Survey of Criminal Justice Ethics Education: A Research Report (From Teaching Criminal Justice Ethics: Strategic Issues, P 203-216, 1996, John Kleinig and Margaret Leland Smith, eds.)

• NCJ Number: 170186
• Author(s): M L Smith
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 14 pages
• Sale Source: Anderson Publishing Co
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Paper presented at a workshop on criminal justice ethics education held June 6-8, 1996, at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York.

Annotation

A 1995 survey examined the distribution and orientation of ethics courses in criminal justice programs as well as the prospects and problems of such courses.

Abstract

A two-part questionnaire, the Survey of Criminal Justice Ethics Education, was mailed to 528 baccalaureate-granting colleges and universities in the United States that offer a major in criminal justice or criminology. A total of 203 institutions returned their surveys, and a random sample of 52 nonresponding programs were surveyed by telephone in early 1996. The survey asked about the institutional framework for the study of criminal justice and the inclusion of courses specific to or related to ethical issues in criminal justice. It also requested an assessment of those courses. The survey found that 45 percent of the responding programs had a course on ethical issues in criminal justice. Such a course was required in 19 percent of undergraduate programs and in 15 percent of graduate programs. Of the 340 programs surveyed, 181 were administered by departments of criminal justice or justice studies, and 159 were administered by social or behavioral science departments. Criminal justice departments were almost twice as likely as social science departments to offer a course exclusively devoted to criminal justice ethics or to require such a course. Of the problems reported, the availability of materials was most frequently mentioned, followed by focus (practical versus philosophical), course content, finding instructors, student dissatisfaction, and course evaluation. The most frequently noted general substantive issues for an ethics course were social inequalities/unequal access to justice; corruption, bribery, and influence peddling; the integrity of evidence; plea bargaining; the use of force, weapons, and coercion; the death penalty; and ethical responsibility and the "rule of law." 5 figures, appended questionnaire, and 11 notes