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Ekstrom Library

CJ 325: Research Methods (Hayden): Journal Article #1

Your Resource

The Impact of Community Policing on Crime Rates: Does the Effect of Community Policing Differ in Large and Small Law Enforcement Agencies?

Sozer, M. A., & Merlo, A. V. (2013). The impact of community policing on crime rates: does the effect of community policing differ in large and small law enforcement agencies?. Police Practice & Research, 14(6), 506-521. doi:10.1080/15614263.2012.661151

Questions to Address in Evaluating your Resource

Read the Journal Info provided by the publisher. Then, open the pdf and read the abstract and respond to the following questions:

 

  1. Locate information about the authors in the article. How does this information influence your evaluation of the information source?

  2. What leads you to believe the journal is scholarly
  3. Look up the title of the article using Google Scholar. How many times was this article cited? Why might this be important and how might this be helpful for your own research? 
  4. How did the authors gather data -- what methodology did they use? If you were doing a research project on community policing, how could this methodology contribute to your own research? 

  5. What research question(s) could this source help you answer if you were to write a paper on community policing? Answer this question by also considering your overall evaluation of the source and whether you'd use the source or not. 

How your Source was Located

Located using Criminal Justice Abstracts, which can be located in the Databases A-Z list