Proposal Letter

Reilly Griffith

Criminology and Criminal Justice

Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida

March 24, 2021

To other members in this Discourse Community

Criminology and Criminal Justice

Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida

Dear members of the Criminal Justice and Criminology Discourse community at Florida

State University,

            I, Reilly Griffith, am writing this letter to ask for donations and volunteers in conducting

more research on the issue of a child’s environment’s influence on their relationship with crime

later in life. As you understand, many children who grow up in disadvantaged neighborhoods,

with delinquent peers, and/or controlling or uninvolved parents are unevenly being imprisoned

and stuck in a cycle of crime. Using your resources and money to start these studies can help us

learn more about what influences a person’s crime rate from an early stage, so we can prevent

this in the future. Meaning we can lower the overall crime rates in these neighborhoods and save

people from the justice system earlier.

            We know this issue is important and these studies are needed to provide more evidence of

what we understand. I am asking for anyone interested in starting a study on any of the
environmental influences (disadvantaged neighborhoods, delinquent peers, and controlling or

uninvolved parenting styles) to start now. The quicker we start, the quicker we can use your

results to start prevention programs. We need multiple and repeated studies to gain enough

evidence to create the right steps of prevention. With your evidence we can start plans with local

and state governments, using their money and some of your donations, to create crime free

communities.

            We need to cover as many different communities, like those in poverty, those for middle

class families and those in wealthy and privileged neighborhoods, to provide as much evidence

as we can. We need to have a variety of studies for peer groups and families as well. We need

studies on all four of the major parenting types and their effects on the child’s later crime

involvement. As well as multiple studies on children’s peer groups and their influence on a

specific child. Also, if anyone has other ideas on this issue, like other possible factors, please

start a study on it. Even if your results don’t support your original hypothesis, we can use it to

understand what factors aren’t as influential on a child.

As well, any donations or funding on this issue is encouraged and appreciated. We can

use the money to fund professors and those within the FSU Criminal Justice Community to start

their own studies. Additional money will be used later to start prevention programs, once the

results are evaluated. The earlier we start these studies, the earlier we can start prevention.

             If we know what factors are the most influential on a child’s later habits, we as a

community can help prevent this. We can lower crime rates, help those in disadvantaged

neighborhoods, close prisons, and make the city safe. There is so much positive from these

studies. Having more evidence that this issue is common will help more people understand that

crime is a learned behavior or done out of necessity. So please take into consideration some
studies and research on this issue, as well as ideas and money that can be used to start

prevention.

You can contact me with any questions or donations at 904-123-4567, as well as

rmg20f@my.fsu.edu.

Thank you for your time,

Reilly Griffith