NCJ Number
72106
Date Published
1977
Length
134 pages
Annotation
A random sample of 225 members of the Minnesota criminal justice system were surveyed to investigate the needs of criminl justice practitioners for higher education curricula and degree programs.
Abstract
The survey explored the knowledge areas that were perceived as essential in order to develop a comprehensive curriculum for undergraduate criminal justice education. The survey findings disproved the hypothesized common needs of police, court, and correctional personnel, and indicated the impossibility of developing a generalist criminal justice degree program that could answer the educational needs of all three criminal justice system components. In addition, the agencies in which the respondents were employed played a larger role in shaping their educational objectives than age, previous education, and tenure. Analysis also showed that the existing criminal justice educational program in Minnesota was perceived as lacking in comprehensive planning. Based on the survey findings, a move toward specific curricula, instead of toward generalist programs, is recommended. Expansion and refinement of the use of task analysis and subject specialists as a viable method for criminal justice curriculum development is also recommended. Statewide coordination and planning for criminal justice education are needed to provide better developed programs and a wide range of options for students. A review of the current literature relevant to this research and numerous tables and graphs are included in the text. An appendix gives the survey instrument (questionnaire) and a bibliography with 48 references is appended.