Goals, Expectations, and Satisfaction of Criminal Justice Majors: Implications for Faculty, Students, and Programs*

Tontodonato, Pamela

doi:10.1080/10511250500336211

Cited by 24 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 20 publications

(31 reference statements)

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“…As one anonymous reviewer noted, a nationally representative sample would be preferable to an availability sample of five universities. While we agree, we also note that convenience (and in this case, availability) sampling is commonly used in exploratory studies, and additionally with the examination of undergraduate criminal justice students (Craig and Piquero, 2016;Lambert et al, 2014;Mallicoat and Brown, 2008;Tontodonato, 2006;Weaver et al, 2018). It should also be noted that the racial/ethnic and gender distribution of our sample conforms closely to previous research utilizing both criminal justice majors and college students in general (Lambert et al, 2014;Krimmel and Tartaro, 1999;Mallicoat and Brown, 2008;Tontodonato, 2006).…”

Section: Notessupporting

confidence: 84%

Patrol career interest and perceptions of barriers among African-American criminal justice students

Rossler

Scheer

Suttmoeller

2019

PIJPSM

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Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to evaluate whether black and African-American criminal justice students perceive barriers to a police patrol career differently than white students, and whether the perceptions of these barriers impact desire to enter a police patrol career. Design/methodology/approach-The current inquiry uses a self-administered survey of over 630 undergraduate students in criminal justice classes across five public universities. Findings-Findings suggest that African-American students differ significantly from white students in perceived social disapproval of patrol careers, respect for police and perceptions of whether the police engage in racial profiling. These perceptions display a significant indirect relationship indicating lower patrol career interest for black and African-American students compared to all other races. Research limitations/implications-Research limitations of the current inquiry include the lack of a nationally representative sample, the use of four-year university students as a sample to represent the potential police patrol applicant pool, and the use of a survey instrument to gauge respondent beliefs about patrol careers as opposed to actions they would take in pursuit of a police career. Practical implications-Findings from the current inquiry indicate that departments may need to focus more on improving global perceptions of the police and discussing the nature of the career with recruit social support structures. Police recruiters should focus on techniques such as addressing social isolation experienced by the police rather than on decreasing standards for background checks or simply increasing awareness of police careers. Originality/value-The current inquiry is one of the first to explore perceptions of barriers to entering a patrol career among CJ students. It is also among the first to examine the impact these perceptions have on patrol career interest. The findings may also help criminal justice instructors more fully discuss these barriers with students of color.

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Section: Notessupporting

confidence: 84%

Patrol career interest and perceptions of barriers among African-American criminal justice students

Rossler

Scheer

Suttmoeller

2019

PIJPSM

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“…It may be that in another research context, perhaps addressing specifically the relationship between viewing preferences and careers, our 20 participants might have had more to say about contemporary crime, but not during the current research. The participants touched on career plans, but not as much as we might expect, given both the ubiquity of crime drama as well as the strong vocational orientations of criminology students (Tontodonato, 2006;Wimshurst and Allard, 2007).…”

Section: Crime Drama and Professional Identitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meaning-making and crime drama: the case of criminology students

Wimshurst

2018

Media International Australia

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Criminology as a discipline maintains an ambivalent attitude toward mass media. Following from Clifford and White's (2017) call for a more nuanced approach to media criminology, the first section of the article contextualises the present study by outlining the uneasy relationship between mainstream criminology and crime drama. The second section explores themes that arose during research that invited criminal justice students to create an outline for a television crime series that they would enjoy watching themselves. The experience of creating and talking about their crime fictions prompted the participants to reflect on aspects of their own lives in some detail, but relatively little on crime per se. Crime drama, including their own creations, provided the participants with an anchor to talk broadly about subjectivities and identities. The piece concludes with observations on the place of emotional engagement when consumers reflect on crime drama. 2 Meaning-making and crime drama: The case of criminology students Introduction: Criminologists and mass media The term 'popular criminology' was popularised by media criminologist Nicole Rafter (2007) to refer to the ways in which people develop their views about crime and justice. She noted that crime entertainment was central to these public understandings, and argued that: 'The two types of criminology, popular and academic, complement one another, each contributing in its own way to understandings of crime' (2007: 415). Thus, by strong implication, criminologists could not afford to treat mass media representations of crime as simply inferior entities. Interestingly, in view of Rafter's emphasis on complementarity, even the most empathetic surveys of media criminology suggest that, in the main, popular criminology and crime media in particular, continue to be seen by criminologists as marginal to the real business of scholarly criminology (Kohm, 2017; Wakeman, 2016). The cautious approach to scholarly analysis of fictional crime confirms Lam's (2014) observation that academic criminologists are more interested in 'corrective criticism' than in understanding the complexities of crime media production and consumption, or in understanding the ways crime drama is absorbed into the lives of audiences. Rather, corrective criticism tends 'to treat popular cultural representations as first and foremost inaccurate representations about crime or as questionable matters of fact' (p. 171). Media criminology, or the study of the ways in which crime media saturate and inform our lives and, in turn, the ways we interact with media, remains a relatively underdeveloped field of scholarship in Australia. Some topics are receiving increasing attention; for example, work here has tended to concentrate on the criminological implications of the uses and abuses of

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“…Many students select criminal justice because they find the material interesting and the degree useful for the "real world" (Krimmel & Tartaro, 1999;Tontodonato, 2006). The degree is viewed as a way to "meet lots of people," "help solve problems," and have an "exciting career" (Krimmel & Tartaro, 1999, p. 283).…”

Section: Career Choices Among Criminal Justice Majorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The degree is viewed as a way to "meet lots of people," "help solve problems," and have an "exciting career" (Krimmel & Tartaro, 1999, p. 283). A criminal justice degree's correlation to students' future career plans remains a dominant factor in the degree selection (Tontodonato, 2006).…”

Section: Career Choices Among Criminal Justice Majorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Males and females tend to display varied professional goals. Women are more interested in pursuing law and graduate degrees than males after completion of an undergraduate criminal justice degree (Tontodonato, 2006). Females view criminal justice research as a more attractive career than males (Courtright & Mackey, 2004).…”

Section: Career Choices Among Criminal Justice Majorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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