“Deaths in Prison Custody” Capstone Course: Engaging Final-Year Law Students In Service Learning and Public Value

Capstone service learning courses are designed to overcome the negative effects of fractioned knowledge by enabling students to consolidate and apply what they have learned over a program of study. They also promote a scholarship of engagement. This article documents the learning experiences of students on a Deaths in Prison Custody capstone service learning course. Though such a criminal justice course requires significant staff input and involves some loss of educational control, it has many benefits including enhanced learning, meaningful service, public value, and civic engagement. The focus on this article is on student learning experiences. It outlines how the pragmatic focus of such a course made knowledge and student learning relevant and actionable. It also describes how the deliberately unstructured design of the course, together with its emphasis on pubic value, encouraged autonomous and self-directed learning, prompting the students to take greater ownership of their learning.     

The Importance of Discussing Crime Victimization in Criminal Justice Courses: An Empirical Assessment of a New Curriculum to Enhance Student learning

Victimization and the costs of crime sometimes can be an afterthought in courses on crime and criminal justice, which often are focused on offenders. However, shifting attention to victims of crime potentially motivates students to better understand the causes and consequences of criminal victimization, thereby improving the learning of course concepts and producing better-prepared criminal justice practitioners. A new curriculum kit on understanding crime victims was implemented in two of three sections of a criminological theory course, with the third section acting as a control group having a unit on “offenders” instead of “victims.” In short, the kit did improve student knowledge of crime victimization, but so did a lecture on offenders. Interestingly, students exposed to the kit coupled with a service learning component continued to improve knowledge of crime victimization throughout the course, while the control group did not. Implications are discussed.     

Service-Learning: Implications for the Academic,Personal, and Professional Development of Criminal Justice Majors

An exploratory senior and alumni survey was administered to better assess the experiential learning opportunities, including Service-Learning, offered to students in a criminal justice department. This article highlights the academic, personal and professional development of students, based on the perception of criminal justice majors in the department who completed a Service-Learning course. Educators continue to assess the academic outcomes for students and the benefits to the community. What may be less appreciated is how Service-Learning can also benefit students in their professional skills development. This article illustrates these potential benefits, and also discusses why Service-Learning courses are a critical part of development for criminal justice majors.     

Engaging Criminal Justice Students through Service Learning

The increasing popularity of service learning has led to the implementation of the pedagogy across educational levels and disciplines. Evidence of its utilization in criminal justice education spans two decades, most of which include case studies of service-learning courses or projects. These examples of service-learning implementation seem to serve as a best practices guide for other faculty and researchers interested in adopting the pedagogy. By examining responses to offender populations and policy areas by students (n = 37) involved in a service-learning course, the current research adds to this “best practices” approach and is intended to instigate further examination of the benefits of service learning for criminal justice students and the discipline.     

Thinking About Thinking in Criminal Justice Education

Metacognitive learning techniques encourage students to engage course material in such a way that facilitates learning, retention, and application of information gained from a course. While metacognition has begun to be widely used in higher education, little is known about its applicability to criminal justice education. Using a sample of undergraduate students from core criminal justice major courses, this study assesses the impact of metacognitive exercises on learning for criminal justice majors. Specifically, we compared the effect of implementing metacognitive activities on objective and subjective measures of student learning. The results of our evaluation revealed that metacognitive learning techniques were found to have varied objective effectiveness while simultaneously having consistent subjective effectiveness.     

Moral Dilemmas and Worst-Case Scenarios: Using Post-Apocalyptic Fiction to Teach Criminal Justice Ethics

Criminal justice courses offer ideal opportunities to present students with contemporary issues that ideally will encourage reflection on moral dilemmas. In a criminal justice ethics course, students encounter complex aspects of the topic, such as the application of theories of ethical reasoning beyond merely an understanding of the malfeasance, nonfeasance, and misfeasance of practitioners in the system. A supplemental book, whether fiction or nonfiction, assigned in addition to a criminal justice ethics textbook may facilitate deeper understanding of theories of ethics. The ideal supplemental reading should reflect the range of ethical theories detailed in the main text. In the present article, the authors discuss and evaluate the use of post-apocalyptic fiction, a popular contemporary genre, as supplemental reading in criminal justice ethics courses. A sample criminal justice ethics course writing assignment, a grading rubric, and a discussion of the multiple assessment measures are provided. Assessment results suggest that the supplemental reading helps students meet the course learning objective, which requires students to identify and apply theoretical models of ethics to specific ethical and moral situations.     

Revictimization Through Education: Does Learning About Victimization Lead to Anxiety and Identification as a Victim Among College Students?

Researchers generally accept that victims may experience revictimization in the criminal justice system when they relive victimization experiences while recounting the victimization to criminal justice officials. In addition, scholars have drawn attention to the need to be sensitive in victimology courses and other courses focusing on victimization. In this study, the authors examine whether victims experience forms of revictimization when learning about victimization in college courses. Attention is also given to whether learning about victimization promotes self-identification as a victim. Our findings suggest that minor forms of revictimization may occur. A sizeable portion of the students reported learning that they were victimized in the past as a result of the course material. Implications for teaching victimology are provided.     

Exploring the impact of correctional facility tours on the perceptions of undergraduate criminal justice students

Students’ negative perceptions of inmates are a challenging aspect of teaching criminal justice. Scholars suggest exposing students to the criminal justice system may provide a realistic approach to understanding offenders. Prison tours have become a viable solution for instructors who want to create such exposure, but contrasting perspectives on the impact of prison tours on students’ learning are present in research. Drawing upon theories of experiential learning, we designed a pre-/post-survey to address the following exploratory questions: (1) What perceptions do criminal justice students hold regarding corrections, inmates, and correctional officers? (2) Do these perceptions change after going on a tour of a correctional facility? Data were collected from a convenience sample of 123 students attending courses at two Midwestern universities. Findings add to the body of literature on prison tours as a component of criminal justice education and further our understanding of the complexity of student learning.     

Freshman interest groups in criminal justice education

Freshman group programs have been promoted by many institutions of higher learning. However, few empirical evaluations of such programs have been reported in the scholarly literature, and none have focused on programs in criminal justice education. Subjects in this study included 130 students enrolled in an introductory criminal justice course at one institution, a portion of which (32 students) were also enrolled in sections of a group program called Freshman Interest Groups. Results showed that students enrolled in this program did better in the course than their freshmen peers and upper-class students, which analyses showed was largely due to higher attendance.     

Perfecting Lessons Learned for Criminal Justice Online Graduate Education: Reflection,Integration, and Application

Criminal justice programs are seeing an increase in the number of online classes both at the graduate and undergraduate levels. At the graduate level, criminal justice online education requires students to achieve mastery of higher ordered thinking and advanced analytic skills. Some students may believe that online education is simply a matter of reading postings and writing simple responses to queries. In order to counter the view that modern online courses, particularly those at the graduate level, are not academic enough, online graduate faculty must find ways to engage students through useful course design and meaningful assessments that promote deep learning. Such engagement requires faculty and students to show reflection in design as well as the integration and application of course materials in a consistent and significant way. This paper will discuss our attempts to reframe graduate criminal justice online classes in order to enhance student engagement and, ultimately, their deeper learning.     

Promoting the Study of Wrongful Convictions in Criminal Justice Curricula

Criminal justice education promotes interdisciplinary learning, critical thinking skills, and ethical decision making. A course on wrongful convictions falls squarely within that paradigm, as it draws upon criminology, criminal justice, law, psychology, and forensic science to examine basic assumptions about the criminal justice system and the actors within it. In a wrongful convictions course, students learn to think critically about the criminal justice system, and what happens when it fails to function as it should. Students identify practice and policy reforms that improve the accuracy and reliability of the system. This article first considers the broad objectives of criminal justice education. It next situates the subject of wrongful convictions squarely within criminal justice education curricula. Finally, this article provides a comprehensive overview of an effective undergraduate course in wrongful convictions. It sets out clear goals, learning units, and potential resources for members of the academy who might be interested in developing such a course.     

Student Learning Groups: Does Group Composition Matter?

There has been a shift in university teaching over the past decades to emphasize student achievement and persistence through high-impact practices and collaborative learning. While research supports the efficacy of these pedagogical strategies, it can be difficult to implement them on large campuses. Yet, many criminal justice professors assign students to work in small groups. This study, conducted at a university with a large underrepresented student population, found that the composition of student groups in one criminal justice class can affect the perceived benefits students receive in that class, in other classes, and in general. We found that students placed in a small group with classmates who shared some criminal justice classes reported more student-initiated collaborative learning, expanded support networks, and improved grades in shared courses compared to students in small groups with classmates who shared no classes. This simple intervention has the potential to mimic learning-communities with similar benefits.     

Foreign languages across the curriculum: A model for the delivery of professional language training

In 1995, Boise State University undertook an interdisciplinary languages program under a FLAC (Foreign Languages Across the Curriculum) grant sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. Coordinated through the Department of Modern Languages, the program utilized non-foreign language faculty across the colleges of the campus who were fluent in a foreign language. FLAC courses were conceptualized and designed as “trailer” courses, in which a class offering one unit of instruction in Spanish was attached to an existing course in each department's curriculum. At Boise State, FLAC was extended for the first time to criminal justice. This paper discusses the FLAC program nationally and the FLAC program at Boise State with a focus on the criminal justice department. Positive outcomes and institutional problems in sustaining the program are described.     

Developing an online justice studies degree program: A case study

Online technology allows higher education to reach additional students. Because of its convenience many universities will offer a variety of criminology and criminal justice courses online. This paper presents a case study of the transfer of a graduate justice studies degree program from traditional instruction to online delivery. The transformation must involve the coordination of several university departments. Online course instruction includes development, instruction, and assessment stages that are distinct from traditional courses. The lessons learned from this process are discussed.     

Teaching an Innocence Case Review Course to Undergraduate Students

After two years of experience in overseeing groups of undergraduate and graduate criminal justice students in an Innocence Case Review course at the University of Central Missouri (UCM), the authors reviewed the structure of the course and the attitudes of the participating students. An examination of Innocence Case Review current procedures in undergraduate institutions and law schools provides background for course design. This article summarizes the findings of the students’ experiences, reactions, and attitudes of their yearlong case screening efforts, and to the criminal justice system in general. The first part of this article examines the literature on innocence case review classes at both undergraduate institutions and law schools exploring different learning styles and strategies inherent in this type of class. It also explores the skills necessary for case review, and the skills students can take to other classes and professions. The second part reviews the structure of our courses as initially created and implemented for the last two academic years at UCM and the modifications the instructors felt necessary for the future. The third part examines the survey conducted by the UCM’s Innocence Case Review class, including student suggestions for class improvements and advice to students selected for the new academic year. The benefits and abilities gained by the students through this course become apparent. The fourth part discusses and evaluates the current class structure and reforms suggested by the UCM students, the professors’ experience, and as indicated by other universities. The conclusion reviews findings gathered from the current course as well as examining other universities’ courses, and the value students experience from participating in this experiential or engaged learning.     

The Comparative Impacts of Social Justice Educational Methods on Political Participation,Civic Engagement,and Multicultural Activism

This cross-sectional, repeated measures, quasi-experimental study evaluates changes in college students’ commitment toward, and confidence in, political participation, civic engagement, and multicultural activism. Our sample (n = 653) consisted of college students in a Midwestern university who participated in one of three social justice education course types (service learning, intergroup dialogue, or lecture-based diversity classes) or in an “introduction to psychology” course (the non-intervention group). After completion of a social justice education course, students reported an increase in political participation and multicultural activism, whereas students enrolled in the non-intervention group reported no changes in these measures. Service learning course participants started and ended their course with the highest reported levels of political participation, civic engagement, and multicultural activism but did not demonstrate an increase in any of the three outcomes. Intergroup dialogue participants demonstrated increases in all three outcomes, while participants of lecture-based classes focusing on social justice issues demonstrated increases in political participation and multicultural activism, but not civic engagement. Our findings suggest that participation in social justice education courses is associated with increases in political participation and multicultural activism.     

Chris Dede's response

Abstract

The Division of Criminal Justice at the Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) offers an entire criminal justice degree program via distance learning, principally through computer‐based Internet courses. During the Spring 1998 semester, an Internet tutorial was provided during the first week of classes to students in all Internet courses in the program. Its purpose was to familiarize students with basic computer skills and Internet usage. This article focuses on the use of the Internet tutorial in Web‐based courses, including an explanation of the tutorial, a discussion of its benefits for students and faculty, and implications for future computer‐based Internet courses.     

Supplementing the ‘College Experience’ with Program-Based Learning Communities

ABSTRACT

The objective of this study was to examine the benefits of a learning community created for first-year students enrolled in a criminal justice degree program at an urban community college in the Northeast. Quantitative and qualitative survey data were collected from three cohorts of students in the program-based learning community. Survey questions examined students’ satisfaction with the learning community structure and their perceptions of social networking and academic skills gained from participation in the learning community. Quantitative data from the college’s records were used to compare the academic progress and retention of criminal justice students in the program-based learning to other first-year criminal justice students. Our findings indicate that participants had positive experiences in the learning community reporting satisfaction with the learning community structure and significant social networking and academic benefits from their participation in the learning community. Findings also indicated that program-based learning community students exhibited greater academic progress and were retained at higher rates than other first-year criminal justice students. This study substantiates the positive impact of program-based learning communities on students’ satisfaction, their academic success toward degree completion, and retention.     

The application of cognitive learning theory to criminal justice education

Most criminal justice programs began as extensions of vocational technical training courses, but within the last decade they have begun to parallel the liberal arts programs originally proposed. As a result of this reorientation, criminal justice instructors lack many of the instructional methods used by colleagues in other fields. In addition, the dual nature of criminal justice instruction, requiring both experience and theory, places demands on criminal justice instructors that their colleagues may not experience. The field needs an instructional approach that blends the best of the vocational aspects and the theoretical underpinnings. This paper reviews cognitive learning theory, specifically Kolb's experiential learning model. Recommendations are offered for the application of this model to instruction in criminal justice courses.