Criminal Justice

• Certificates

  At the end of the Juvenile Justice Certificate program, students will:

  • Recognize the elements of juvenile criminal behavior
  • Identify the differences in criminal procedures and proceedings between adult and juvenile court
  • Demonstrate how other criminal justice and liberal arts fields intersect with the juvenile justice system

   

  At the end of the Forensic Science Fundamentals Certificate program, students will:

  • Recognize the key elements of the criminal justice system
  • Describe the interface between the forensic scientist, physical evidence, and the criminal justice system
  • Orally communicate comfortable in front of an audience
  • Understand fundamental concepts of chemistry and biology

   

  At the end of the Victim Advocacy Certificate program, students will:

  • Identify the stages of a case through the criminal court process
  • Describe the factors that influence, and the resulting consequences of, criminal victimization
  • Demonstrate how the principles of criminal justice and social science apply to the assistance of crime victims
• Associate Degree

  At the end of the Associate of Science in Criminal Justice degree, students will:

  • Recognize the key historical, theoretical, and practical components of contemporary corrections.
  • Identify the fundamental concepts of criminal law as they are applied in the courts.
  • Recognize the key historical, theoretical, and practical components of contemporary policing.
• Bachelor Degree

  At the end of their study at WSU, students with a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice will:

  • Describe key concepts, theories, or ideas related to the discipline of criminal justice
  • Apply research findings to the operation of criminal justice systems
  • Effectively communicate
  • Analyze problems in criminal justice using critical thinking and problem-solving skills
  • Develop a personal framework for ethical decision-making
  • Explain the experiences, perspectives, and contributions of diverse groups in criminal justice systems

The Criminal Justice program provides students with a liberal education, while offering academic preparation through an expanded emphasis on criminal justice education. The program also offers a basis for graduate study and seeks to contribute significantly to the improvement of the quality of justice administration.

Criminal justice agencies in the recent past have established advanced academic standards. Education is becoming a more meaningful factor in selection of law enforcement, corrections, and security personnel for initial employment, promotion, and administrative roles

Criminal Justice Department Website

The current assessment is collected from CJ 4995.  Students are given a 100 question exam covering material from the nine core courses in the program (CJ 1300, 1330, 2300, 3270, 3300, 3600, 4165, 4200 & 4980).  CJ 4995 has a prerequisite of completion of the nine core courses.  However, in an effort not to hinder student progress toward graduation, students are regularly granted registration exceptions to the prerequisites if they are registered for the remaining courses. Note: the prerequisite override is granted automatically for co-registration with one core, with chair approval for two cores, and rarely, in only the most extreme circumstances, for three cores.  All students are required to take this course and it is graded CR/NC.

Students begin the course by taking a pre-test and reviewing refresher study material before taking the exam during the 3^rd to 5^th week.  Assessment data is collected from this test only.  Students pass if they achieve an aggregate score of 70% or better on the exam.  Students that do not score a minimum of 70% are given a second opportunity to take the exam.  After that, students must write a paper to earn credit for the course.

Learning outcome achievement standards are determined by correctly answering at least 8 of the 11 questions (~72%) on the exam for each of the nine areas. Percentage of students meeting or exceeding the minimum score are calculated for each PLO for each semester.  The percentages from each semester are averaged and presented as an aggregate performance since the last report.

As mentioned previously, the department is in development of a new assessment strategy.  We anticipate that implementation of this strategy will take some time as it will involve significant curriculum changes.  At the writing of this report, the general philosophy will be to perform formative assessments in each of the core courses through a “signature assignment”, with a summative assessment of performed during the students last semester in a high impact experience course (internship, research, etc.) through a guided reflection assignment at the end of the experience.

• 2021-2022

   

• 2019-2020

  1) First year student success is critical to WSU’s retention and graduation efforts. We are interested in finding out how departments support their first-year students. Do you have mechanisms and processes in place to identify, meet with, and support first-year students? Please provide a brief narrative focusing on your program’s support of new students:

  • Any first-year students taking courses in your program(s).
    • We do not have any special support programs addressing any first-year students in our programs.
  • Students declared in your program(s), whether or not they are taking courses in your program(s)
    • We do not have any special support programs addressing new, declared students in our program but we are working on a program to identify and contact those students.

  
  
  2) A key component of sound assessment practice is the process of ‘closing the loop’ – that is, following up on changes implemented as a response to your assessment findings, to determine the impact of those changes/innovations. It is also an aspect of assessment on which we need to improve, as suggested in our NWCCU mid-cycle report. Please describe the processes your program has in place to ‘close the loop’.

  • Since we are in the middle of a major change with regard to assessment, closing the loop has become less of a priority than creating a new loop.  As part of the new assessment protocol, mechanisms and a timeline for using the data will be included.

   

  The full report is available for viewing.

• 2017

  1) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?

  Undergraduate Program:

  • We will continue to assess the proram objectives in the manner described, with the CJ 4996 assessment exam acting as the department's metric for assessing student learning.
  • Program assessment questions, particularly covering material for CJ 3600, 4165, 4200, and 4980, continue to undergo review. Problematic questions are in the process of being modified or removed during summer and fall 2017.

   

  CJ 1010:

  • The department will continue to monitor the results of the CJ1010 assessment. If the trend of the past semester (failing to meet the threshold goal of 70%) continues we will examine the quality of the questions as we are currently doing for the CJ 4995 Senior Capstone program assessment exam, and also discuss steps to assist low performing instructors to improve their performance (the Department has recently created a teaching evaluation committee).
     

  2) We are interested in better understanding how departments/programs assess their graduating seniors or graduate students. Please provide a short narrative describing the practices/curriculum in place for your department/program. Please include both direct and indirect measures employed. Finally, what were your findings from this past year’s graduates?

  • Other than the Assessment exam used to measure the undergraduate program objectives (which is typically taken during a student’s final year and frequently a student’s final semester) we do not currently collect any such data.

   

  The full report is available for viewing.

• 2016

  The Criminal Justice Department conducted a 5 year program review with full self-study during the spring of 2016. Those results are presented in place of the Annual Assessment. Please reference those  documents for information that includes data for the 2015/16 academic year.

• 2015

  1) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?

  Undergraduate Program:

  • We will continue to assess the program objectives in the manner described, with the CJ 4995 assessment exam acting as the department’s metric for assessing student learning.
  • Patterns in results from future administrations of the exam will be identified so that deficiencies can be addressed.
  • The CJ assessment committee will propose changes to the program’s learning objectives so that the objectives are phrased in more measurable ways.

   

  CJ 1010:

  • The department will continue to assess the new SS gen ed learning objectives using the new assessment tool that went ‘live’ Fall of 2015.
  • As results of the assessment become available in forthcoming semesters, patterns in the data will be examined, and changes proposed if necessary. No changes are currently being considered since the exam has only been administered once.

    

  2) Are there assessment strategies within your department or program that you feel are particularly effective and/or innovative? If so, what are those strategies and what do you learn about your students by using them?

  • No response.

   

  The full report is available for viewing.

• 2014

  1) Reflecting on this year’s assessment(s), how does the evidence of student learning impact your faculty’s confidence in the program being reviewed; how does that analysis change when compared with previous assessment evidence?

  •  Many of the assessment practices described in this document have been only just been implemented – Fall 2014.
  • A pilot test of the CJ 4995 assessment tool was administered in Fall of 2013, and while this is not an “apples to apples” comparison, the data suggest that there has been an improvement in performance across categories of the exam.  Notably, students scored above 70% in three courses this year, whereas last year, students only scored above 70% in CJ 3600.
  • Members of the faculty are confident that moving forward our strategy for assessing, evaluating, and responding to the program’s objectives will be successful. We have also recently created an assessment committee to address issues raised in assessing CJ 1010 and the undergraduate program.
  • The early assessment data indicate that not all learning objectives are being successfully met, but the CJ faculty have decided that it is too early to implement changes without multiple data points.

   

  2) With whom did you share the results of the year’s assessment efforts?

  • The Department Chair, the Dean, and the CJ faculty.

   

  3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?

  CJ 1010:

  • The department will continue to assess CJ 1010 in the ways previously described for the foreseeable future. However, the assessment committee is working on a proposal that would allow CJ 1010 to be assessed in a uniform way.
  • The faculty teaching CJ 1010 will work toward making maintenance of the previously described Canvas course part of their ‘end of semester routine.’

   

  Program:

  • The assessment exam taken as part of the requirements for completing CJ 4995 will continue to act as the department’s metric for assessing student learning.
  • Patterns in results from future administrations of the exam will be identified so that deficiencies can be addressed. Program: The CJ Department’s plan for the coming years is to continue the assessment methods outlined herein.

   

  The full report is available for viewing.

• 2013

  1) Reflecting on this year’s assessment(s), how does the evidence of student learning impact your faculty’s confidence in the program being reviewed; how does that analysis change when compared with previous assessment evidence?

  • Many of the assessment practices described in this document have been only just been implemented – Fall 2013.
  • The faculty are confident that moving forward our strategy for assessing, evaluating, and responding to the program’s objectives will be successful.
  • Trends cannot be discussed at this time given the objectives have only been assessed once under the new assessment plan.
  • The early assessment data indicate that not all learning objectives are being successfully met, but the faculty agree that we should wait until all of the core courses have been assessed before initiating any changes to our approach.

   

  2) With whom did you share the results of the year’s assessment efforts?

  • The Department Chair
  • The Dean
  • The faculty
     

  3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?

  CJ 1010:

  • The department will continue to assess CJ 1010 in the ways previously described for the foreseeable future.
  • The faculty teaching CJ 1010 will work toward making maintenance of the previously described Canvas course part of their ‘end of semester routine.’

   

  Program:

  • The assessment exam taken as part of the requirements for completing CJ 4995 will continue to act as the department’s metric for assessing student learning. 
  • Patterns in results from future administrations of the exam will be identified so that deficiencies can be addressed.

   

  To access the full report, select this link: Criminal Justice 2012/13 Annual Assessment Report

2016-17

2011-12