Research Paper Nightmare

I was really surprised to see only a few students in my Crim 301 class on the first day of school. Now I know why. Since day one, Crim 301 has been a hectic class, simply because we actually do work in there. Look at Crim 301 as another English class in where you write essays and do research papers.  But listen when I say that THIS RESEARCH PAPER IS NOT LIKE OTHER RESARCH PAPERS! The kind of research paper you will be doing is called a literature review. It's about 10-12 pages long, and you will need 8-10 sources. You will learn what a literature review is in class. So don’t waste time. If you really do the research the assignment should not be as hard. Start thinking about a topic as soon as you learn about the assignment, because choosing a topic is one of the hardest parts about the paper. Make sure you completely understand the concept of what a literature review is, because if you don’t you will have a hard time writing it. The one thing I would have done differently would have been to look at books in the first place, because I just wasted my time searching for scholarly journals. In my opinion, books are much better sources, simply because they are easier to read.   

I did my research on domestic violence, which i focused on partner abuse. The question that I asked was What theories explain why domestic violence occurs?  Books really helped me in my research. I would recommend using:

The Truth about Abuse 
Domestic Partner Abuse 
Handbook of Domestic Violence Intervention Strategies
Domestic Violence The Criminal Justice Response  

You can find all of these books in the CSULA library. Asking the criminal justice librarian for help is good, because she knows a lot about finding information for criminal justice research papers. All of the books mentioned above have information that is very helpful. Start with the history of domestic violence and work your way to the present. Look in to how domestic violence was seen before, and how it is handled today. Specially, look at the theories. Most theories are explained in almost all the books because they are part of the history of domestic violence. Good luck!