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.     

Service-Learning and Experiential Learning in Criminal Justice Education: An Exploratory Examination of Faculty Perspectives

Scholarship on service-learning and experiential learning consistently demonstrates benefits for students, but little evidence has emerged examining the perspectives of faculty. The current study examines the conflicting perspectives from faculty affiliated with a university undergraduate criminology major that utilizes both experiential learning and service-learning. Focus groups of departmental faculty revealed fears over curriculum rigor, concerns over forming partnerships and investing resources into service-learning and experiential learning activities without university incentives, and recognition of student and department benefits derived from service-learning and experiential learning activities.     

Teaching Cybersecurity to Criminal Justice Majors

Responses to breaches in cybersecurity are increasingly reliant on criminal justice practitioners. However, while the demand for criminal justice participation in cybersecurity increases daily, most universities are lagging in their educational and training opportunities for students entering criminal justice agencies. This paper discusses the need for cybersecurity programs in criminal justice, and examines how the evolution of this “new crime” has become an issue for criminal justice professionals in addition to computer science experts. A review of existing cybersecurity programs in Texas suggests that most four-year universities have yet to develop courses/programs in criminal justice. Course recommendations, sample syllabi for cybersecurity courses in criminal justice, and recommendations for development of these programs are included.     

Bridging the Normative Gap in Graduate Criminal Justice Curricula: Teaching Theories of Justice

Feminist criminology is a vital and growing area of scholarship, but it is not making its way into the classroom. This paper assesses the reasons why such material is not used frequently, makes a case for why it should be used, particularly in a liberal arts curriculum, and offers suggestions for how it can be used.     

Teaching Criminal Justice Online: Current Status and Important Considerations

The most significant change to impact the pedagogy of criminal justice students in recent years has been the development of online classes. Online coursework is now a commonly accepted method of accessing criminal justice students and the sustained growth in online classes is expected to continue in the future. However, there is currently a lack of research that focuses on online classes in criminal justice. In response, we present and assess the modest literature regarding criminal justice online classes and highlight important themes. This leads into a presentation of important considerations along the following pedagogical continuum: Planning the online course (i.e. asynchronous timing, technological developments), implementing the online course (i.e. maintaining an online presence, managing student interactions and expectations), and identifying effective means to measure learning outcomes (i.e. measuring success, quality matters). Policy implications for online coursework that are likely to impact future criminal justice educational practices are then discussed.     

Teaching Law and Courts in Criminal Justice: Outside Looking In*

The law plays an important role in society generally and the criminal justice system in particular. Without the law there would be nothing for the police to enforce and no need for courts to adjudicate offenders and impose criminal sanctions. But while the significance of the law and, by implication the courts wherein the law is enforced, is great, the academic discipline of criminal justice has not given law and courts the attention they deserve, either in the classroom or research. In this essay I lay out the case for why the teaching and study of law and courts is so important to academic criminal justice, and how the discipline has failed its students and the public in the way it deals with the law and courts.     

Conceptualizing Justice: Revising the Introductory Criminal Justice Course*

Criminal justice is often criticized for lacking theoretical grounding. This article argues that the introductory criminal justice course should be reconceptualized in such a way that permits a critical assessment of theoretical bases underlying crime, law and justice. Doing so would better prepare students to understand key questions in the study of criminal justice and would also help give criminal justice greater credibility as a stand‐alone academic discipline. In addition to presenting the benefits of a theory‐driven introductory course, possible content and pedagogy are described.     

论协商性司法中的刑事和解

刑事和解是一种以协商性司法的形式恢复原有社会秩序的纠纷解决方式。刑事和解属于协商性司法程序,与传统的诉讼方式相比,刑事和解是合作性的,它不仅保护了被害人权益,使其在接受犯罪人的道歉和补偿中得到慰藉,还有利于矫正犯罪,使主观过错不大的犯罪人重新融入社会,实现犯罪人的再社会化。刑事和解的内在观念与我国法律观念、刑事诉讼模式以及相关的制度设计存在较大的冲突,这些都是阻碍刑事和解制度在我国发展的因素。只有充分考虑阻碍因素,才可以从正反两方面来把握刑事和解在我国的全貌,这是构建可行的刑事和解模式不可缺少的前提。     

The Great Books in Criminal Justice: As Ranked by Elite Members of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences

Attempts to define the core body of knowledge in criminal justice have provided diverse and disparate explanations of what could be considered as central to the discipline. Previous efforts have focused on frequently cited authors and works, required learning for students and the personal beliefs of individual scholars. The present work adds to this body by examining the works considered by an elite sample of criminal justice educators as classics in the field. Based on a survey of Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Presidents, Fellows and Bruce Smith Award winners the classic books in criminal justice are identified. Results show that a wide range of works and authors is identified, with relatively little consensus either across the sample or with previously identified works and authors. Comparison of presently identified works with those frequently cited and commonly required for doctoral students shows that only a minority of works identified by others are also considered classics by our elite sample.     

论中国刑事司法中的人权保障

在刑事司法中强化人权保障,可以切实贯彻刑法立法所确立的人权保障精神,促进刑法立法不断完善其保障人权的举措。为了在刑事司法活动中贯彻人权保障原则,在宏观上应当树立人权保障理念,遵循和谐统一司法、公正严肃司法的原则,协调好“严打”政策与人权保障的关系,借鉴两极化刑事政策的合理内核;在具体刑事司法活动中,应当严格依法进行司法解释,慎重适用死刑,将死刑核准权收归最高人民法院,依法合理行使法官自由裁量权,正确运用量刑情节;在刑罚执行中应当贯彻人道主义原则,积极稳妥地开展社区矫正,文明地执行死刑。     

论刑事审判中的传媒监督

随着网络技术的飞速发展,传媒监督对我国社会生活产生了重大影响,刑事司法亦不能例外。适度的传媒监督在遏制司法腐败、促进司法公正方面发挥着重要作用,但传媒监督过度介入刑事审判会影响审判之独立、公正及权威。当然,这并不等于说我国的传媒监督已趋成熟,其对刑事审判的监督过度了,相反,我国的传媒监督极不发达,只是由于我国正处于社会转型时期,许多制度不健全、立法存在盲区,规范落实不到位而使然。所以,如何进一步的规范传媒监督进而使其更好的发挥监督作用则至关重要。     

Alumni Research and Criminal Justice

Alumni studies use past graduates of educational programs or institutions to address various types of research aims. While alumni research is common in disciplines such as business, psychology, nursing, and social work, few criminal justice alumni studies have been published in the academic literature. This article reviews the types of alumni studies that are typically conducted, discusses reasons for conducting criminal justice alumni surveys, considers barriers to these surveys, identifies criminal justice‐specific themes that address why alumni studies are rare in the discipline, and suggests strategies for enhancing and expanding this sort of research in the discipline.     

恢复性司法与传统刑事司法的法哲学比较

恢复性司法被认为是一种新型的犯罪处理模式。无论是从构成司法制度基础的假设还是从制度设计所要实现的基本价值分析,恢复性司法都具有与传统刑事司法制度完全迥异的法哲学理念。     

体验式教学在研究生脑卒中教学中的应用

在临床教学中,脑卒中由于其本身的复杂性,导致其临床教学具有相当的难度,教学效果欠佳。而体验式教学通过强化研究生在教学中的角色,突出视听觉在教学中的作用,加强师生沟通,提高了研究生对疾病知识的学习效率,使学生能更全面地掌握脑卒中知识。     

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.     

A Path Worth Taking: The Development of Social Justice in Outdoor Experiential Education

This article examines the influences promoting social justice in the field of outdoor experiential education. The philosophical foundations of outdoor adventure including the work of John Dewey and Kurt Hahn are considered in light of social justice education. The historical evolution of social justice activism within the professional community is analyzed. Other influential trends including the development of outdoor programs sensitive to social justice concerns, the cross fertilization from other related fields, and the demographic and economic imperatives to transform the field are described. The methodological fit between outdoor experiential education and social justice education is the final influence presented. The article concludes that potentials for social justice education within the outdoor experiential education field create an imperative for inclusion.     

抚慰的正义:犯罪被害人导向刑事政策论

刑事政策具有动态性,犯罪被害人值得刑事政策关注.犯罪被害人导向刑事政策内涵是:哲学根基是被害人的主体性存在;主要内容是理性认识和处遇被害人;本质是一种政策衡平;价值意蕴是抚慰的正义观.犯罪被害人导向刑事政策是对传统刑事政策的纠偏和修正,关注被害人并不必然侵害犯罪人利益.     

Criminal Justice Students and Sexual Prejudice

This paper examines sexual prejudice against gays and lesbians by college students. The sample consisted of 325 undergraduate students at a mid-sized Midwestern university. Respondents completed Herek’s Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men scale (short form) to determine levels of sexual prejudice. Comparisons were then made by respondent major to determine whether criminal justice students displayed higher levels of sexual prejudice than other students. Unlike prior research on criminal justice students and sexual prejudice, the criminal justice respondents in this study were not significantly more prejudiced against gays and lesbians. Male and female students scored similarly on their attitudes toward lesbian women, but male students were more likely to have higher levels of prejudice against gay men. Students who had gay friends and/or family members held significantly lower levels of prejudice against both gay men and lesbians than those who had no gay friends or family members.