Nonresidential criminal justice graduate degree programs

Nonresidential criminal justice graduate degree programs were recognized as significant elements within the contemporary educational scene. The structure, nature, and extent of such programs, as reflected in the professional literature, were reviewed. A survey of the state level governing bodies in the United States was reported, as was a case study of one state's evaluation of an out-of-state graduate degree program in criminal justice, operating without license within the host state. These were used as vehicles for a consideration of the issues important to the consumer of nonresidential graduate degree programs. It was concluded that innovative educational methods and structures are desirable, but that some nonresidential programs have been inadequate academically, and the danger exists that such programs may undermine criminal justice education and defraud the criminal justice students. Criminal justice scholars were encouraged to require rigorous standards for such programs.     

Productivity ratings of graduate programs in criminal justice based on publication in ten critical journals

This article examines scholarly productivity among faculty members of graduate programs in criminal justice. Studies of scholarly productivity in other disciplines have frequently appeared in the literature. Cartter's early work on “prestige levels” was cited as being the forerunner in this respect. The authors obtained rankings of the “ten most critical” journals from graduate criminal justice program directors. After the list of journals was compiled, these journals were searched for the most recent five-year period. Articles published by full-time faculty members at fifty-two institutions were included in the study. In addition to total productivity, data on productivity adjusted for faculty size was also presented. Problems and controversy associated with this type of work are cited by the authors.     

Institutional affiliation of authors in selected criminal justice journals

Publication in professional journals provides both individual and institutional rewards, contributing to the prestige of authors and of colleges and universities with which they are affiliated. Faculty publications are often regarded as important factors in the creation and maintenance of institutional prestige. A survey of six criminal justice journals revealed that the majority of institutions with recognized criminal justice doctoral programs were represented by faculty publications. On the other hand, the list of academic institutions with which published authors were affiliated included many institutions without criminal justice doctoral programs. The data also revealed that slightly over one-quarter of the published material in the selected list of journals had been authored by individuals not affiliated with academic institutions.     

Publication productivity of criminal justice faculty in criminal justice journals

An important dimension of university faculty life is publication expectation. Often the level of publication productivity is used to assess general program prestige or to evaluate individual faculty performance. The publication rates of faculty in PhD and master-level programs have been unclear. This study examined the publication rates using a general list of criminal justice journals, and a select list of the leading journals, over a five-year period. The faculty members were located in criminal justice programs that granted PhD and master degrees. Publication productivity rates were established for the two different degree level programs, and the institutions with the strongest publication rates were identified. Publication rates are only one factor used in the assessment of program quality and the relationship of publication rates to other program features is discussed.     

Education as a component of law enforcement professionalism: the concept and its measurement

The. lack of empirical studies of education as a structural variable. within theoretical modelt, of professionalization was disucssed. Also, a scale. designed to measure. education, as a camponent of the. concept of low enforcement as a. profoession was developed. lnterpreted as valid and reliable, the scale. was employed in a survey of North Carolina law enforcement personnel. Although it was concluded that many law enforcement personnel did not identify education as an element of the concept of law enforcement as a profassion, a minority strongly endorsed education. Law enforcement. personnekl overwhelmingly phefered criminal justice. curricula over those. of other disciplines, and many anticipated participation in criminal justice educational programs. It was concluded the conceptualization of education as, a component of law enforcement as a profession was, emerging. However, such conceptualieation was not felt to be pervasive within the law enforcement community.     

Of Athenians and Spartans: Profiles of freedom and enlightenment in the leadership styles of criminal justice academic administrators: An essay

This essay examines the dubious relationship between the quality of criminal justice education and the kind of treatment faculty members and students receive from their academic administrators. It is based on three premises: criminal justice colleges and departments should be held to higher rational and moral standards not because they are qualitatively different from other liberal arts departments, but because they teach justice; if the virtues of criminal justice are worth teaching, then criminal justice faculty members and students should be treated in a manner consistent with these virtues; and treating criminal justice faculty members and students unfairly, disrespectfully, or irresponsibly makes them unable or disinterested in endorsing the noble nature of criminal justice. This article categorizes academic administrators as either Athenians or Spartans. The former are best suited intellectually and temperamentally to administer because they possess a talent for reasoning and act in good faith. The latter are unsuited because, regardless of how well they mask it, they practice domination, deception, favoritism, and indignity.This essay is a theoretical discourse based on the contiguity of modalities, experiences, and impressions generally shared by criminal justice educators and graduate students. Its logic is Humeian and its method is broadly ethnographic.     

Criminal Justice Education and Training in North Carolina: History and Development from 1920 to 1980

This paper examines and analyzes primary and secondary data relative to the history and development of criminal justice education and training in North Carolina for six decades. Emphasis is focused on the early attempts to provide education and training for criminal justice personnel from 1920 to 1940, the expansion and improvement in criminal justice education and training from 1940 to 1960, and the establishment of criminal justice education and training programs in two-year community colleges and technical institutes and four-year senior public and private postsecondary education institutions from 1960 to 1980. In addition to discussing the similarities and differences in the methods utilized by institutions to establish criminal justice education and training programs, this paper discusses the curricula, course offerings, and characteristics of the faculties, as well as internal and external conditions, forces, and factors that influenced the history and development of education and training programs for criminal justice personnel. As a result of the impact of these and various influences from within police departments and individual institutions, educational and governmental state agencies, and from demands and needs of criminal justice personnel and society for better protection and safety, criminal justice education and training programs were in force at 15 two-year community colleges, 30 two-year technical institutes, 10 four-year senior, public institutions, and eight four-year, senior, private institutions in North Carolina in 1978.     

PRESTIGE OF JOURNALS IN CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE

The prestige of professional journals is an important element in the academic world because of the relationship of journal prestige to the careers of individuals and to the reputations of academic institutions. This study investigates the system of journal prestige in the field of criminology and criminal justice, using the ratings of professional journals obtained from a sample of respondents who are members of professional associations in criminology and criminal justice. The results show that there is a relatively high degree of agreement about the relative prestige of journals in the field, despite the fact that criminology and criminal justice is a multidisciplinary field involving professionals from a wide variety of occupational settings.     

Assessing the prestige of journals in criminal justice: A research note

This study extends earlier periodical prestige research by determining journal prestige for three criminal justice membership categories and reexamines the emergent rankings, controlling for a potentially salient variable—previous journal publication. Data for the project were derived from questionnaire responses of 1,028 criminal justice educators who were members of either the American Society of Criminology, Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, or both associations, via a three-wave mail survey. Generally, the findings demonstrated conflicting or competing professional ideologies operating in assessments of the relative importance of criminal justice publications. Particularly, respondents' subjective evaluations established two relatively divergent stratification systems of journal prestige.     

The quality of doctoral programs in deviance,criminology, and criminal justice: An empirical assessment

While information regarding the doctoral programs in any discipline is of obvious and considerable relevance both to those in the discipline and to those seeking access to the best possible sites for graduate training, our knowledge about the quality of doctoral programs continues to be based on little more than speculation and highly ambiguous measures of institutional or departmental prestige. This study attempts to fill this gap for those who have special interests in the related fields of deviance, criminology, and criminal justice by ranking the thirty-six most significant doctoral programs in the nation by means of data derived from the Social Science Citation Index. Perhaps the most striking of our findings—and certainly to us the most distressing finding—is that those departments ranked by our measures as being the highest quality are consistently those which exist within the broader structure of departments of sociology. Given our firm conviction that the discipline of criminology is far, far more than that aspect of it which is closely related to issues of substantive significance to the field of sociology, we can only speculate that those in leadership positions in the growing number of independent schools or departments of criminology or criminal justice are not meeting their obligations to the discipline whose vitality and prospects depend so heavily on the quality of their judgment.     

An assessment of the relative impact of criminal justice and criminology journals

The current study was undertaken to provide an impact assessment of criminal justice and criminology journals as an alternative measure to the prestige survey ratings reported by Sorensen, Snell, and Rodriguez (2006). Citations to sixty-seven target journals were tallied from ten top criminal justice and criminology journals. Various impact measures were fairly consistent with one another and the prestige survey ratings, particularly for a “top tier” of journals. With a couple of notable exceptions, a long-standing core of these elite journals has held their relative positions from early impact studies relying on data from the 1970s and 1980s; nevertheless, significant deviations were noted based on the measurement utilized for all but the top journals. Findings from the current study suggested that the quality of journals is multifaceted and warns against employing a scale based on one dimension of journal quality.     

Assessing the effects of LEAA demise on criminal justice higher education

The historical growth of criminal justice education programs can be directly related to the creation of LEAA and the education incentive program, LEEP. With the demise of LEAA and federal funding, there is the natural question of what effect, if any, this lack of financial support might have on criminal justice education programs. A stratified sample of 125 colleges and universities having such programs was surveyed to determine possible effects in student enrollments, characteristics, research funding, and other perceived changes. The data illustrate that changes in student characteristics appeared to be more significant in relation to enrollment changes than did LEAA/LEEP withdrawal. Program increases have been generally related to increases in full-time, preservice students and larger numbers of minorities and females. Programs which relied heavily on part-time, in-service students declined the most in enrollments. Colleges and universities with growing graduate programs experienced growth in bachelor and associate degrees as well. The demise of LEAA funding appears to have negatively affected most dramatically technical type programs which attracted large numbers of in-service, male, part-time students. Those which broadened their student characteristics appear to have been less affected.     

Meeting in the Middle: A Review of Joint JD/PhD Programs

In recent years there has been a vigorous debate in the discipline of criminology and criminal justice, concerning the role of faculty members in Criminology and Criminal Justice departments who hold a Juris Doctorate (JD), but lack a PhD. Some argue that faculty members with a JD possess sufficient credentials to be tenure-track faculty members within a department; however, others believe that a tenure-track faculty member within a department should hold a PhD. Two primary arguments in the debate concern the discrepancies in the hour requirements for degree certification, as well as the dissertation requirement for completion of a PhD. Although it seems both sides are entrenched in their respective beliefs, one plausible method of attempting to bridge this gap is to encourage interested students to enroll in joint JD/PhD programs. These programs are designed to overlap degree requirements and allow students to concurrently earn both degrees in a shorter period of time than if both degrees were earned separately. To analyze JD/PhD programs, a survey of the 201 American Bar Association (ABA) accredited law schools with joint degree programs within criminology and criminal justice (as well as other academic disciplines) was conducted. Of specific interest was the process of program integration and combined curriculum requirements.     

We [Should] Take Care of Our Own: The Role of Law and Lawyers in Criminal Justice and Criminology Programs

Law-related courses, and more broadly the place of the law and lawyers in criminal justice programs, are the focus of this paper. I believe that the importance of the law, the study of legal issues, and the way in which the law is taught in criminal justice programs is in need of significant refinement. We need more law-related courses in the curriculum, at both the undergraduate and graduate level, more PhDs with an understanding of the law, and more legal research done by criminal justice scholars. In the pages that follow, I make the case for changing how we approach the study of law in criminal justice undergraduate and graduate programs.     

Criminal justice/criminology journal rankings: ASC versus ACJS

This note analyzes the perceived prestige rankings of selected criminal justice/criminology journals comparing samples from the American Society of Criminology (ASC) and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS). The results indicate that inter- and intrasample comparisons show little agreement with regard to the rankings along both quality and consistency dimensions. However, a closer analysis shows that no significant differences were found between the journal mean weights assigned by members of ASC and ACJS. It is argued that research into journal prestige is important for researchers/authors, editors, and publishers of journals, as well as the consumers of journals.     

Sacje’s role and function: A membership survey

The Southern Association of Criminal Justice Educators (SACJE) is a regional professional organization which was developed to improve professionalism in criminal justice. In recent years the organization seemed to loose its focus and was having membership and budgetary problems. The authors, in an attempt to understand the feelings of members and former members, surveyed current and prior members of SACJE. The results of the survey are presented with recommendations for action by the SACJE Executive Board. Several areas of consensus were evident. The membership wants SACJE to continue to exist. The role of the organization is to promote better criminal justice education and to disseminate new criminal justice information. The membership wants annual meetings and the Southern Journal of Criminal Justice published twice yearly. They also want voting by mail on all major issues and elections. All other voting should be conducted at a business meeting on the second day of a three day annual meeting.     

Criminal justice faculty and criminal justice students: A case for the missing data

This article reviews the most current criminal justice education research. It examines the interrelationship between the work of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, the Joint Commission on Criminology and Criminal Justice Education and Standards, and the National Advisory Commission on Higher Education for Police, and describes and compares some of their more important findings. Discussed are types of criminal justice programs; characteristics of criminal justice faculty, particularly in terms of earned academic degrees; agency work experience; commitment to research and teaching; types of criminal justice curricula, as typified by certain educational philosophies; and criminal justice students. Although this article notes several areas with which future research might become fruitfully involved, the area in need of most immediate attention, and the area that current research has all but ignored, is the criminal justice student.     

RESPONDING TO THE "CALL FOR PAPERS": Participation at A.S.C. Annual Meetings

The purpose of this study is to examine the participation of criminology and criminal justice graduate departments at the 1977-1979 American Society of Criminology meetings. Results show that institutional prestige. not productivity, is the leading predictor of meeting participation. In addition, meeting participation does not appear to be influenced by meeting site. Finally, it is suggested that criminologists focus more attention upon professional activities in order to facilitate our understanding of criminology as a science.     

Cross-cultural research and the role of anthropology in criminal justice

This study involves the application of traditional perspectives from anthropology to an examination of criminal justice research. The survey of several samples of published research confirms the paucity of criminal justice research in non-Western settings. Moreover, most of the reported research is not broadly representative, having been concentrated in a few non-Western countries. The implications of these findings for criminal justice education, research and theory are discussed, as are means for promoting cross-cultural research. The concepts of holistic and traditional comparative criminal justice are contrasted.     

A Status Report on Undergraduate Courses in Comparative Criminal Justice Offered at Colleges and Universities in the United States

During 1980–81, the Sub-Committee on Undergraduate Curriculum of the Committee on International Criminal Justice of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (of which I was the chair) distributed a questionnaire to criminal justice programs at universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States. The purpose of this questionnaire was to assess current and future interests in offering undergraduate courses of comparative criminal justice and criminology. A number of impressions were gleaned from the information collected in this survey. They are presented here in the form of a Report that should be of interest to all who participate in comparative criminal justice education.