Paper Context

  • In keeping with upper level class work your final paper must be:
    • Typed, double-spaced, 1-inch margins on sides, top and bottom
    • Grammatically correct; no misspellings or incorrect punctuation errors
    • For 4 to 8 credit internships – a minimum of 6 to 8 pages
    • For 9 to 16 credit internships – a minimum of 12 to 16 pages

Paper Deadline

  • Adhere to your internship coordinator's deadline for the final paper
  • Mail or deliver your paper in person to the internship coordinator
  • Do not use e-mail

Paper Content and Organization

  • Address each of the following topics in your final paper; you may even want to divide the paper into subsections, using the topics as subheadings:
    1. Explanation of the agency – Describe the function of the agency and its place in the criminal justice system.
    2. Explanation of the position – Describe what you did in the agency and how it relates to the agency’s function.
    3. Comparison of ideal function to observed functions – Use specific examples to illustrate how the agency either fulfilled its ideal functions or differed from the ideal. Relate your experiences to your academic background and apply concepts, theories, etc., whenever possible. Analyze your experiences by comparing the real to the ideal.
    4. Problems and recommendations – Discuss any problems you observed in the operation of the agency. Explain why you think it was a problem, what effects it had on the agency’s operation and what might be done to solve the problem.
    5. What you have learned – Highlight the most important aspects of what you have learned and how it will help you in your future career in criminal justice. Provide specific examples.
    6. Recommendations – Present any recommendations for improving or modifying the program and offer any suggestions to other students contemplating an internship so that they will gain maximum benefit from it.
    7. Optional – Provide a few short sentences to serve as a testimonial of your internship experiences that we could use on the criminal justice Web site. By doing so, you are giving us permission to use your comments on the Web site and in promotional materials. Be creative.