Final Comprehensive Analysis Project (F-CAP) Manual
Updated Fall, 2011
Overview
The purpose of the CJ 5600 final comprehensive analysis project (F-CAP) is to produce a
terminal document for the University of Central Missouri Department of Criminal Justice
graduate program that exhibits an exceptional knowledge of all aspects of criminal justice, is
well-written, shows superior development, is well organized, concise, and contains a clear and
convincing argument. In order to fulfill this requirement, students must have completed the
following core CJ courses: CJ 5000 (The Criminal Justice System), CJ 5003 (CJ Studies in
Group Behavior), CJ 5102 (Administration in Criminal Justice), CJ 5301 (Legal Aspects of the
CJ System), and CJ 5620 (Methods of Criminal Justice Research). Students are encouraged to
develop a topic during these and other CJ courses. Upon completion of these requirements,
students should obtain permission from the Graduate Coordinator to register for CJ 5600
Individual Research.
CJ 5600 is structured as an individualized course where students work generally at their own
pace, yet under the direction of a faculty instructor to complete a formal analysis of an agency,
program or criminal justice policy. Students may focus broadly (e.g. “drug courts”) or on a
specific agency or policy in a jurisdiction (e.g. a drug court in Johnson County). The structure of
the course is intended to provide students with multiple opportunities to submit work and receive
feedback from the instructor as well as their peers. Specific objectives include:
 Complete a critical comprehensive analysis of an agency, program, or policy
 Identify key organizational, administrative, legal, and process issues present at the
agency/program/policy
 Identify the mission, objectives, and goals of the agency/program/policy
 Research similar types of agencies/programs/policies and complete a comprehensive
introduction of the issues present
 Complete a critical analysis that links the underlying literature and educational components
with the specific agency/program/policy
 Complete an electronic presentation of an overview of the entire project
All analyses (agency, program or policy) consist of six chapters: one introductory chapter and
five chapters based on each of the criminal justice courses mentioned above.
All agency/program analyses consist of a complete description of the agency or program, a
comprehensive analysis of specific theoretical, legal, administrative issues, a complete and
thorough evaluation proposal for the agency, and a comprehensive analysis of how the agency or
program fits into the criminal justice system overall. It is beneficial to identify a theme to tie the
entire project together. If a law enforcement agency is the focus, for example, taser policy could
be the theme to focus the legal and administrative chapters. Examples of agencies for analysis
include: Warrensburg Police Department, Kansas City Federal Probation and Parole, Chillicothe
Correctional Center, a juvenile detention center, The Missouri Highway Patrol, etc. Examples of
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programs for analysis include: drug courts, mental health courts, reentry programs, crisis
intervention teams, drug abuse treatment programs, or possibly sex offender treatment programs.
All policy analyses consist of a complete description of the policy and a comprehensive analysis
of the five steps in policy process formulation (identification, formulation, legitimization,
implementation and evaluation). The five steps will provide the framework for the introductory,
legal, administrative, and research proposal chapters. Examples of policies for analysis include:
The War on Drugs, The PATRIOT Act, etc.
Every student will create his or her own unique project; no two will be completely alike.
Thus, there are no pre-conceived notions regarding what a final project should look like; all will
take on their own personality and characteristics as appropriate.
Please see Addendum 1, Syllabus for additional specifics regarding course requirements.
Format
The CJ 5600 comprehensive analysis project will be much like a standard research paper in its
overall format. Since there is no pre-conceived notions regarding what a final project should
look like there is no required page length. Projects should use a 12-point times new roman font,
with 1 inch margins, and APA format for all in-text and bibliographic citations. All tables and
figures must be original content (not to be cut and pasted directly from another source) and
appear in the appendices of the document. First person should not be used and papers should
take the form of unbiased academic works, rather than position papers.
The project should include the following components in the subsequent order. Please see
Addendum 2, Chapter Descriptions, for further specifics regarding what each chapter should
contain.
Title page
The title page should be formatted according to APA Style. In other words, it should
contain the title of the paper, your name, and affiliation (UCM). All items should be
centered on the page.
Abstract
An abstract is a brief summary of the paper. This is usually done after the paper has been
written and should be between 100 – 120 words. It should be on its own page, right after
the title page and before the body of the paper.
An abstract is considered completely separate from the main paper. The purpose of the
abstract is to provide a “snapshot” of your paper, so that others can assess whether the
content is what they are looking for (if I am looking for information about juveniles with
an abuse or neglect history that end up in secure facilities, but your abstract indicates
your paper is about recent trends in abuse and neglect, I will not read yours, but go on to
the next article produced by my search).
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The abstract should contain at least one sentence about: 1) a general statement of the
topic, 2) the “purpose of the paper” statement, 3) the “blueprint” statement (what major
topics will be covered), 4) a statement about methods (if applicable), and 5) a statement
of the specific results/conclusions.
Table of Contents
The Table of Contents lists the parts of the document organized in the order in which they
appear. This should include first-level headers only (not every single sub-heading).
This list should indicate the page on which each item in the above list begins (except the
title page).
It is also appropriate to number everything prior to the Table of Contents with “lower
case” roman numerals. Using the Title Page as “Page 1” is acceptable (use the “different
first page” option to eliminate the number from appearing on the page, however).
Chapter 1: Introduction (includes the organizational components)
The purpose of the introduction is to inform the reader in a concise manner what the topic
of the project is, and what the pertinent issues are. This chapter does not represent any
specific course from the curriculum at UCM per se. Several skills acquired during your
graduate career will be utilized, however, including creating a logical and well organized
document with multiple parts including a “literature review” and using APA citation
style.
Chapter 2: Theoretical Perspective
Chapter 2 serves to identify global/theoretical information regarding your project. This
chapter is based off of course work from CJ 5003 Group Behavior in Criminal Justice.
The purpose of the theoretical perspective is to inform the reader in a concise manner
what the theoretical perspective of the agency/policy is and clearly and fully explain the
criminological theory. This chapter will explain the criminological theory only and
identify how exactly the agency/program/policy embodies the theory. You will use the
Chapter 6 Conclusion Chapter to identify whether or not this is a good fit and plan.
Chapter 3: Legal Issues
Chapter 3 serves to identify important and relevant legal issues regarding your project,
and provide students with the opportunity to convey a working knowledge of U.S. law.
This chapter is based off of course work from CJ 5301 Legal Aspects of the Criminal
Justice System. The purpose of the legal issues chapter is to inform the reader in a
concise manner what the global and local legal issues are that relate to the functioning of
the agency, program or the application of the policy. This chapter should be
comprehensive, but not exhaustive. This chapter will definitely be unique for each
student. There is no set formula, nor expectations in terms of specific cases or issues
used. Just be sure that your cases and information are relevant. If your topic is taser
policy for police departments, the PATRIOT Act is not appropriate.
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Chapter 4: Administrative Issues
Chapter 4 serves to identify important and relevant administrative issues regarding your
project. This chapter is based off of course work from CJ 5102 Administration in
Criminal Justice. The purpose of the administration chapter is to inform the reader in a
concise manner what the global and local administrative issues are that relate to the
functioning of the agency, program, or the application of the policy. This chapter should
be comprehensive, but not exhaustive.
Chapter 5: Research Proposal
Chapter 5 serves to fully identify and explain a quantitative research proposal relevant to
the agency, program, or policy selected for your project. This chapter is based off of
course work from CJ 5620 Methods of Criminal Justice Research (and to a lesser degree
CJ 5610 Statistics for Criminal Justice). The purpose of the Research Methods chapter is
to identify a specific research question and all of the pertinent information necessary for a
research proposal based on that question as it relates to the functioning of the agency or
the application of the policy.
Chapter 6: Criminal Justice Process/Conclusions
Chapter 6 serves as the concluding chapter for the entire project. This chapter will have
multiple parts that will tie the entire work together. One of the sections will be an
identification of how your agency/program/policy fits in to the CJ system as a whole (this
is the most important section of this chapter), thus this chapter is based off of course
work from CJ 5000 The Criminal Justice System. The purpose of the Conclusion chapter
is to answer many questions raised throughout the entire work, including “what does all
of this mean,” “where do we go from here,” and “how does this all fit into the criminal
justice system”? Chapter 6 is a critical analysis of all of the information presented thus
far.
References
Bibliography should be in APA format, as should in-text citations. For a refresher on
APA formatting, please utilize the Purdue University’s website:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/.
Appendices
An appendix is a document that is considered supplemental to the main work and
provides additional information that certain readers may desire to see. The information
presented in the appendix is important, but not the main idea of the work. Often lengthy
lists of items (all states that have participated in the UCR in 2005) or documents (the
survey that was distributed to a sample of college freshmen) are included as appendices.
An appendix occurs at the end of the document, each beginning on its own page.
Typically, appendices are lettered rather than numbered (i.e. Appendix A, Appendix B,
etc).
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Grading
Final grades for the CJ 5600 policy project will be based on the University of Central Missouri
guidelines for grading based on the percentage of points received for the entire course:
100-90% =A (excellent)
89-80% =B (superior)
79-70% =C (average)
69-60% =D (inferior)
Below 60% =F (failure to meet requirements)
Please see Addendum 3, CJ 5600 F-CAP Rubric, for additional information regarding the
grading breakdown and expectations for each chapter. Addendums 4 and 5, Sample F-CAPs,
includes two examples (one agency, one policy) of well-constructed projects.
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