there arose a movement to defund, effectively shutter, police
agencies. In the immediate shadow of the George Floyd event, one Minneapolis city council member
proposed disbanding the agency altogether and starting afresh to build something wholly new in its place.
Something similar was done in Seattle around the same time. Since that time, city leadership in several cities
across the US who once spoke of defunding police have ratcheted back their rhetoric, many significantly so….
In fact, for all their brave words, the folks in Seattle made scarce few changes; the most significant being the
reduction of the salary for the Chief of Police by about $20,000. At the same time in places like Providence,
there has been a sense of fear among some resulting from a relatively small number of shootings; police are
being asked tough questions about what they are going to do to keep everyone safe. There has also been an
unfortunate event involving a police officer and a citizen on one of those mini scooters. Those scooters are not
terribly popular among a large portion of residents. Jhamal Gonsalves was seriously injured when he was hit
by a Providence Police cruiser (whether hitting him was the intention is “unclear,” but the video is damning).
Also recently, early data from New York City seems to indicate that the B-HEARD program, a police diversion
endeavor, has led to more people accepting care and fewer hospitalizations.
You are a criminologist and expert in police organizations. Some on the city council of the City of Piedmont
(think of it to be a city analogous to Providence, RI) seek to defund police and reroute calls for service like
NYC did, whereas others are worried about the recent uptick in gun violence and want more police presence.
You have been asked to provide the Piedmont City Council a white paper, coupled with two policy ideas and a
program evaluation plan (e.g., outcome or process study) to examine whether your policy recommendations
might be successful.
This assignment is where all components of the course come together. You are to write a white paper related to the
prompt above that employs at least one criminological/zemiological/social theory (either discussed in this class, in
another class, or one from elsewhere – but it might make sense to check with the professor if you go far afield) as a
significant guiding idea set. A white paper is an in-depth review of a complex subject, intended to educate or assist
people (e.g., decision-makers) regarding what to do. It should have the following components:
Executive summary (not counted in the page count): one-page summary of the proposal
Introduction and problem statement
Literature review
2o Related crim/social theory
o Relevant policies (e.g., what are others doing about this currently?)
o Other related research on the policy (e.g., what do we know about what others are doing?)
Policy Analysis
o Identification of stakeholders
o Agenda-setting: what are the competing agendas involved among the stakeholders? How should
we determine which agendas are most desirable? What issues and interests are relevant that are not
being expressed?
o Operationalization of outcomes (be clear about what is meant by “desirable” outcomes).
o Identify at least one key unarticulated assumption at work in the policy space.
Two different research method possibilities, sketched in brief
o Research question/hypotheses
o Design
o Sampling
o Instrumentation and measurement (how will you measure things
o Analytical techniques
o Two key shortcomings with each method
Recommendations: given the above, what do you think should be done (research-wise, and then policy-
wise given different research outcomes)
Potential impact
This task should be completed in written form and adhere to the standards specified in this syllabus (below). It
should be relatively brief (it should be no greater than 15 pages, and no less than 12 pages in length) and complete
(see above)
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