Review the assignment for Paper #1- Issue of Public Concern and Focused Question under the link in the left toolbar that says Formal Writing Assignments. Brainstorm some possible issues you might want to write about. It can be fairly broad right now, we will get more specific as the semester goes on. Use the following guidelines when choosing your topic:

1. Think big. Consider the big issues of our time. In the past students have focused on topics such as (but you are not limited to): drug legislation (legalization of marijuana), police brutality, gun legislation, abortion rights, fracking, etc.

2. Personal experience. You should have some type of personal experience with this topic.

3. Something you’d like to see changed. You will have to be persuasive when discussing your topic, so choose something you think should or could be realistically altered or adjusted in society.

4. A topic that is big enough. You will be conducting research on your topic, so make sure you choose something that has enough information out there.

5. Something you can live with for an entire semester. You will be writing on the same topic for the entire semester, so choose something you’re interested in.

Answer preview

Capital Punishment

Capital punishment refers to legal execution of individuals convicted of a crime such as murder. This is a problem since the criminal justice systems face many challenges and risk execution of innocent people. The US criminal justice system advocate for punishment for all criminal offenders. There is increasing support for capital punishment in the US. The Supreme Court reinstated death punishment in 1976 (Steiker, & Steiker, 148). Although some states have abolished the death penalty and some imposing moratoria on the execution statistics show it’s a significant aspect of the criminal justice system.

Each crime category has a relatively standard form of punishment which the offenders understand before committing the crime. According…

 

(1100 words)