Importance of Discussing Crime Victimization in Criminal Justice Courses: An Empirical Assessment of a New Curriculum to Enhance Student learning

• NCJ Number: 250996
• Journal: Journal of Criminal Justice Education Volume: 27 Issue: 1 Dated: August 2015 Pages: 35-52
• Author(s): Jennifer C. Gibbs
• Date Published: August 2015
• Length: 18 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2009-VF-GX-K006
• Sponsoring Agency: Office for Victims of Crime (OVC)
• Sale Source: Office for Victims of Crime (OVC)
• Publication Format: Article; Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Report (Technical Assistance); Report (Study/Research); Report (Grant Sponsored); Program/Project Evaluation; Grants and Funding
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Since criminal victimization and the costs of crime for the victim are often given little attention in courses on crime and criminal justice, this study evaluated the introduction of a new curriculum kit on understanding crime victims into two of three sections of a criminological theory course, with the third section having a unit on "offenders" instead of "victims," thus acting as a control group.

Abstract

The evaluation found that the kit on understanding crime victims did improve student knowledge of crime victimization, but so did a lecture on offenders in the control group; however, students exposed to the new curriculum kit, coupled with a victim service learning component, continued to improve in knowledge of crime victimization throughout the course; the control group did not. The implications of these findings are discussed.