Assignment 2: Individual Research Task

Landmark Case Presentation

In this module, present your research findings on the landmark cases related to competency to stand trial (CST), criminal responsibility, the right to receive mental health treatment, the right to refuse psychiatric treatment, coercion to mental health treatment, and civil commitment and treatment of sex offenders.

Tasks:

Create a case report for each selected case, including the following headings:

• Title and Citation: Provide the title of the case and in which court the case is involved.
• Type of Action: Describe the type of the case.
• Facts of the Case: Describe the key facts in the case with roles and responsibilities of forensic psychology professionals.
• Contentions of the Parties: Explain the relevant points in the contentions of the parties.
• Issue: Describe the issue from the viewpoint of the psycholegal question at hand.
• Decision: Explain the decision in the case with implications, present and future, for the practice of forensic psychology.
• Reasoning: Explain the reasoning provided by the trial judges or justices to arrive at the decision and dissenting opinions, if any.
• Rule of Law: Describe the rule of law with regard to the practice of forensic psychology.

Click here for a sample case report, which you can also use as a template to write your individual case report.

Write the case reports in not more than a 6-page Microsoft Word document.

All written assignments and responses should follow APA rules for attributing sources.

You may refer to the following links for additional information:

• Landmark Cases of the US Supreme Court
• Supreme Court of the U.S.
• FindLaw
• Google
• US Supreme Court Center

Submission Details:

• By Wednesday, September 17, 2014, save your report as M4_A2_Lastname_Firstname.doc and submit it to the M4 Assignment 2 Dropbox.

Assignment 2 Grading Criteria	Maximum Points
Described the facts of each case accurately and critically analyzed the roles and responsibilities of forensic psychology professionals in each case.	16
Explained the contentions of the party and highlighted the relevant points.	16
Described the issues clearly with regard to the psycholegal question at hand.	16
Critically analyzed the decision based on the issue and relevant points in the contentions and explained implications, present and future, for the practice of forensic psychology.	16
Critically analyzed and accurately explained the reasoning by the trial judges or justices and any dissenting opinions.	12
Accurately described the rule of law with regard to the practice of forensic psychology.	12
Wrote in a clear, concise, and organized manner; demonstrated ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of sources; displayed accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation.	12
Total:	100

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

 

LopesWrite Policy

• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: 
  • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
  • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.