SACSCOC Fifth Year Interim Report
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Assessment : 2011 - 2012 : Educational Programs :
Criminal Justice and Criminology MA
Criminal Justice and Criminology MA
2 Goals 2 Objectives 2 Indicators 2 Criteria 2 Findings 2 Actions
| GOAL: Research Competence |
| Objective |
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| Competency in conducting original Criminal Justice and Criminology research |
| Indicator |
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Successful completion of original research study as demonstrated by defense of Thesis using faculty-developed rubric. |
| Criterion |
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Students will demonstrate their ability to engage in an original research study within the field criminal justice or criminology during the completion of CRIJ 6398 and CRIJ 6399. The culmination of each course in the sequence will be a public defense of the student’s work. First, the research proposal will be defended proximal to the conclusion of CRIJ 6398; then, the results of the final research project will be defended at the conclusion of CRIJ 6399. Theses will, at minimum, include a literature review of relevant empirical literature, well defined and defensible methodology, original statistical analysis appropriate to the methodology described, and the contextualization of the study results within the existing literature. |
| Finding |
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Eight students completed an original research study within the field of criminal justice or criminology during the 2011-2012 academic year (current as of June 1, 2012) with an additional two defenses scheduled for the month of June 2012. Each thesis project was publicly defended in front of a panel of three faculty members as well as interested observers. All theses included an appropriate review of empirical literature, methodology, analysis and contextualization of results. The average score on a nine item faculty-developed rubric (5 point scale) was 33 out of 45. When items were scored less than 3 out of 5, the most common weakness of the thesis was the “Theoretical Framework” of the written product. |
Actions for Objective:
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Overall, student outcomes met faculty committee expectations. Faculty will review and assess theses using evaluation rubric. Areas of weakness will be addressed by thesis committee chair in further assisting students to improve the theoretical development of their ideas prior to their final defense. |
| GOAL: Methodological Competence |
| Objective |
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| Competency in employing elements of qualitative and/or quantitative research methods to design scientific-based projects in the field of criminal justice and criminology. |
| Indicator |
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| Successful completion of Research Methods and Statistical Analysis coursework. |
| Criterion |
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All students in the CJ Master's program are required to complete 5392 Survey of Research Methods and 6385 Statistics for Criminal Justice Research in which they must master theory and application of social science research techniques as well as descriptive and inferential statistics as evaluated by demonstration of written, computational and oral abilities. Across this course sequence, standard tests that require application of theoretical ideas and demonstration of statistical analyses are conducted. |
| Finding |
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Seven students completed 5392 and nine students completed 6385 with a score of 80% or above. This level of achievement demonstrates acceptable mastery and application of social science research methodology. Students demonstrated knowledge through completion of written research proposals, oral discussion of those proposals and statistical computation. Weaknesses stemmed from 1) lack of exposure to research and research experience such that measurement of concepts tended to be overly general, 2) additionally the literature review lacked sufficient depth pertaining to the topic under study. |
Actions for Objective:
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Students will be increasingly mentored into research experience with faculty earlier in their Master’s education. Gaining familiarity with ongoing research will increase their ability to contextualize research in criminal justice and criminology generally, and specifically develop their own research ideas. |
| Closing the Loop |
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For the 2012-2013 academic year, an increased emphasis will be placed on writing and producing quality research proposals and thesis. Students will pay more attention to previous literature reviews to find the importance of their paper to the contribution to the field. Faculty mentoring will highlight the importance of choosing more significant topics for thesis projects so that they make a stronger contribution to the field of criminology and criminal justice.
An increased emphasis will be placed on matching students and faculty who share research interests both formally and informally. Further, students will be instructed on additional factors to consider when developing their literature review including techniques that will enable them to conduct a more exhaustive search of existing literature. |