NCJ Number
73826
Date Published
1980
Length
37 pages
Annotation
The academic prestige of 71 schools offering graduate degrees in criminology or criminal justice was evaluated according to numbers of important articles published in professional journals, opinions of other criminal justice educators, and a citation count from 5 basic textbooks.
Abstract
Theoretical studies on factors which contribute to academic prestige and faculty productivity are reviewed, and statistics illustrate the astonishing growth of criminal justice programs in the last decade. In the pilot phase of this study, the top 32 journals in criminal justice and related fields were first selected by a sample of academicians. A total of 370 individuals randomly chosen from the 1974 membership of the American Society of Criminology (ASC) and the American Sociology Association were mailed questionnaires which asked them to rate the quality of articles pertaining to academic criminology in each journal, but only 46 percent responded. A list of 71 schools offering graduate programs was compiled, and 245 persons selected from the 1979 membership of the ASC and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences were asked to rate these schools, as well as the quality of articles in the selected journals. Information on faculty and composition was obtained through telephone calls to individual schools. An initial ranking of schools according to mean prestige scores found the University of Pennsylvania, State University of New York at Albany (SUNY), Michigan State, Florida State, and Rutgers in the top positions. However, when scores were adjusted to account for intensity as well as extensity of prestige, John Jay College of Criminal Justice ascended to the top. In the productivity ratings drawn from assessments of journals articles, SUNY assumed the first position while John Jay slipped to fourth place. Moreover, some smaller institutions fared extrememly well in this test. The final measure used was a citation count from five introductory texts in criminology and criminal justice to evaluate quality rather than quantity in research activities. Again Pennsylvania, SUNY, and Florida State were close competitors for first position with Portland State rising into the top ranks. This analysis suggests that faculty publication productivity is a strong predictor of a school's prestige and documents the existence of an elite core of schools. Tables, footnotes, and a bibliography of approximately 50 references are included. The survey questionnaire is appended.