NCJ Number
75848
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 8 Issue: 5 Dated: (1980) Pages: 287-298
Date Published
1981
Length
12 pages
Annotation
The most current research on criminal justice education is reviewed, some of the more important findings are compared, and areas needing additional research--particularly on criminal justice students--are noted.
Abstract
The most recent basic research on the primary components of criminal justice education in the U.S. come from four interrelated sources: 1) the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 2) the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, 3) the Joint Commission on Criminology and Criminal Justice Education and Standards, and 4) the National Advisory Commission on Higher Education for Police. The work of these institutions and commissions is intimately connected. An analysis of salient findings shows that in 1977, 1,012 criminal justice programs were identified at U.S. schools, with police degree programs predominant and concentrated in 2-year rather than 4-year universities. Research on the faculty of criminal justice programs shows that criminal justice is at parity with the professoriates of other academic areas, with the possible exception that a higher percentage of its faculty possess no graduate degree. The continued prevalence of agency experience, particularly at the community college level, is also indicated by research findings. Relatively modest differences in the amount of time that faculty at 4-year and 2-year institutions give to teaching contrasts with the much greater emphasis given research at 4-year and graduate schools. Curriculum orientation is characterized as more 'vocational-technical' for police programs and more 'humanistic-social' for courts and corrections training. An examination of current studies on criminal justice students reveals only scattered bits of information, such as the predominance of preservice rather than inservice students, and the distribution of students among criminal justice college and university programs. It is concluded that future research on criminal justice programs should focus upon three areas: a more indepth examination of criminal justice faculties, a greater focus upon the criminal justice student, and a more intense scrutiny of the underlying social, institutional, and organizational conditions of criminal justice education. Fourteen references are provided.