ACR211 - Crime Prevention and
Security Assessment Task 2: Literature
Review
Instructions and Guidelines
Due Date:
8pm Friday 29 April 2022 (Week 7)
Word Count:
1,000 words (+/- 10% NOT including the
Reference List)
Total Marks:
25% of the Unit Assessment
Format:
Please use DOUBLE spacing
Submission:
Please submit a .DOC or PDF. Do NOT submit a
Pages (.pages) document
Assessment Task
For this assignment, you will undertake a 1,000-word literature review on
ONE of the three scenarios outlined below. As your literature review ties
in with your 2,000-word policy report (e.g. the literature review will be
copied and pasted unedited into your Policy Report as part of
Assessment Task 2) it is important that you choose a topic that you
are happy to continue researching and writing on across both of the two
assignments.
A literature review is the foundation for academic, peer-reviewed
research
papers,
journal
articles,
policy
documents
and
research proposals. It is the literature review section that provides the
reader with an overview of the problem you have been asked to
address (e.g. the nature and extent of the problem, key issues/themes,
and approaches to addressing a given topic). In other words, it is the
section where you canvass what has been said by other scholars in
this field of research in the past.
To begin the process, you are encouraged to consider the
following questions:
• What is the nature and extent of the problem under study?
• What have others said about this issue/crime/topic?
cont.
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• How are certain terms/terminology being defined?
• Are any of these terms/definitions location specific?
• What are the key approaches to addressing this issue, and what do
they say they found?
• What research has been done in the area using this theory or
approach?
• Are the findings consistent, or do researchers disagree about how
much of this activity goes, the natures and causes of the
phenomenon, and/or how best to approach 'solving' the problem?
• What are the identified gaps in the research?
A literature review is not an essay. You are not arguing a point
in a literature review, rather you are exploring and uncovering what
the literature says about a given topic or issue in criminology. You
then undertake an analysis of the literature to synthesise it and discern
the validity of what is being argued, what gaps there are in the research
and what conclusions have been drawn so far (by other scholars who
have written about the topic).
What the literature says about a problem will act as guidance to
the direction you may take in your policy report (AT2). Don't start out by
focusing on wanting to present a social crime prevention or
environmental crime prevention angle to 'solve' the problem. Instead
look at what the literature is suggesting about those different
approaches.
Remember you are not offering a solution or arguing a point in the
literature review- that is the purpose of the policy report (AT3). Here
you are offering up what other researchers before you have found and
suggested regarding your chosen scenario.
HOW TO STRUCTURE YOUR LITERATURE REVIEW
Structuring
your
review
thematically
involves
identifying
key terms/issues/approaches etc. within and across the literature
you have examined. These themes then form the basis of the different
threads of your literature review. Overall, you should present an
objective critical review of the relevant literature within each
theme. Use subheading and paragraphs to organise your sythesis of
the literature thematically.
It is up to each of you to determine the most appropriate themes,
based upon your analysis of what you read. Again, there is not
necessarily a right/wrong set of themes for any given topic.
A common error in literature reviews is to organise the sections
by research study/paper. This tends to read more as a descriptive list
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than a meaningful review. Following a thematic approach will avoid this
error, as you can discuss/critique multiple papers within each theme.
Your Literature Review should:
•
•
•
•
Include an introduction and a conclusion.
Be based on the assumption of a novice learner/reader.
Focus on the topic you're reviewing
Reference the work of multiple scholars by citing them in the
literature review).
• Group literature together thematically in order to make particular
points - note that you can refer to individual writers more than once
in the review.
The choices are various, but here are a few ideas. You could group by:
•
•
•
•
•
Key findings (prevalence, types of crime etc.);
Key approaches to studying the issue;
Key debates and areas of scholarly agreemenUdisagreement;
Key theories to approaching the issue;
Chronology (i.e. development of theories over the years).
This by no means a proscribed or exhaustive list. The purpose of your
literature review is to show how your proposed research idea fits with
what is already known about it, and with what research has been
undertaken previously.
HOW MANY SOURCES MUST I USE?
Your literature review must draw on a mm1mum of 8
ACADEMIC SOURCES. What counts as academic sources for this
assignment? For this assignment, academic sources are any peer­
reviewed journal articles, academic books (including the textbook) or
research reports published on the Australian Institute of Criminology
website (for example, they publish a range of materials in addition to
research reports and annual reports on specific topics such as their
Trends & Issues series).
You may wish to draw on international scholarly literature. However,
unless the case can be made that the international studies are relevant
to Australia, avoid using them.
Other government reports or 'grey literature' are okay to use for this
assignment but they do not qualify as academic sources.
Legislation does not count as an academic source.
Media reports, government websites, program or policy websites, true
crime literature, biogs, podcasts and any other similar audio-visual or
print (including e-print) media do not qualify as academic sources.
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Choose ONE of the three scenarios below
(Note that your role as a criminologist reporting to relevant authority is hypothetical)
1.
School non-attendance
Children who regularly miss school are at greater risk of non-completion of Year 12,
behavioural problems, long term unemployment and welfare dependency,
homelessness, poverty and involvement with the criminal justice system. In Victoria
parents/carers must, by law, enrol a child of compulsory school age (6 to 17) years of
age in school and ensure the child attends. Schools must also record and monitor
absences in line with the requirements of the Education and Training Reform Act
2006 (Vic). Despite this, and while relatively high compared to other states and
territories, attendance rates have been slowly declining in Victoria in the past decade
(ACARA 2021). You have been asked by the Department of Health and Human
Services, Victoria to provide a current and detailed review on the nature and extent of
the problem with school non-attendance in Victoria, its consequences and its causes
based on current available scholarly literature. Your literature review should
synthesise the current scholarly literature on this current problem and efforts to
prevent it.
Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (2021). Student Attendance. ACARA.https://www.acara.edu.au/
reporting/national-report-on-schooling-in-australia/national-report-on-schooling-in-australia-data-portal/student-attendance
2.
Land clearing and deforestation
In 2021, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) listed Eastern Australia as one of 21
global deforestation fronts (WWF 2021). From 2001 to 2020, Australia lost 8.47Mha of
tree cover, equivalent to a 20% decrease in tree cover, and 2.25Gt of CO₂e
emissions. Over this period, Victoria alone lost 1.57Mha of tree cover, equivalent to a
25% decrease in tree cover, and 554Mt of CO₂e emissions (Global Forest Watch
2021). Australia has one of the highest rates of animal extinction in the world and a
key driver of this ecocide is habitat loss (WWF 2021). In Victoria, in line with the
Native Vegetation Removal Regulations it is illegal to remove or destroy vegetation
on public land without authorisation and a permit is required to remove or alter native
vegetation on private land. These regulations are primarily implemented through
local council planning schemes (DELWP 2021). Despite this, land clearing continues.
You have been asked by the newly elected Premier of Victoria to provide a current
and detailed review on the nature and extent of the problem of land clearing and
deforestation in Victoria, its consequences and its causes based on current available
scholarly literature. Your literature review should synthesise the current scholarly
literature on this current problem and efforts to prevent it.
Global Forest Watch (2021). Dashboard: Australia/Victoria. https://www.globalforestwatch.org/dashboards/country/AUS/
World Wide Fund for Nature (2021). Deforestation Fronts: Drivers and Responses in a Changing World. WWF. https://
wwfint.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/
deforestation_fronts___drivers_and_responses_in_a_changing_world___full_report_1.pdf
Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Victoria (2021). Native Vegetation. DELWP https://
www.environment.vic.gov.au/native-vegetation/native-vegetation
3.
Prejudice motivated crime
In Victoria, there are laws that prohibit prejudice motivated crime
including racial and religious vilification. Nonetheless, prejudice
motivated crime continues to be a rising problem in Victoria, in Australia and
around the world. A prejudice motivated crime is caused by hate towards
another person or group because of characteristics such as race, religion,
age, disability, gender identity or sexual orientation. Incidents can have a
significant impact not only on a victim they can also leave the broader
community feeling vulnerable, threatened and isolated. You have been
asked by the Victorian Equal Opportunities and Human Rights Commission
to provide a current and detailed review on the nature and extent of the
problem of prejudice motivated crime in Victoria, its consequences and its
causes based on current available scholarly literature. Your literature
review should synthesise the current scholarly literature on this current
problem and efforts to prevent it.
Additional Information
When compiling a literature review (or any research!) keep a list of
references, or learn how to use a program such as EndNote to compile
your references. Remember all referencing is in Harvard style. You can
find
the
Deakin guide to
Harvard
style
referencing
here
https://www.deakin.edu.au/students/studying/study-support/referencing
You can find a free version of EndNote here along with instructional videos on
how to use it http://software.deakin.edu.au/2018/01/25/endnote/. It is not
essential to use this, but optional for those who wish to.
Keep a list of words you use to search for literature such as "abuse +
neglect" or "social crime prevention + elder abuse". This will help you with
narrowing your searches and making sure you use the correct
terminology to find resources. This will also need to be mentioned as part of
your policy report.
Keep track of other sources you don't use in your literature review but
may be useful for the policy report. This will save you time when it
comes to compiling your last assignment.
What direction your research takes from the scenarios is up to you
and the literature you are accessing. There are multiple ways in which
these scenarios have been researched and it is important for you to
first start reading broadly before narrowing down your focus- you only
have 1,000 words for your literature review.
Make sure you access online and Library resources about
literature review writing. Although this will be covered in Seminars,
additional reading may be necessary if you are unsure of what to do.
Also post any questions you have on the discussion board if you need
guidance. Go to the Deakin Library link for more details about literature
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reviews: https://www.deakin.edu.au/Iibrary/learn/Iiterature-review
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