popular culture and punishment

Case Study 2

Weight: 20%
Submit: via the Dropbox tool
Due: Week 9
Note: Please refer to the Outline for exact due dates.

Assignment Overview

In Case Study 1, you had the opportunity to conduct primary source research using the Old Bailey Online. Case Study 2 will expand on the skills you developed in completing the first Case Study, and will prepare you for the in-depth analysis of specific criminals in Units 10 and 11. In completing this Case Study, you’ll be exposed to new databases of primary source material, and you’ll have the opportunity to construct a biographical profile of your chosen criminal. As with the first Case Study assignment, this assignment exposes you to the tools used by historians, and also demonstrates how these tools can be harnessed for use in other disciplines, such as criminal justice, and other social sciences.

Instructions

Step One
Begin by choosing one of the following three criminals: Elizabeth Brownrigg, James Maclaine, or Renwick Williams. You have already been introduced to Elizabeth Brownrigg (see Unit 06). As you’ll remember, she was accused of child abuse and was convicted and executed in the mid-eighteenth century. James Maclaine was a notorious highwayman and thief, and was executed in 1750. Finally, Renwick Williams was apprehended in 1790 for assaulting women on the streets of London. In order to narrow down your choice, you may wish to search for these criminals in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, which is available online through the Guelph Library website.

Step Two
Locate at least three, and no more than five, secondary sources, and at least one primary source. Good sources for primary source material include:

Newspapers held by the British Library
Books and pamphlets contained in Eighteenth-Century Collections Online (ECCO)
Eighteenth-Century Journals
All these sources can be accessed through the Guelph Library website.

Secondary sources can be chosen from the list of supplementary readings contained on the course website or from the list of sources that was provided for the first Case Study. If you choose to use any sources not listed, please run them by me as soon as possible in order to ensure that you’ve selected appropriate sources. Wikipedia, online blogs, and encyclopaedias are not considered appropriate sources for an assignment at this level. Please use the library’s website to find academic, peer-reviewed journals or books.

Step Three
For this assignment, you are required to explore the crimes of your chosen individual, their encounters with the justice system, and their impact on the societies they inhabited. Using these three areas as a guide, create an overall argument about your chosen criminal’s relevance within his/her own society, and within the history of criminal justice. Make sure your argument focuses not only on the simple fact that your chosen criminal made an impact, but on how and why he/she made this impact. Your analysis will be assessed based on four areas: the depth of analysis and the level of detail, the relevance and use of your sources, your overall writing style, and the formatting of your essay and bibliography.

Assignment Requirements

Your essay should follow the typical conventions for academic writing. Your essay should:

Be written in essay format (no point form), though sub-headings are acceptable;
Follow the conventions of academic essays (avoid the use of personal pronouns, contractions, and colloquial language);
Be based on your own research (you should not need to reference the course materials, though what you have learned during the course should certainly inform your opinions);
Include a title page, including your name and student number, the title of the course, the title of your Case Analysis, and the date;
Include footnotes and a bibliography written in the University of Chicago format. To learn more about this format, have a look at the University of Guelph Library website;
Be at least 1,800 words, and no more than 2,500 words, including the bibliography.
Submission Instructions

Once you have completed the case analysis, save your file as a Word file according to the convention FirstNameLastNameCase2.docx. Submit your assignment electronically to the appropriate folder via the Dropbox (select Dropbox from the Tools dropdown menu). Be sure to keep a back-up copy of all of your assignments in the event that they are lost in transition.

Marking Expectations

Your essay will be evaluated based on four main criteria:

Depth of analysis and level of detail
Use and relevance of primary and secondary sources
Overall writing style and organization
Formatting (use of Chicago Style for footnotes and bibliography)
To see a more detailed breakdown of these criteria, read through the Case Study 2 Rubric.