Research Topics

After doing this week’s reading, considering my own personal interest, and listening to ideas put forth by my fellow classmates, I am still not completely settled on a topic for my project. I have however narrowed my potential project topics down to two subjects which impact the field of criminal justice. One topic that I am considering is Digital Forensic technologies and its impact on criminal investigations and the criminal justice system as whole. The second topic is the U.S Governments War on Drugs and how this approach is failing to curve drug use and instead has led to mass incarceration in state and federal prisons. To begin, let me explain my thought process behind choosing Digital Forensic technologies as a potential research project. Computers and technology dominate the world in which we live in today, with digital devices being used for banking, social media, work, music, and almost everything else. These new technologies have also had negative repercussions due to ways in which they can be exploited by criminals. Digital forensic technologies are important for just this reason; they allow investigators to find out when and if individuals are using devices for illegal purposes and eventually stop them. Without digital forensic technologies such as FKT which is a digital forensic toolkit, these types of crimes would eventually make computers and other digital devices unsafe to use. Now I will begin explaining my thought process behind choosing the War on Drugs as a potential research project. My interest on this topic was first sparked years ago when the state of California announced that they would be releasing prisoners due to mass overcrowding. I then began to look into this matter and found out that almost 70% of their prison population was arrested because of drug related incidents. Our countries war on drugs has had very little successes in relation to curving drug use and so I think we need to find different approaches to deal with this problem. For my research project on this subject, I will highlight statistics that proves that the war on drugs is failing our society. I will also give solutions that I think would be better at helping to reduce drug use. In conclusion, I think that both these topics would be a great fit for me because they are two of the most interesting subjects as relates to the criminal justice field in my opinion. Though there are others I am considering such as juvenile crime and human trafficking, I think that I am almost ready to make my decision.