comic book 11

Criminal Comic Book

In this assignment, you will need to make a comic book that illustrates to me that you can apply what you have learned in this class to a “real world” situation. Just think of this as you “telling astory” using words and images—but the story must incorporate several things.

By following these steps, it should make this process a little easier for you:

Step One: Choose a criminal

The person you choose to focus your comic book on must be relatively “famous” (or likely“infamous”) so you will be able to gather enough information about him/her to complete this assignment. Criminals students have chosen in the past range from Al Capone to Ted Bundy to Pablo Escobar—you choose who you think is interesting, as learning about him or her will be more fun!

Step Two: Research that criminal

In researching your criminal, I want you to tell me two major things about him/her: 1) their background (this may include his/her childhood and/or experiences that happened to him/her prior to their criminal behavior) and 2) his/her crimes.

Remember: the purpose of this assignment is to use a theory that explains his/her behavior, so oftentimes (but not always) the causes of a criminal’s behavior can be found in his/her background or can be determined by how he/she behaved during and after the crime(s).

Step Three: Which Theory?

Decide on a theory that you believe best describes your criminal’s behavior. Since you have done a bit of research up to this point, some theories will have likely started to emerge in your mind. Be sure that the theory you choose “fits” with the type of criminal behavior you are explaining.For example, if you choose a serial killer, it is likely that the best theories to use to explain his/her behavior would be micro-level/individual theories, not macro-level theories. If you choose a gangster (i.e., Al Capone), you could use either a micro-level theory to explain his individual behavior or a macro-level theory to explain his behavior as a gangster. If you are not sure which theory to use, please talk to me/email me and we can discuss it.

Step Four: What Policy?

The fourth component of this comic must be a policy or law or crime prevention technique that you choose that you believe could have prevented this person from committing his/her crime or that could prevent similar crimes like this in the future. Your policy/law/crime prevention technique MUST be linked to your theory. I cannot stress this enough. At the end of each chapter in your textbook, there are many policy implications that are linked to the theories that are covered in the chapter. Look there if you need help. Or, talk to me/email me and we can discuss it.

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Step Five: Make a Comic!

Don’t be stressed out by this—anyone can make comic, even if they are not artistically inclined. What you need to do prior to making the comic is think about the “story” you are telling, and what “scenes” are in that story. What do you want to convey? What interesting facts do you want to show? How will you illustrate the theory and the policy/law/crime prevention technique you chose?

It often helps to do a rough outline of what will appear on each page. Write out what you think should appear on page one, page two…all the way to page ten. This will help so that you don’t run out of pages or so that you have enough pages in your comic (you must have 10 pages).

In constructing your comic, you have many options. You can draw it yourself. You can cut out images and paste them into a word document and add word balloons for spoken word and text boxes for captions. Or, you can use one of the following apps to help you create a comic:

http://plasq.com/apps/comiclife/macwin/
https://www.pixton.com/
https://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/ https://www.canva.com/create/comic-strips/ https://www.storyboardthat.com/storyboard-creator http://www.toondoo.com/ https://mashable.com/2010/10/24/create-your-own-co…

But remember, in order to make a good comic, there must be some planning involved. I guarantee that if you wait until the last minute, you will not complete this on time nor will you do your best work. I suggest you begin working on it sooner rather than later. Your comic is due April 29th.