Criminal Justice Internship Essay

As I make my way through the college experience, it is crucial that I take advantage of all opportunities available to me, especially within my desired field. Therefore, as a criminal justice major I would be most interested in becoming involved in activities such as when Lt. Ross Dillingham visited a victimology class. Lieutenant Ross Dillingham had the students look through unsolved homicide cases and provide their input. The students were able to review autopsy reports, crime scene photographs, police reports, and witness accounts that allowed them to have firsthand experience with the criminal justice system. Considering my desired career choice, a homicide detective or a forensic analysis, an experience such as this one would greatly benefit me. I would be able to learn the importance of thorough investigation and the need for accurate police reports.

The corrections system has gone through the medical model, the community model, and the crime control model over the last century. In the late eighteen hundreds, the belief that incarceration itself did not reduce crime was emerging. Community based sanctions, like probation and parole, were thought to be great additions and that they would work well in conjunction with incarceration. (Wodahl, 8) Between

Today our world is filled with crime. The people committing these crimes must have a consequence for their illegal actions. The system in place to keeping everything fair and safe is called the criminal justice system. This was put in place to ensure there is fairness and justice served to people who break the laws set up by the government.

My internship for the Iowa Lake Criminal Justice program has come to an end. I did my internship in the field of law enforcement with the Spirit Lake Police Department. It has been a lot of fun to be apart of the Spirit Lake Police Department. I have learned so much more than I thought I would and I’m so thankful that I got the opportunity to do the internship. For My internship I got to do 240 hours with the SLPD. I was able to do a number of things with them like ride alongs, community policing events, and spend time in the dispatch center seeing how call get to them and then sent out to the officers.

The use of shock probation in America lies between two philosophies: classical and positivist. The classical believes that the criminals choose their actions therefore there is a need for them to be punished in order to prevent future offenses. On the other hand, the positivists believe that the offenders committed the offense without their own will and therefore the conditions that led to the offense should be corrected in order to rehabilitate the offender. In addition, the acts of the legislature and the sentiments of the public dictate the application of the probation. (Cripe and Clair, 1997). Therefore, this leaves the universal applications and methods of application of the probation not to be available. This leaves the philosophies to have evolved and moved into the 21st century. The above factors therefore lead to inconsistency in the application of probation in that the application of probation lies in the hands of few selected individuals such as the prosecutor and the judicial system. (Cripe and Clair, 1997).

The article outlines several factors that influence or have an impact on offender’s recidivism rates. An interesting fact is the number of adults who reside in the United States that are currently under some type of criminal justice oriented supervision. There are more than 2 million adults in the United States who are incarcerated and an additional excess of five more million adults who are currently on probation and parole (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2011). There were 125.9 million adults in the United States in 2014 (Wikipedia, 2018). The range of the number of adults who are incarcerated and the amount that is under some type of criminal justice supervision is 118,900,000.

A topic I find extremely engaging is that of the Criminal Justice field. The technology that has been developed over the years to solve cases is extremely interesting and sometimes it is hard to believe how new some of the technology really is. Take Gel Electrophoresis for example. Gel Electrophoresis uses electricity to separate out different DNA fragments by their size as they move through a gel matrix and was created in the 1970s. Gel Electrophoresis allows for investigators to take DNA from a crime scene and to process it to get a simplistic visualization of the DNA collected which they can then compare to the DNA samples of the different suspects. Since the development of Gel Electrophoresis, DNA profiles have been used to solve a plethora

Well to start off by saying that it was something that I thought long and hard about, it just happened. When I started working in the Shelby County Jail in 2001, I had no idea of what I was about to face. Obviously, I did not need a degree to work there just clerical experience and a great personality. About four years later one of my co-workers convinced me to return to school and I did. I could not think of anything else to take up in school so I went with what I am already experiencing at the time, Criminal Justice. Well, after a year and a half or so of many sleepless nights, juggling two small kids, being a single parent, much hard work and dedication on the job and in school, I received my

Today punishment is the most dominant correctional goal of both the state and federal government in response to criminality. The purpose of punishment is to protect society, rehabilitate criminal offenders, and reduce recidivism. In both the state and federal correctional institutions, their objectives are to use punishment as form deterrence while

Educators of students who wish to complete internships are commonly concerned as to how their student will react when exposed to unethical and inappropriate behavior. A surprising 87 percent of criminal justice programs offer internships to their students. Though there are multiple studies suggesting the lack of practical education a student learns from the experience 29-37 percent of criminal justice programs require official internships (CITE). The goal of an internship is so the student has a broad understanding of the operations in the desired field of study as well as practical knowledge of the system to which can be exchanged for

Conflict theory and labeling theory are two similar theories in the world of crime. It has been debated whether or not there is a clear line separating the two theories. By evaluating the two theories, the differences between them can become more obvious and it becomes easier to separate the two. In addition to conflict theory and labeling theory, there is another type of theories that are used to explain crime. These theories focus more on a criminal 's lifetime and how their criminal records have evolved over time. Two of the leading theories in this realm of criminology are Moffit’s theory of life course persistent offenders and Sampson and Laub’s age-graded theory of informal social control. These theories both explain why people commit or don 't commit crime. There are similarities between the theories and also differences. By analyzing all four of these theories, a better understanding can be gained related to crime.

This paper will describe my understanding of the text and of the lectures provided in the class. Unlike most classes, where I understood only my view of the text, this class was geared so each student would understand each other’s view. 3 An organization is a collective that has some boundary and internal structure that engages in activities related to some complex set of goals. Members of organizations attempt to meet their psychological, ego and emotional needs within the organization. Criminal justice organizations are particularly unique compared to other public or private sector organizations because of the governmental granted authority. Management within these organizations can be defined as the process by

Throughout the years, the association between a criminal offense and a criminal have become more relevant. Although there are many theories that try to illustrate the concept of why crimes happen, no theory has a profound influence of understanding an individual’s nature, relationship, development, and a society itself (Coleman & Ganong, 2014). To further explain, “theories of crime are defined in relation to modernity, spanning their development from the enlightenment to the present, with the advent of postmodernism” (Miller, 2012, p. 1798). In other words, theories of crime are an approach to understanding an individuals behaviour and actions in their environment, society, and themselves that may lead to crime. Nevertheless, within this paper, it will be comparing the case of

Criminology itself is the systematic study of the nature, extent, etiology and control of lawbreaking behavior. The core components revealed in this course are definitions of crime in nature as harm causing behavior, the descriptions and classifications of criminals, the analysis of crime, profiles of everyday victims and offenses, and the origin of crime. The field of probation relies heavily on these components in order to understand and properly categorize offenders, stay aware of offender’s mental and emotional status, and attempt to predict the future of criminal offenders. The various theories presented in Criminology 262 help shape the Dallas County Adult Probation Department and serve as model types used to minimize the risks associated with sentencing alternatives. The agency assesses the same theoretical categories provided by Criminology 262 such as sociological, biological, and psychological explanations of crime in an attempt to better deal with offenders. The internship experience has supported the previous notion installed through Criminology 262 that one single theory cannot explain crime. The combination of each theory and perspective enabled an opinion of individuality to form. In opposition to the core components embedded in the course, the personally constructed opinion that criminal offenders cannot be categorized and must exist on individual levels was formed from the internship experience. The Dallas County Adult Probation

What makes a criminal a criminal? Can anyone become a criminal? Answering and understanding these questions is the core work of criminologists as most criminologists attempt to make sense of why people do certain things (Garland, Sparks 2000). This essay will consider the notion that any person could become a criminal and in so doing consider the initial question. This essay will outline a range of theories that attempt to describe human behavior in relation to criminal behavior given the complexities of behaviour. Several theories will be considered as no single theory of behavior can account fully for the complexities and range in criminal behaviour. The theories range from social-control, to classical, to biological, to personality