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.     

Ethical orientations and criminal justice: The effects of academic major and gender

We identified and compared the self-reported ethical ideological orientations of criminal justice majors and other students from a course selected to represent the general student population at a midwestern public university. We also explored potential differences in ethical orientation as a function of gender. Criminal justice majors report ethical orientations compatible with those of the general student population. Males report significantly higher ethical idealism scores than females, but we found no significant difference on ethical relativism. Further, male criminal justice majors demonstrate significantly lower variance within scores on both ethical idealism and ethical relativism than do female criminal justice majors and both males and females from the general student population. We discuss the practical and pedagogical implications of ethical ideology for criminal justice education and practice.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

White-collar crime in the criminal justice curriculum

Recognition of the significance of white-collar crime has grown substantially in recent years, but this growth has not been reflected adequately in the field of criminal justice or in the criminal justice curriculum. Through a content analysis of criminal justice and criminology textbooks and program course offerings the authors demonstrate the relative neglect of white-collar crime, and especially its marginal position in the criminal justice curriculum. Some hypothetical reasons for this relative neglect are explored. An argument is made on both theoretical and pragmatic grounds for more sustained and more systematic integration of white-collar crime into the criminal justice curriculum.     

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.     

Team teach with a student: A pilot study in criminal justice

In this study, criminal justice classes were team taught by six pairs of one faculty member and one student teacher. The professor-student teaching teams met together before class to plan and after class to problem solve. The student teachers were charged with helping the professors introduce active learning exercises into their classes. This article reports on survey data from these professors, student teachers and the students they taught, including their views on both the benefits and problems. The article shows professors how to team teach with a student and helps professors who want to try the approach to anticipate and minimize the problems while capitalizing on the benefits.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Curriculum Implications of Anti-Gay Attitudes Among Undergraduate Criminal Justice Majors

To examine attitudes towards gays and lesbians in an undergraduate criminal justice sample and to test previous research suggesting that law enforcement students hold higher levels of homophobia, we surveyed 453 undergraduates. Results indicated higher levels of anti-gay attitudes in criminal justice majors compared to a small sample of non-criminal justice majors and similar levels of anti-gay attitudes between law enforcement and other criminal justice students. Gender, race, religion, gay/lesbian friends, patriarchal attitudes, and completing a social science minor outside of criminal justice were found to be significant predictors of attitudes toward gays and lesbians; while the number of courses in which homosexuality issues were included in discussion was not. These findings are discussed and we offer suggestions for criminal justice curriculum that may assist our students in maintaining and upholding a fair and just criminal justice system.     

Constructing the case study in victimology

This article advocates the use of case studies to illustrate the importance of victimology in the criminal justice curriculum. The case study of a particular victimization introduces emerging issues in criminal justice, and illuminates the responsibility of the criminal justice system to prevent and react to crime. Academic programs are challenged to develop and maintain students' interest in this theoretical framework. Case studies in victimology promote interdisciplinary knowledge, critical thinking and precise writing skills. They also provide students with experience in research, investigation and integration of information.     

Teaching literature in the criminal justice curriculum

This article presents an argument for the integration of literature, especially novels, into the criminal justice curriculum. Included is a discussion of novels and short stories that work well in criminal justice courses. Approaches for integrating literature with traditional empirical and theoretical material are also discussed. Reading and discussing excellent literature can be an effective means to develop a student's sense of empathy and skills of critical thinking. This argument is set in the context of the broader debate of the relationship of criminal justice to the rest of the liberal arts.     

Learning by Doing: Experiential Learning in Criminal Justice

This article highlights the efforts of colleagues in a criminal justice department to offer experiential learning opportunities (ELOs) to undergraduate students. Operating within the framework of a liberal arts curriculum, we provide criminal justice majors with a range of opportunities that fall under the general rubric of “experiential learning”, including the following: internships, field trips, service-learning, and research projects. Our goal was to combine the academic rigors of traditional, classroom-based learning with exposure to hands-on, real-world, subject-based knowledge. We explain the multistage framework that is used to tie all of our ELOs together across the curriculum. Results from a senior and alumni survey indicate that experiential learning offers significant academic and professional benefits for students.