Reflection-Criminological Thought

What skills do you feel this assignment helped you to develop the most?

In this assignment, I feel that I gained the ability to synthesize concepts, to match content to situations, and to present information in a concise manner without leaving out critical information and points. The first important skill that the assignment helped me to develop is research and organization. Chapter 4 was fairly wide and required thorough research and organization of content to answer assignment questions. My analytical skills improved significantly through practice. Secondly, matching content to situations was a sill that was required for the assignment. This skill stems from effective communication that enabled me to present my findings in a way that is well-defined and coherent. Lastly, the assignment developed an ability to summarize content without losing critical information. For example, in defining the rational choice theory before a crime is committed, one must mention issues about the reward and punishment weighing that occurs in a perpetrators mind. Through this assignment, I learned to note down critical points and key issues in a summarized format. Throughout chapter 4, specifically in learning about the rational choice theory, I learned that a majority of human decisions are not spontaneous but a result of thoughtful and deliberate planning. Siegel presented crime as having many motivations and concluded that criminals make a choice based on a rational thought of weighing the rewards of their actions against possible risks involved.

What would you change about the way you wrote this paper/did this assignment? (Think in terms of the time, place, and ways in which you organized your project.)

One thing I would change about the way I wrote this assignment is the time I dedicated to reading the main article by Siegel. I would allocate more time to reading the book, perform my own analysis, and then reflect back to the requirements of the assignment. I still feel like I missed out on certain important elements of the rational choice theory that were mentioned. I also think I would change my approach to starting with reading the assignment requirements before trying to use the book to answer the questions. I think reading through the requirements and the rubric would help me to know what is required, relate it to the main concepts, and know exactly what to include or exclude in providing an analysis of the theory. I would, therefore, need more time, allocate a little bit more for the reading, and then use other recommended class materials to add weight to my argument. The organization of my final presentation would also change a bit. I would begin by noting down the main theoretical underpinning and then defining it according to Siegel. I would then provide my understanding of the same, and relate it to a real life situation as an example. Overall, I feel like every other concept of the assignment came out as I expected and according to the requirements.