Shifting Perceptions: Lessons from an exploratory study of the Inside Criminal Justice Program

This is an exploratory study of the efficacy of Inside Criminal Justice (ICJ), an eight-week long course for incarcerated students and public prosecutors that fosters respectful and open discussions about the criminal-legal system in order to rethink public safety. ICJ’s impact falls within applied contact theory, intergroup relations, and interventions aimed at reducing bias. The ICJ course was founded in 2018 as a joint initiative between three key institutions in the Tri-State Area (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut): the District Attorney’s Office, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS), and Columbia University. ICJ brings current prosecutors inside correctional facilities to learn about and discuss issues of criminal justice alongside incarcerated students while developing joint policy proposals centered on improving the justice system. This program is the first of its kind in the area. Through semi-structured interviews of students and prosecutors from across the seven cohorts and qualitative data analysis, this dissertation considers the impact of ICJ on three domains: pre-existing beliefs related to the justice system, changes to concrete behaviors, and network building/transformation. It presents evidence of a reciprocal humanizing experience for its participants that helps shift perceptions, as suggested by Allport's (1954) contact hypothesis. It then examines the translation of that shift to individual and larger-scale changes resulting from ICJ involvement, and explores the distinct forms of credibility ICJ networks give to its participants as well as the ways network failure contribute to justice involvement. There is limited literature about programs that bring these types of criminal justice actors together in an educational setting. In addition to informing a larger, more systematic program evaluation, this exploratory study identifies key themes for future exploration, and presents evidence about the program’s efficacy.

The Impact of Ambiguity-induced Error in Offender Decision-making: Evidence from the Field

Objectives: To invoke behavioral economics theories of ambiguity in the context of offender decision-making, and to test the impact of ambiguity in punishment certainty on offender decisions. Methods: We leverage a quasi-experimental condition among a sample of drunk driving arrestees that are tested for alcohol use and subject to mandatory brief incarceration for a violation. The treatment condition relaxes a zero-tolerance alcohol rule, thereby introducing design-based ambiguity surrounding the certainty of punishment. We use Mahalanobis matching and propensity score weighting methods to estimate the impact of ambiguity on violations. We then interrogate this finding with complementary sensitivity analyses. Results: When facing the ambiguity condition participants are 27–28 percentage points (84–93 percent) more likely to violate program conditions after 30 days of supervision. We demonstrate that a statistical difference in violations due to ambiguity is still detectible at 90 and 180 days of supervision. These results are robust to alternative specifications and falsification tests. Conclusions: This study is the first to examine the impact of ambiguity on criminal justice program compliance using a quasi-experiment from the field. We further demonstrate the unintended costs to persons under supervision and jurisdictions of laxity in program design, which are applicable across criminal justice domains.

It Takes a Village to Build an Effective Adjunct Community

It is understood that not all adjunct faculty seek a full-time position with an institution, nor do they necessarily look for ways to engage with an institution beyond teaching for compensation. This chapter is not intended to explore either of these perspectives, but rather focuses on deepening the engagement of those adjunct faculty interested in collaboration and professional development with the institution or program they serve. Full-time faculty and program leadership are vital to creating conditions to enhance the relationship between adjunct faculty and their academic programs. This chapter offers a first-person account of one academic program leader's reflective journey to support adjunct faculty in a criminal justice program. This chapter shares some techniques used by the author to organize a digital workspace that positions adjunct faculty to engage or participate with the institution and program on their terms. This chapter also offers some proven practices as examples for creating community among adjunct faculty and the institution or program they serve.

Linking the Social Services and Criminal Justice Systems

This chapter covers the criminal justice program structures and services and the ways in which social workers are involved in them. Social work’s involvement in the complex criminal justice system is extensive and varied. Direct or clinical practice with individuals, groups of individuals, and their families, are the primary activities of social workers in criminal justice. Social work, among the human services professions, is broader in its approaches than are most others. The social work profession not only focuses on direct or clinical services to clients and their families, but it also involves itself in larger system concerns, such as public policy and research. These nonclinical functions are included in the National Association of Social Workers’ Social Work Code of Ethics, social work licensing standards, and in programs of education for social workers.

The Alert Collector: Police Use of Force

High-profile news stories about excessive use of police force, often leading to a person’s death, have filled our news feeds and become a hot-button issue. Karen Evans’s column for this months’ Alert Collector highlights some of the major books on this topic that will flesh out your collection, whether you serve a criminal justice program, students needing the best sources for a pros and cons essay, or a clientele wanting the best resources to help them understand this complex issue. Evans is the librarian for the School of Criminology and Security Studies at Indiana State University. She holds a graduate degree in criminology and criminal justice, and serves as the editor for the criminal justice section of Resources for College Libraries.

The Black One

Some faculty are like father figures to the students. The other younger White males are scholarly and tough but brilliant. Then, there is you, the Black One. Black men are six times as likely to be incarcerated as White men. Hispanic men are 2.3 times as likely. In corrections alone, people of color are overrepresented. This chapter will discuss the disparities in the criminal justice system and why students of color are attracted to the field. Microaggressions in a criminal justice program show up as machismo, as a joke, or even as witty, but never as racist. This chapter will tell the narrative of being a Black woman in a predominately White male department and why Black scholars belong in a criminal justice education.

Comparison of Case Studies in Managing E-Learning Programs

This chapter will focus on two cross-cultural case studies on the development and implementation of e-learning programs between two universities in Croatia and in the United Kingdom (UK). The authors will compare the implementation and the development of two degree level programs: The Graphic Arts program at the University of Zagreb, Croatia and the Criminal Justice program at the University of Hertfordshire, UK, and highlight some of the common issues the two universities encountered. Furthermore, this chapter will discuss the use of virtual learning environments (VLEs), staff development and student support, as well as the lessons learnt from the respective program developments.

Criminal Justice Education, Employment Destinations, and Graduate Satisfaction

The article addresses the lack of sound empirical research both overseas and especially in Australia on the outcomes of criminal justice education. The very limited research on graduate outcomes is potentially problematic at a time when governments are increasingly calling for program accountability and evaluation in higher education. The article reports on an empirical study of one criminology/criminal justice program that investigated the employment destinations of graduates. Principal components analysis and regression analyses were used to explore graduate satisfaction with their degree. There was evidence that educational outcomes were important considerations when alumni evaluated their degree. However, findings indicated that satisfaction varied considerably between occupational groups and was influenced by employment experiences and perceived ‘success’ in the workforce. The article addresses various themes emerging from the findings and identifies the need for further research across other programs on the outcomes of criminal justice education and graduate destinations.