2. Explore Your Topic

After thoroughly examining your assignment, now it's time to look for some initial background research on your topic.

Your instructor has recommended using these two websites to find information on justice issues. You can search by topic to find recent news:

The National Institute of Justice: https://nij.ojp.gov
Pew Research Center: https://www.pewresearch.org

You can also try a search in the following database to learn more about your topic. These databases will present your topic from multiple perspectives, which will be helpful while you're deciding which position you want to take on this issue.

Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints
Viewpoint articles, topic overviews, full-text magazine, academic journal, and newspaper articles, primary source documents, statistics, images and podcasts, and links to Websites.
Issues & Controversies
Features pro and con articles on more than 800 thought provoking topics in business, politics, government, education and popular culture. Updated weekly with links to a 12-year back file. Proxy Bypass
Points of View
Contains a balance of materials from all viewpoints, including more than 1,300 main essays, leading political magazines from both sides of the aisle, newspapers, radio & TV news transcripts, primary source documents and reference books.Provided through EBSCO. Proxy Bypass

Analyze Your Topic

Who

Think about who your problem affects. This could be specific people, but it could also be groups of people - consider different groups based on age, race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status (wealth), who may be affected (good or bad) by your topic.

What

Consider what factors are involved in your topic. Read some background information or a summary to learn more about your topic, and then make a list of relevant factors.

The background reading can also provide you with keywords, specialized vocabulary, and definitions, which will be useful for future searches.

When

What time period is involved? Has your problem been an issue for a while, or is it more recent? Be sure you know what dates and times are involved in your topic because that will affect how you write about them. Your topic may have specific dates associated with it or it may be more general.

Where

Sometimes places or geography are important to your topic. Are you considering issues in the United States or another country? The situation can be quite different in some countries than it is here.

Why

This is a really important one. Why do people care about this topic? Why is it important or controversial? What's at stake? or Why did it happen / is it happening?

How

How could this issue with the justice system be resolved? What kinds of solutions exist to this problem?