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.     

Exploring the beliefs surrounding student evaluations of instruction in criminology and criminal justice undergraduate courses

Student evaluations of instructors are given consideration in a number of important decisions concerning instructors such as hiring, merit pay, and in the tenure and promotion process. However, a number of popular beliefs surround the interpretation of these evaluations. Using student evaluations for the three research-oriented universities in the state of Florida as a database, a number of these beliefs are explored. Specifically, the effects of instructor attributes (such as gender, rank and grades) and course characteristics (such as class size, type, number of course meetings, and time of day offered) on the end of the semester student evaluation rankings are discussed.     

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.     

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.     

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 perceptions of first-year undergraduate Malawian students of the essay writing process

Abstract

A good command of written English is essential for tertiary students in Malawi. Notably, their academic success is largely dependent on their mastery of the written language but, in addition, recent years have seen more employers in Malawi emphasising the need for excellent communication skills in both the national language (Chichewa) and English. This article analyses Malawian first-year undergraduate perceptions of the essay writing process. A study in which 200 students from the faculties of Humanities and Social Sciences were surveyed was carried out at the University of Malawi's Chancellor College in 2006. The results indicate that students find it very challenging to obtain sufficient and relevant source text information, paraphrase or summarise information, and use an appropriate academic writing style. It appears that essay writing is challenging for first-year undergraduates — partly due to lack of thorough and timely training in essay writing.     

Competencies and interest in a problem-focused undergraduate research methods criminal justice course: Two assessments

This study reports on two efforts, in a problem-centered undergraduate criminal justice research methods course, to gauge students' skills in understanding graphical data display and quasi-experimental designs. The problems addressed were drunk driving and handguns. Results show a moderate level of skill by students at course conclusion, but the weak quasi-experimental design precludes confirming the skills were acquired because of the course itself. Students did, however, report increased interest in the two problems because of course coverage. The approach described here may help bridge the gap between skill vs. content vs. process centered views on criminal justice as a liberal arts major.     

Planning and implementing a criminal justice course with university students and youthful offenders

During Fall 1999, the Law and Justice Studies Department at Rowan University, in collaboration with New Jersey's Juvenile Justice Commission, brought together 12 students and 12 incarcerated youth for a semester long course on Restorative Justice. This paper presents the planning, implementation and outcomes assessment of the course. While service learning programs within criminal justice departments are fairly widespread, this collaborative effort is unique in that the youth attend the course on campus and are treated, for all intents and purposes, as college students. The course was developed primarily as a way for the youth to experience college. It was intended to demonstrate to the youth that college is something that is within their grasp and that they could fit in with college students. We also hoped the course would benefit the college students' critical thinking skills, tolerance levels and overall educational experience. The outcomes assessment shows that the course was successful in achieving the goals set forth for the students and the youth. The process analysis demonstrates the many successes and difficulties that arose during the planning and implementation of the course.     

Deferred creativity: Exploring the impact of an undergraduate learning experience on professional practice

This paper explores the impact of an art-based learning experience on former Education students' professional practice. Feedback from trainee teachers indicated that the true value of the creative process was only realised after they had graduated – what I have come to term ‘deferred creativity’. The findings suggest that focusing on the development of their own creative characteristics, skills and attitudes helped students to become more creative practitioners. By drawing on the reflections of our alumni, we can help future students to develop the key creative competencies and skills required for 21st century life.     

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.     

Regular class teachers' perceptions of transition programs for EMR students and their impact on the students

This study was designed to obtain the perceptions of regular class teachers who taught children who had been in EMR programs, but had been decertified (D) and returned to regular classes in response to court cases and recent legislation. A cohort of regular class (RC) students were selected for comparative purposes. It was found that D students were placed into low ability classes; yet, teachers perceived D subjects to be significantly lower than RC students in both academic achievement and social acceptance. Only a small proportion of teachers indicated that the enrollment of D students had much impact on the regular class instructional program. However, the teachers were rather critical of the services received under the auspices of a transitional program, indicating in large part that the services were either not apparent or ineffective.     

Liberal education and the criminal justice major

New perspectives on the impact of college on students, on linking general education, the major, electives and extra-classroom experiences toward the goal of “integrated learning,” and renewed emphasis on the importance of producing liberally educated college graduates, present opportunities for criminal justice educators to make their field a keystone in the architecture of a liberal education. In this essay, I argue that the multidisciplinary perspectives that characterize the field of criminal justice, as well as its core intellectual concerns, make criminal justice well-suited to serve as the infrastructure for a high-quality undergraduate liberal education program.     

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.     

Understanding the power of social contexts on criminal justice institutions

I am truly very grateful to the Academy, the Awards Committee, and those that nominated me for the Bruce Smith Senior Award. I recently learned that Mr. Smith was a leading national expert on policing from the 1930s to the 1950s. He dedicated his career to solving the problems of political patronage, payoffs, brutality and inefficiency in policing. He bridged the gap between academia and practice. I have tried to do the same but not with the same success as Mr. Smith. I am, however, firmly committed to bridging the gap between research and practice to improve performance.     

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.     

SPSS vs. excel: Computing software,criminal justice students,and statistics

This study examines the impact of two different types of statistical software on student knowledge and perceptions of statistics. Students enrolled in a summer session introductory statistics class were randomly assigned to either Excel or SPSS. Weekly lab sessions were conducted providing instruction in statistical calculations using Excel and SPSS. The groups were then compared on two levels of knowledge: conceptual and computational. An additional comparison was made in relation to students' perceptions of their understanding of statistics. Results showed Excel students scored higher on both measures of knowledge and had higher ratings of statistical understanding compared to SPSS students.     

我国知识产权犯罪体系的反思与重构

知识产权的私权属性是确立知识产权刑法保护的基础及出发点。刑法典将知识产权犯罪归类为破坏社会主义市场经济秩序罪,表现出在知识产权刑法保护方面的国家本位、社会本位价值理念,这与知识产权属于私权不相协调。因此,应以私权本位为价值追求,重构知识产权犯罪体系,将知识产权犯罪从破坏社会主义市场经济秩序罪中分离出来,作为单独一类犯罪进行规定。这不仅彰显了知识产权的私权属性,同时使我国的犯罪分类体系更具合理性。