• Three on-line course have been developed and are offered every term; CRJ 101, CRJ 110, and CRJ 231. Additionally, many faculty members have enhanced their courses with D2L technology.
• We have increased our course offering to include our core courses during both day and evening schedules. In some cases, the increase in offerings has not been supported by enrollment causing course cancellations. Additionally, we have added Friday and Saturday courses, which have experienced mixed success.
• The Homeland Security course has not been developed however, a new course,
Introduction to Forensic Science has been developed and approved and is being offered during the fall term successfully. We have also started offering two courses that already existed in the program but not utilized, Probation and Parole and Criminal Justice Report writing. These courses have also experienced good enrollment.
• The department has sponsored several advisory meetings and continues to solicit input from the industry leaders in the region.
• The department has experienced significant growth in enrollment and credit hours generated over the past five-year period.
• With growth in enrollment, we have also increased the number of faculty members in the program.
• Many faculty members have been trained in the use of D2L and are using it to enhance their courses.
• Faculty developed an on-line course for CRJ 231 Juvenile Justice, which experiences consistent enrollment (led to increase).
• Development of the Introduction to Forensic Science course CRJ 165.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE PROGRAM OUTCOMES Program Outcomes
Upon successful completion of all Criminal Justice degree requirements, graduates will be able to demonstrate an understanding and knowledge of:
1) The language, terms, and concepts of criminal justice and police administration. 2) Each component of the criminal justice system, and be able to define and describe
3) The causes of crime in our society.
4) Law enforcement practices and the causes of stress within the profession. 5) The differences in the juvenile and adult justice systems.
6) The roots of early common law and how it relates to statutory law. 7) The fundamentals of criminal investigations, and the laws of evidence. 8) Communicating effectively through oral and written formats.
9) The local, state and federal courts systems, and identify courtroom procedures. 10) Providing examples of major ethical issues confronting the criminal justice system and
its personnel.
11) The relationship between the community and the police, and the necessity for proactive vs. reactive strategy in the community.
12) The significance of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, specifically, the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and the Fourteenth Amendments as they apply to development of criminal laws.
Review of Current Curriculum & Outcomes
As a result of the CRJ department’s analysis of current curriculum and outcomes, they have determined that they will be:
• Withdrawing two courses – Use of Force I and II
• Changing pre-requisites on three courses (C or better in prior course)
• Revising course outcomes for 20 of the remaining 25 courses (after withdrawals) • Adding three courses as required courses to ensure students are exposed to the
program’s core content
• Combining two courses into one of the new required courses
• Developing one new course in the CRJ curriculum to replace a required course from the Humanities department.
When mapping their program outcomes to each course, it was observed that while many of the program outcomes are introduced and practiced over the variety of courses, there is very little demonstration of mastery. Some level of proficiency may be achieved by students dedicated to a Criminal Justice career, however many students enter the program exploring career paths and do not apply themselves to a level of proficiency or mastery.
General Education Outcomes
When mapping the general education outcomes to each course, the department determined faculty require reading and writing activities in all courses and work to develop those general education skills. They noted that none of their courses really address scientific literacy or mathematics. In several courses, issues of U.S. diversity in law enforcement and throughout the criminal justice system are discussed. Information literacy is also practiced and developed in the
program through research projects and use of technology. Critical thinking skills are also discussed and practiced in a majority of the courses through discussion, case studies, and problem solving. However, they did share that there are opportunities to expand and improve:
• Global awareness - could be added as a segment in a course, such as Introduction to Terrorism or Global Issues in Law Enforcement
• Writing – plan to require courses that emphasize writing, and plan to provide more examples and modeling of good writing in the classroom
NEED
Generally, enrollments have grown each year across the program, surpassing ECC’s average increase in enrollment. The strongest enrollments continue to be in the intro- level courses. There has been an increase in enrollment in not only these courses, but the transfer courses taken as electives in other programs (see highlighted courses below). Considering the nature of a community college, this suggests the pattern is a result of student exploration into various types of careers. This is expected, and the department continues to plan for this by offering more sections of these courses.
Source: ECC Office of Institutional Research CRIMINAL JUSTICE:
SEAT COUNT ENROLLMENT BY COURSE
Course FY07 FY08 FY09 FY10 FY11 TOTAL % Chg Total 641 675 764 1,008 1,192 4,280 86.0% CRJ-101 162 192 218 274 347 1,193 114.2% CRJ-110 41 86 85 112 122 446 197.6% CRJ-111 67 57 58 45 73 300 9.0% CRJ-120 23 23 -- 0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000 90,000 100,000 0 200 400 600 800 1,000 1,200 1,400 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 EC C E nr ol lm en ts (se at c ou nts ) CR J E nr ol lment s (s ea t c ou nts ) Fiscal Year
Total CRJ Enrollments
CRJ ECCCRJ-160 12 12 -- CRJ-170 3 10 27 40 -- CRJ-180 31 46 53 56 39 225 25.8% CRJ-198 29 29 30 75 70 233 141.4% CRJ-199 21 19 20 33 35 128 66.7% CRJ-200 12 7 6 3 8 36 -33.3% CRJ-201 14 12 17 10 15 68 7.1% CRJ-205 30 20 26 46 31 153 3.3% CRJ-215 27 23 23 22 32 127 18.5% CRJ-216 1 1 -- CRJ-225 33 30 45 63 73 244 121.2% CRJ-230 76 76 89 97 117 455 53.9% CRJ-231 55 51 59 80 90 335 63.6% CRJ-235 4 29 10 43 -- CRJ-250 17 9 7 26 30 89 76.5% CRJ-270 19 12 21 26 35 113 84.2% CRJ-290 7 2 3 1 3 16 -57.1%
Source: ECC Office of Institutional Research
The CRJ program contains course requirements in communications, math, science, speech, psychology, sociology, and history. Additionally, general education courses are required and the student may choose among several electives. These courses are instrumental in providing CRJ students with a well-rounded educational foundation for entering the work force. More agencies are requiring some level of college education for placement. This trend is going to continue as the complexity of the jobs continues to grow due to new laws, crimes, technology, and case law.
However, the economic environment has created a situation in the criminal justice system in our district, unparalleled in the past 20-30 years. Police departments and other employers within the system are not hiring and have laid-off officers or not replaced officers that have left through attrition. This situation is experienced across the state and country. Over the next five years, departments will begin to recover; however staffing will not return to pre-recession level for a significant time. Currently, there is controversy over public safety pensions and wages. Challenges in these areas may significantly impact the benefits afforded future employees in the industry. The word is getting out around the district regarding the decrease in job opportunities in the field, thus the justification for a leveling off of enrollment in the more advanced courses.
However, on a more positive note, the need for the program and its courses will continue, some of the more relevant opportunities include:
• The Computer Science Department has implemented a Digital Forensics degree program which incorporates computer and criminal justice courses. Although this is a Computer
Science program, the department expects it will have a direct impact on the Criminal Justice field, thus resulting in additional interest in the program, and need for the courses in the program to fulfill that degree’s requirements.
• While new hires have decreased, there will always be jobs available in the field due to attrition. A recent example of this is - the 500 job openings just announced by the Chicago Police Department this month (July 2012).
• Courses in this program are also taken as electives in other programs across the college as well. There was a significant increase in enrollment in these courses over the last couple years.
• There is growth in the private security sector, with predictions of an 18% increase in the number of jobs for 2010-20 (http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Protective-Service/Security- guards.htm).