Article Analysis Template
Article Analysis Template
Article Analysis Template
Articles must look at the relationship between rational choice theory and crime. You can select articles
that evaluate policies rooted in your theory, articles that test how well the theory explains crime or a
specific type of crime, and/or articles that test how well the theory explains criminal involvement among
different groups of people (e.g. different neighborhoods, countries, people of different races, sex, social
classes, etc.).
Articles must be at least 15 pages. and must be academic journal articles. This means you cannot use
encyclopedia, online reports, newspapers, blogs, etc.
Articles must be empirical. This means the author(s) must list hypotheses and then test the hypotheses
with data that they collected or data that someone else collected and they are reusing. There should be
charts/tables and statistical information being presented.
You will fill out this template for each of your 4 articles.
Information that can be found directly in the article. If your article does not have these sections, you did
not select an empirical article and you need to go back and find a new article.
Full Citation (.5 point) Includes author name(s), title of article, date, and name of journal.
Introduction/Background Provide 5 key ideas, facts, or statistics from the introduction or background
section of the article. (.5 point)
Information related to the theory: (me summarizing, not directly from the article)
Data/Methods Explain what research methods are used to gather data (e.g. police reports, surveys,
interviews) and who participated in the project/study. (1 point)
Research methods:
Who participated?
List of hypotheses and discussion of whether each hypothesis was supported, partially supported, or not
supported. Do not just write “supported”….you need to explain what was found and cite some of the
numbers and information from the article. (2 points)
Information that you have to create based on your understanding of the article and course material.
Minimum of one full paragraph (6-8 sentences) per question.
How does this article relate to policy recommendations and/or evaluation of existing policies? (1 point)
What do you think are 3 weaknesses of this article are? Explain each. (This should not be copied from
the limitations section, but should include your personal opinions regarding the research and the
usefulness of the article for your project.) (1.5 points)
(1)
(2)
(3)
How does this article extend what you learned in class about your theory? (2 points)