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CJ 360: Introduction to the Offender: In-Class Exercise

Introduction to the Offender

Lit Review Exercise Directions

The purpose of a literature idea is to understand the major arguments and main ideas in the field you're studying. Make sure the ideas are clearly related to each other, and make sure to always include a citation for your sources. Notice that a literature review focuses on one idea at a time, not one source at a time.

You've each been given a paragraph from a literature review. Using highlighters, mark the following:

1. Main/controlling ideas. This is where you explain on which idea you're going to focus. Why are these sources relevant to your topic?

2. Introductory phrases / transitions. This is where you explain how sources are related to each other. Do they agree? Disagree? Contradict? Add new information? Build on previous ideas?

3. Citations. Remember, you must always include a proper citation to indicate where the information can be found. If multiple sources discuss the same information, you should include multiple citations.

Exercise Article

The example literature review was taken from:

Cervantes, A. C., et al. (2017). "Humane" immigration enforcement and Latina immigrants in the detention complex. Feminist Criminology, 12.3: 269-292. Accessed 10 Feb. 2017. DOI: 10.1177/1557085117699069

You can find the complete article here: https://doi.org/10.1177/1557085117699069.

Lit Review Exercise Example

This excerpt is taken from

Jang, S. J. (2017). Religiosity, crime, & drug use among juvenile offenders: A latent growth modeling approach. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 33: 1-34. doi:10.1007/s1094