Anthony Herrera
Sara Boggs
English 03-10:30am
October 14, 2008 3 Research Ideas


The first topic I would like to research is restorative justice. I didn’t think I knew very much about this subject but as it turns out I already do. Restorative justice is a term and social movement. Restorative justice is a broad term and is incorporated in a lot of different areas such as the criminal justice system, courts and by other institutions. Restorative justice is the social movement to make things right between an offender and their victim. It is an approach to get to the root of the problem in society. It is studied as a major in colleges and is sought after as a profession. The reason I would like to research this is because I myself have been through California’s State Prison System as an offender. I gave the system 20+ years of my life and destroyed a lot of relationships, hopes, and dreams along the way. Today my life is a different life and I just want to learn more about how I can help our community instead of destroying it. That’s why I want to research restorative justice.
The next thing I am interested in researching is self concept and its role in people’s actions. Self concept is the way we view ourselves and what we find to be truth about our identity. I am interested in this because this has played a big role in the way I acted out my life prior to this day. It also plays a role on the way I’ll act out tomorrow. This concept has helped change my life to what it is today. I want to know more about it so I can know exactly what to tell people when they ask me; what changes had to occur to make your life better? This information will help me to help others.
The last thing I would like to research is Alcohol and Drug abuse and how it affects our community. The biggest reason I would like to research this is because this played a major role in a lot of poor decisions I have made in my life. I would like to study how this affects everyone not only the person using the drugs or alcohol. I would like to learn some statistics and maybe do an actual interview with an offender and a victim and share this with the world. Information and knowledge about any particular subject is always beneficial to everyone even if they just file it away for future reference.