College students' views on criminal justice

We surveyed 683 college students to examine their attitudes toward the death penalty, other criminal sanctions, and the war on drugs. College seniors were consistently less likely than freshmen to hold punitive views; this suggests a “liberalizing” effect of the college experience. This liberalizing college effect on attitudes toward criminal justice was not apparent for criminal justice majors, however, particularly when criminal justice seniors' attitudes toward the death penalty were compared with those of freshmen in criminal justice. The views of criminal justice majors overall did not differ appreciably from other students' views. We found no support for the expectation that criminal justice majors with experience in criminal justice would express more conservative, more punitive views than would criminal justice majors in general.     

Does majoring in criminal justice affect perceptions of criminal justice

Research continues to show that the public holds misperceptions about crime and criminal justice. The media influences the public in many of these misperceptions, often shaping beliefs and ideologies. Higher education gives criminal justice majors the opportunity to gain much more accurate knowledge than the general public. Nonetheless, it is the public that heavily influences the development of the criminal justice system. It is important, therefore, to examine the influence of criminal justice education. Criminal justice majors and non-majors in a Midwestern university were surveyed with regard to demographics and perceptions of crime and criminal justice. Results indicate that criminal justice majors have significantly different perceptions about criminal justice issues than non-majors. Implications for educating the public are discussed.     

Reviewing criminal justice baccalaureate curricula: The importance of student input

While criminal justice undergraduate enrollments continue to burgeon, rarely do criminal justice departments conduct comprehensive surveys of their majors as part of the baccalaureate curriculum review process. This paper describes one such survey completed by 238 criminal justice majors at Wayne State University in Detroit. Major survey findings are presented along with their implications for student and faculty diversity, curriculum design, teaching and grading methods, student advising, and department administration.     

A commitment to justice at a jesuit university: A comparison of criminal justice majors to non-majors

While both criminal justice programs and Jesuit institutions claim commitment to the realization of justice, their conceptions of justice differ. This exploratory survey of 31 criminal justice majors and 51 non-majors compares criminal justice majors' concept of justice with that of non-criminal justice majors. We find that criminal justice majors and non-majors generally do not differ in their views of justice or their rank of goals for specific criminal justice professionals, regardless of the number of theology/philosophy or criminal justice courses taken or other demographic factors.     

Executing the mentally ill: The criminal justice system and the case of Alvin Ford and the death penalty and racial bias: Overturning supreme court assumptions

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the benefits and detriments of student internships in criminal justice programs that grant a baccalaureate degree. The authors reviewed contemporary literature and studies of internships for liberal arts majors in general and for criminal justice students in particular. Subjects addressed include selection criteria for students' eligibility, orientation of students before the internship, agency selection, the standard of care expected of faculty supervising students, techniques of maintaining the standard of care, benefits to academic departments, students and agencies, and legal liabilities of internships.     

The use of multiple intelligences in criminal justice education

This research explores Gardner's (1983) theory of multiple intelligences (MI) as it relates to career choice among criminal justice majors. The identification of the predominate intelligences of criminal justice majors may help students identify what types of careers suit them best, based on their MI strengths and weaknesses. The data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire of the population of enrolled criminal justice majors during spring 2001. The results of chi-square analyses indicate that criminal justice majors are predominately intrapersonal. Additional findings suggest there are significant differences between career choice and predominate intelligences.     

Ethics courses: Their impact on the values and ethical decisions of criminal justice students

Numerous articles and books advocate the importance of ethics as an essential component of a criminal justice curriculum. While there are several approaches suggested, one of the most popular methods of assuring coverage of this important topic is to add an ethics course to the curriculum either as a required or an elective course. Teaching students ethical theories, principles and providing them with the opportunity to discuss discipline specific ethics problems is thought to help contribute to the establishment of ethical practitioners.

The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of a semester long criminal justice ethics course on the students' value orientations, and their perceptions of both the seriousness of ethical violations and their likelihood of engaging in such behaviors. Our findings are consistent with the results of researchers evaluating ethics courses in other disciplines. Implications for criminal justice ethics education are discussed.     

The Specter of Authoritarianism Among Criminal Justice Majors

Authoritarianism has been an influential concept in social science research. Furthermore, researchers have long been concerned about the potential dangers of authoritarianism within the criminal justice system. The current study uses Altemeyer’s RWA Scale to measure and compare levels of authoritarianism between criminal justice majors and non‐criminal justice majors in a sample of undergraduate students. Results indicate that criminal justice majors, males, and lower‐division students have higher mean RWA scores than non‐criminal justice majors, females, and upper‐division students. However, it is male criminal justice majors who demonstrate the highest levels of authoritarianism. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

The graduate record examination as a predictor of graduate student performance: The case of criminal justice

Research on the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) as a predictor of graduate student performance has been marked by much debate. Thornell and McCoy (1985) have found that the relationship between student performance and the GRE may be sensitive to the discipline being studied. While unexplained to date, this disciplinary variation may be related to the differences in means and/or relative dispersions of GRE scores among disciplines. Further, there has been only one study (McKee, Mallory, and Campbell, in press) for criminal justice, the field with the lowest mean GRE score. This paper focuses on this neglected field. Data were collected from the files of 70 criminal justice majors in a master's program at a large midwestern urban university. The results indicate that GRE scores are largely unrelated to indicators of graduate student performance (GPA, grades in specific classes, and the completion of the M.A. degree). The one exception is a strong relationship between verbal GRE and graduate GPA. This relationship may indicate a nonlinear ceiling effect wherein verbal GRE scores affect GGPA, mainly in disciplines with means at the low end of the verbal GRE score distribution.     

Causes of Wrongful Conviction: Looking at Student Knowledge

The current study investigates the impact of a criminal justice education on student knowledge about wrongful conviction. Past research has found fallibility of hard evidence (e.g., eyewitness misidentification), police and lawyer behaviors (e.g., tunnel vision), and social group discrimination to be underlying causes of wrongful conviction. We developed a survey to investigate student knowledge of these underlying causes, comparing participants in different years and programs of study. The findings suggest that criminal justice majors were at times more aware of the underlying causes of wrongful conviction than noncriminal justice majors, specifically in regards to the fallibility of hard evidence and social group discrimination. Criminal justice majors were not more knowledgeable in the areas of police and lawyer behavior. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the scope of criminal justice education and future careers in criminal justice.     

Ideology and criminal justice: Suggestions for a pedagogical model

Without the explanatory power of general theoretical principles, criminal justice educators are limited to subjectively describing the structure and function of our systems of criminal justice rather than explaining why these systems behave the way they do. Because of this, criminal justice lacks integrity as a legitimate academic discipline that seeks to meet the objectives of a liberal arts education. This paper explores the establishment of ideology as a first principle of criminal justice, derived from political philosophy and sociological theory. We examine ways to build upon this principle as a means of teaching criminal justice within the guise of the liberal arts tradition by guiding students toward a deeper understanding of the nature of our criminal justice systems and their place in larger society.     

Cognitive and affective minds: A necessary marriage in criminal justice education

This paper examines the role race and course content may play in the teaching evaluation scores of a black criminologist currently teaching at a predominantly white institution. Making use of a case study design, the author compared his teaching evaluation scores from similar courses taught at both a predominantly white institution and an historically black institution. The data revealed that while race may play a role in the evaluation process, the nature of the course may offer a stronger explanation as to why he received lower evaluation scores on a race-related criminal justice course than a series of other criminal justice courses.     

Education Alone is not the Answer: The Specter of Right-Wing Authoritarianism for Criminal Justice Majors at Three Institutions

There have been a number of studies of right-wing authoritarian (RWA) attitudes among criminal justice majors and nonmajors. The prevailing supposition is that the attainment of higher levels of education reduces the negative traits associated with authoritarianism. A major assumption is that such improvements will occur regardless of the type of academic environment where the student is enrolled. This study examines whether educational attainment has the same impact on authoritarianism for criminal justice majors at a military academy, predominantly Caucasian rural teaching college, and a historically black college (HBCU). The results indicate RWA was highest for majors attending the military college. Moreover, unlike the findings for the teaching college and HBCU, RWA scores did not significantly decrease for seniors at the military college. This paper discusses whether differences in the organizational environment across the academic institutions explain the results.     

Research methods for criminal justice graduate students: Comparing textbook coverage and classroom instruction

Research methods are perhaps the most difficult subject matter to teach in the graduate criminal justice curricula. This is in part due to the mix of practitioners and aspiring researchers in most criminal justice graduate departments, leading many instructors to question whether their own coverage is in line with the needs of their graduate students as well as the coverage of other instructors. Also complicating matters is that research methods textbooks are not geared specifically for the graduate level, and thus may neglect topics that are necessary for today's criminal justice graduate students. The present study addresses these concerns by providing an analysis of 11 current criminal justice research methods textbooks, as well as a survey of 36 instructors of graduate criminal justice and criminology research methods classes. Both the texts and instructors are found to place a strong focus on quantitative methods, while the textbooks tend to place a greater emphasis on qualitative methods than the instructors. Moreover, both the texts and instructors neglect topics crucial to today's criminal justice graduate student, including grant writing, article writing and critiquing, and standards for collaborative research efforts.     

Career choices and characteristics of African-American undergraduates majoring in criminal justice at historically black colleges and universities

Recent research has shown that African-Americans at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have increasingly selected criminal justice/criminology as their field of study and career choice (Gabbidon and Penn 1999). To explore this trend, the authors replicated the work of Krimmel and Tartaro (1999) by surveying 284 undergraduate criminal justice majors at several HBCUs; the study was designed to investigate whether the students' reasons for selecting criminal justice as a major and career choice were in line with those of the earlier study conducted at predominantly white institutions. Our findings show that, while students at the two types of universities seem to select criminal justice as a major for the same reasons-including the interesting nature of the subject matter and its relevance to the real world-undergraduates at HBCUs reported stronger attitudes towards entering the career for economic as well as for altruistic reasons such as protecting the Constitution, fighting oppression, and helping people solve problems.     

Restorative justice in the criminal justice curriculum

A perennial challenge for criminal justice educators is deciding which reform movements in criminal justice are worthy of coverage. Restorative justice is one such new movement that has made significant inroads in both criminal justice policy and practice. In this article, we argue that there are numerous benefits to including coverage of restorative justice in a criminal justice curriculum. We also offer a number of concrete suggestions for helping students learn about this radically different approach to dealing with crime.     

Assessing computer technology in the criminal justice classroom: A case study

Previous research examining computer-assisted teaching is inconclusive. Some studies find enhanced student performance while others find no difference from traditional-approach pedagogy. This case study compares student performance and course evaluations for computer-assisted and traditional-approach sections in three criminal justice courses: crime theory, criminal courts, and inequality in the justice system. Overall results indicate a significant difference between student performance in computer-assisted and traditional classes. Yet differences are not the same for each course. The theory course shows the least difference while the courts course had the greatest difference. Student evaluation data indicate computer-assisted activities are enjoyed, yet differences from traditional-approach sections are not significant. Questions for future research on the use of technology in teaching are raised.     

Student attitudes towards internship experiences: From theory to practice

Traditionally, internships have provided a unique way for criminal justice students to gain work experience while earning academic credit. Questions remain, however, as to whether a student's educational experiences adequately reflect the realities of internship (and other work-related) experiences. As part of a larger study, we sought to explore student views and attitudes regarding their undergraduate curriculum and its relevance to their experiences at the criminal justice agencies. Through the use of self-report surveys, findings were two-fold, indicating tremendous support for internship programs. Moreover, (1) students felt their undergraduate curricula adequately reflected the practical realities of criminal justice operations, and (2) internships were regarded as invaluable in preparing students for criminal justice careers.     

Textbook adoption and other landmark decisions: The coverage of court cases in criminal justice textbooks, 1986 to 1995

We examine the coverage of court cases in 23 introductory criminal justice textbooks published from 1986 to 1995. The 30 cases receiving the most coverage (in inches of print) in the textbooks are identified and ranked by the amount of attention each receives. Collectively these cases can be considered the “landmark” decisions in the textbooks. We then evaluate the criminal justice textbooks by how extensively they cover (1) court cases in general and (2) the landmark cases in particular. We conclude with some recommendations of textbooks for course adoption.     

A preliminary study of student attitudes on juvenile justice policy

The philosophy and practice of juvenile justice have experienced significant transformations in the last 100 years. A shift to “get tough” attitudes has prompted various legislative reforms and has changed if not hardened attitudes toward youth. In context of these policy developments and social attitudes, this paper summarizes a preliminary study of 1104 undergraduate students on their attitudes on juvenile justice policies in the United States. Student perceptions of school violence, and attitudes toward zero tolerance and drug testing are reported. The authors discuss the responses of criminal justice majors and consider the implications of their academic experience on knowledge and attitudes about juvenile justice.