RESEARCH ESSAY THE PROSECUTION PROCESS – INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVESResearch and write an essay on a topic which interests you and which is directly related to the prosecution process as discussed in the course, in Australia and/or elsewhere. The topic must be approved by the Professor.

Structure and organisation of your essay:

Essay is extremely well organised and structured,
with a good short introduction explaining how you will approach your topic,
followed by a logical ordering and development of your key arguments,
and ending with a short, clear summary of your main conclusions

Relevance/clarity/persuasiveness of, and support for, your argument(s)
You present relevant arguments very clearly, intelligibly and persuasively, and support them with references to relevant sources of scholarly literature or research, which demonstrates that you have a sound knowledge and understanding of the issues and of the relevant literature and research. Your essay does not contain unsupported assertions or rhetoric.

Referencing format
The references cited in-text and in the list of references at the end are all correctly cited according to the requirements APA 6th edition referencing style , and are complete, without errors.

Fully addresses the topic
Overall, your essay has addressed all of the key issues relevant to the chosen topic (or at least has discussed a justified selection of these key issues), to the extent that the word limit for the assessment item permits. No really important aspects of the topic have not been mentioned or discussed.

Quality of written English
Your essay contains no or very few spelling, typographical, grammatical, punctuation, etc. errors, words are not missing or misused, and your essay displays proper use of sentences and paragraphs.

Below is my chosen topic to address for the prosecutions process research essay.

ESSAY Question: Something along the lines of:

“At first sight, one might assume that the Australian and American Criminal Prosecution Process system is identical. But/though this is a common oversight made by many… / consistently”. (include in introduction)

The essay will address the following: ( include appropriate sub headings of the key arguments in body of essay )

(1) Identify the significant dissimilarities evident between Australia and America ( example; grand juries, exclusion of evidence, etc. ) also compare the similar elements present between the two systems (by viewing the historical roots, both systems originating from England, etc.)

(2) discuss in detail the extent of these differences drawing from each country’s perspective and what led to the result of these differences /why these differences exist.

(3) Outline the inconsistencies present in each country’s criminal prosecution process. State what works and what doesn’t/ Strengths and weakness. Address any policies/ policy reforms that may have been suggested or have recently been implemented to improve the quality of the criminal prosecution process in each country.

I was going off of the following literature, for the essay question

specifically this one

( the writer will need to re adjust the above research essay question according to the feedback given by the professor below)

and also include any of the above resources in reference list if found useful in preparation of writing essay and or readjusting topic question.

Professor says:

In principle your topic is fine, and approved. however, need to consider further (a) whether it may be a bit too broad for a 2,500-word essay (important that your essay has some analytical depth and is not too superficial), (b) whether your essay may be too descriptive (cataloguing similarities and differences with no real analysis of their significance, e.g. in terms of the supposed purposes/objectives of criminal prosecution systems).

Please consult the “FIVE TIPS FOR WRITING A GOOD ESSAY”.

So what you need to do is provide an analytical focus for your essay and for the comparison that you want to make in it. Think about some of the principal objectives of prosecution processes (e.g. ensuring a fair trial for the accused, reducing the risk of wrongful convictions and false acquittals, optimising the likelihood that the ‘truth’ about an alleged offence will emerge from the trial, allowing victims to be heard, etc.), and then consider how well (or badly) the US and Australian systems of prosecution serve these objectives. Maybe you can’t address all of these in some depth in a 2,500 word essay, so be prepared to be selective.

In terms of finding a good conceptual basis for your comparison, I think you’ll find the readings for Week 1 of this course

Duff, A., L. Farmer, S. Marshall & V. Tadros (2007) The Trial on Trial: Vol. 3 Towards a Normative Theory of the Criminal Trial (Oxford & Portland, OR.: Hart Publishing), Ch 2. (pp. 17-53)

Swoboda, S. (2007) “A Normative Theory of Criminal Procedure” Criminal Law Forum 18(1): 151-170.

As well as textbook reading,

Daly, K. (2012) “Aims of the criminal justice system” – Ch. 17 (pp. 289-406) in Marmo, M., W. de Lint & D. Palmer (eds) Crime and Justice: A Guide to Criminology (4th ed.) Sydney: Law Book Co.

You can use the readings as a resource to help you write your essay, but you should not reproduce big chunks of them verbatim in your essay. Remember paraphrase and include intext referencing throughout.

TO FURTHER NOTE:

Remember the importance of Structure. Include following headings: Introduction- body – conclusion. Particularly for the body of the essay, proper structure of essay involves headings. Include sub headings throughout the body of the essay. Make sure when you’re writing a different key argument/point always include a subheading and always write a topic sentence to inform of the different new key argument/point in the next coming section.

REFERENCES:

All paraphrased. No direct quotation. Only Australian and American academic journal articles ( as many peer reviewed as possible ALL ACADEMIC ) THE JOURNAL ARTICLES must be recent from year 2000 onwards. IN-TEXT REFERENCES MUST INCLUDE AUTHOR, YEAR, AND PAGE NUMBERS IN BRACKETS. Please see following:

I insist referencing must be (a) consistent, (b) accurate, (c) complete, and (d) sufficiently detailed to direct the reader to the exact source of the point being referred to (e.g. in the case of a point made in a book or a long article, relevant page number(s) is/are essential in an in-text reference – e.g. (Jackson, 2010:14-15).

In the case of journal articles and chapters in books, references in the list of references should include the beginning and end page numbers of the article or chapter, and in the case of journal articles, the volume number (and if possible the issue number) of the journal – e.g. British Journal of Criminology 45(2): 28-73 – as well as the year of publication. Please see following:

APA 6TH EDITION REFERENCING STYLE. For The reference list, the order for journal articles is the following:

Author name
Year
Title of journal article
Journal volume
Issue number
Page numbers (the beginning and end page numbers)
Doi if none assigned, URL/ web address

Example
Buckridge, M., & Guest, R. (2007). A conversation about pedagogical responses to increased diversity in university classrooms. Higher Education Research & Development, 26(2), 133-146.  .

Example: Journal Article NO DOI
Example:

Herington, C., & Weaven, S. (2008). Action research and reflection on student approaches to learning in large first year university classes. Australian Educational Researcher, 35(3), 111-134.

Approx. 25 references. You may find as you write that you will need to include a little less or a little bit more than this number (as a reminder that you’re including references in the list that you used for research purposes, but didn’t actually cite/include an in text reference for in the paper) so the number of references will depend.

(Tip; use google scholar). Include majority of academic journal articles that are peer reviewed. (Tip; make use of journal databases that allow you to limit your search to just peer reviewed Australian articles). Search in the following journal article finder databases below Ulrich’s Periodical Directory is a database which provides information about published journals, including status as a scholarly, academic journal.