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Criminal Justice Studies Personal Statement

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Completing courses in criminal law, and sociology of crime and delinquency in the third year of my undergraduate degree, made me interested in knowing the reasons society criminalise certain activities. During my masters of law program, my interest grew into an exciting purpose I decided to fulfil, by seeking acceptance into the Justice Studies program that provides an in-depth understanding of this fascinating subject area. This decision came while preparing a seminar paper; I noticed a seemingly self-defeating Nigerian criminal justice system because its institutions apply laws with the singular aim of punishing offenders. The favourite punishment tool is incarceration. In fact, persons awaiting trial make up over sixty percent of the prison …show more content…

in Justice Studies at the University of Regina provides these three tools. Its courses in crime and society, contemporary issues in justice and the law, and multidisciplinary theoretical perspectives on justice satisfy my first need. More so, the program contains unique course offerings in one of my research interests policing; such as public safety in a democratic society, issues in contemporary policing and future of policing. Also, I intend to take advantage of the teaching assistant positions offered by the department, to hone my teaching ability. Again, becoming a University of Regina student will provide an opportunity, to participate in hands-on policing and court systems training and scientific research, in the community safety initiative of the Collaborative Centre for Justice and Safety. It will also bring me in contact with Professor Rick Ruddell, whose work in policing in rural Canada, community perception of law enforcement and corrections and criminal justice are a right fit for my intended study area and research interests. Apart from improving my research abilities, working with Professor Ruddell will expose me to the opportunity of learning measures of assessing community perceptions of law enforcement agents. I am sure this program will be an important step in the direction of realising my prospective career …show more content…

I worked in the civil and criminal litigation research group of thirty students at the Law school. We prepared lecture materials and PowerPoint documents for class presentations, and drafted pleadings for mock trials twice a week. My role was to ensure we submitted the assignments to the supervising lecturer. This involved dividing my group members into three: precedent search, drafting, and computer processing respectively. I conducted independent research to verify the arguments of the first sub-group, proofread documents from the other two groups to ascertain the accuracy of the assignments. By encouraging the group, we enthusiastically completed our assignments and I was able to fulfil my role promptly and avoid disciplinary measures from the student affairs unit. I learnt valuable research and communication skills from this experience, which contributed to my success in the bar part II examinations. I intend to deploy these skills in presenting the seminar requirements of the Justice Studies courses and preparing my

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