What Is on Their Minds? – An Analysis of Criminal Justice Majors’ Scholastic Interests

• In Event: Student Attitudes, Interests, and Criminal Justice Curricula

Abstract

In its capstone course, Senior Seminar in Criminal Justice, the Department of Criminal Justice at M University requires a thesis based on an empirical research project for its majors. This project requires the following steps: stating a research problem, conceptualizing all variables involved, justifying all variables in a theoretical framework supported by the literature, formulating hypotheses, operationalizing variable measurements in a survey, collecting actual data in a real social setting, entering and analyzing data using SPSS, discussing findings statistically, and recommending future directions. Over the last 22 years (1994-2016), more than 1,500 students have completed this project. This paper attempts to ascertain the main scholastic interests of criminal justice majors by dividing the dependent variables into 20 major categories. The findings suggested that Law Enforcement, Substance Use and Abuse, Juvenile Delinquency, Aggression/Violence are the main issues of interest. Gender differences in these areas are analyzed, and the trend of student interests is discussed.

Author

• Peter W. Liu, Monmouth University