Research paper--crime in US

Problem Statement - a statement of the problem including a rationale for the study. This section will be worth 20 out of 100 possible points for the research report. If your research project topic/scope is not approved by end of week #4, your group/you will lose 5 points. Therefore, when the final research project report is graded, the maximum credit for the problem statement is fifteen points. If your research project topic/scope is not completely defined and approved by end of week #5, you will lose ten points out of 20. If your research project topic/scope is not approved by end of week #6, no points will be awarded for this section of the report.
Background Information - identify the history of the problem, relevant secondary research, etc., through a review of literature (called literature review). Research articles can be found in the library, Internet, and other libraries that you have access to. Must review minimum of SIX articles or publications other than the required course textbook. This section is worth ten points. By end of week number six, the results of your literature search should be summarized and submitted. The summary report status should list each reference and provide one or two sentence description of the relevance of the reference material to the research project topic. Any late submission of summary status report beyond end of week #6 results in losing five points. This implies that at the end of the semester, when research report is being graded, the maximum points earned for this section is 5 points.
Description of the Methodology - address how you collected your data, e.g., experimental design. This section is worth 10 points.
Statistical Analysis - include print-outs in appendix. This section is worth 40 points. In this section, it is expected that you can demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the application of statistical analysis learned in this course. Throughout this semester, we will discuss different types of statistical analysis tools such as confidence interval for one population parameter (population mean and population proportion), confidence interval for difference between parameters (means/proportion) of two populations, test of hypothesis for one population mean/proportion, test of hypothesis comparing two population means/proportions, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Factorial Design of Experiment, Randomized Block Design of Experiment, goodness of fit test, test of independence, regression analysis, correlation analysis, and etc. At minimum five of these types of analysis should be included in this section of the research report. Keep this requirement in mind, as you define the topic and scope of your research project and submit your research project problem statement for approval. Any problem statement that do not include minimum of five types of statistical analysis methods to analyze the data will not be approved and will be asked to be revised before it gets approved. This requirement should be taken under consideration as research project data is being considered for collection. Please also remember that meeting the minimum requirements, typically, results in an average grade. Excellent research project grade requires quality research work.
Conclusions - decisions drawn from your statistical interpretations, the ramifications of your research, and recommendations for the future. This section is accounts for 20 points of your research project report.