NCJ Number
130360
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Education Volume: 2 Issue: 1 Dated: (Spring 1991) Pages: 141-157
Date Published
1991
Length
17 pages
Annotation
Colleges and universities are paying more attention to diversity in faculty, staff, and student populations, and one of the first human diversity courses is now offered by the University of Albany's School of Criminal Justice.
Abstract
There is increasing agreement that the undergraduate curriculum in the criminal justice field can and should be conceived within the liberal arts and sciences tradition rather than as professional training. At the University at Albany's School of Criminal Justice, an undergraduate major has been offered only since 1983. The school's human diversity course for this major is called "Policies of Crime Control in Heterogeneous Societies." The course assumes that crime control policies are more controversial and more difficult to implement in racially and ethnically diverse societies than in homogeneous societies. Given the richness of materials available in such areas as history, literature, anthropology, and the arts, the course instructor has many resources available to assign for reading. Although feminist criminologists are now publishing more works about women and crime from the perspectives of women, minority criminologists are still underrepresented in the literature. The task of covering minority issues, therefore, is somewhat difficult. In an evaluation of the course by 46 students, reactions were generally negative. Students reported objections to the emphasis on historical rather than current policies, complaints that the course did not concentrate sufficiently on policies, and resistance to any data showing that criminal justice practices are discriminatory. Appendixes list readings assigned in the course and references that may help instructors plan a diversity course in criminal justice. 30 references (Author abstract modified)