Teaching controversial issues in criminal justice: Using historical material to overcome student resistance

Although the teaching of controversial issues in criminal justice can be a lively and rewarding experience, it can also be extremely challenging. Unlike subject matter in other disciplines, the subject matter of criminal justice is to some extent familiar to most reasonably well-informed citizens. Thus students in criminal justice classes will possess an awareness of many of the discipline's controversial issues, such as the value of capital punishment and the utility of the Miranda rules, and have their own views regarding these issues. Unfortunately, many of these views are strongly held, and students are sometimes unreceptive to critical examination of such issues because of the strength of their convictions. This paper describes an approach to overcome this obstacle to critical scrutiny of controversial issues in criminal justice. The general approach relies upon the use of historical material as a tool to make it easier for the student to master the important problems, concepts, and data which pertain to current justice system controversies.