Event Recap & Resources

by Coreena Forstner

On April 1st, 2021, the Southeast Michigan Criminal Justice Policy Research Project (SMART) and the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology at Eastern Michigan University held a webinar entitled “The Future of Criminal Justice Education.” The event was organized by Dr. Marilyn Corsianos and Dr. Rita Shah. The panel included Dr. Carrie Buist from Grand Valley State University, Dr. Allyn Walker from Old Dominion University, and Professor Michael Mitchell from The College of New Jersey. These panelists discussed how to confront systemic racism within criminal justice education and how to progress towards an anti-racist future. In light of recent events that have led to a demand in criminal justice reform, many criminology educators have been left confronting their complicity in supporting law enforcement and the carceral state. Together the panelists addressed how to better confront these issues in the classroom and in criminal justice departments as a whole.

The webinar was moderated by Dr. Shah, who asked a series of questions regarding the responsibilities of criminal justice educators and the role they have in either dismantling,reframing, or complacently upholding the current educational system. The main focus was the goal of producing students who know how to apply social justice topics and issues within intersectionality to their real-life careers, especially within law enforcement. Dr. Shah said a large inspiration behind creating this event was to shed light on how criminology and criminal justice programs have been complicit in perpetuating these ongoing problems of police brutality and inequalities within the system through specific courses and course content. Dr. Shah and Dr. Corsianos also wanted to create a foundation of discussion for criminology and criminal justice educators across the nation on how to become agents of change, not agents of the status quo. Afterward, the floor was opened up for discussion and questions from the audience.

Questions asked to the panelists were:

• In light of the national attention of police brutality, the killing of George Floyd, and the history of the criminal justice system broadly, what concerns do you have with the current criminology and criminal justice programs across the country?

• What do you think should be the focus in criminology/criminal justice education going forward? Should programs such as ours even exist?

• As educators, how can we best prepare our students who want to work in the criminal justice system, or get involved in the de-carceral movement through social justice activist work?

Dr. Carrie Buist was the first to respond and said that generally, she is concerned about the number of criminal justice programs that focus solely on antiquated policing techniques without addressing intersectionality in their course delivery. She also pointed out as problematic curricula that do not require courses in cultural competency, as well as programs that ignore the lived experiences of the students body. In contrast, she congratulated the John Jay College of Criminal Justice on implementing a newly revised curriculum that will include topics and discussion on racial justice, immigration, and the urban experience and incorporate lessons on the nuances of who is policed and who is protected (Bryne and Bezbatchenko, 2021). Overall, Dr. Buist emphasized that teachers and students can either help or hurt each other and that university programs as a whole need to be willing to progress with the times and speak up about these critical issues that impact both faculty and student’s lives. Educators have a responsibility to prepare their students for their jobs, but also to help them become people with strong character, empathy, and integrity. Buist believes that there should be a reciprocal relationship between educators and their students that is open and genuine. Educators need to implement more trauma-informed teaching styles and get to know their students’ lived experiences to better educate them.

Dr. Marilyn Corsianos stepped forward next to share her insight regarding the questions. She started her response by stating that criminology and criminal justice programs mainly operate to legitimize the current legal system and maintain dominant systems about the definition of crime, who commits them, and the level of punishment for said crimes. She also stated that criminal justice programs at most universities are focused on the “nuts and bolts” of the system, while criminology programs focus more on the study of crime, including its causes, the effectiveness of crime prevention, and punishment. She pointed out how graduating students oftentimes have little understanding of the gross inequalities and injustices the legal system creates and how it is innately racist, classist, misogynistic, and transphobic. She emphasized that criminology and criminal justice programs need to shift their attention to help students be better practitioners, officers, and technicians, as well as researchers once they join the field. To do this, she believes that students should be exposed to more critical research, rather than just what makes the government look good. Dr. Corsianos also argued that programs even outside of criminal justice need to focus on deconstructing current knowledge based on old practices and structures. She stated that, as educators, there is a moral obligation to show how the criminal justice system destroys some while privileging others, and also reveal the loopholes in the legal system that further add to these disparities of justice.

Professor Michael Mitchell then stepped forward to discuss how many programs try to teach through a false lens of neutrality. Mitchell applied Howard S. Becker’s analysis in his article “Whose Side are We On?”. Similar to Becker, Mitchell argued that we cannot be value-free in our teaching and research because our political dispositions influence our curriculum. He heavily emphasized how an educator’s own biases skew the way they teach, for example, potentially painting a picture of a certain group having a higher propensity of engaging in crime. Professor Mitchell argued that because the criminal justice curriculum lacks critical analysis of the carceral state, students are unable to make connections to oppression rooted in things like white supremacy when experiencing current events such as the Derek Chauvin trial. This ties back to the oppressive roots of criminology, and even relates to how faculty are trained themselves when they graduate from elite universities that perpetuate these dominating oppressive narratives. He argued that faculty need to collectively challenge these narratives within themselves, their students, and their departments as a whole. He also encouraged educators to pass this on through all of the social sciences, saying that other departments need to be discussing intersectionality and social justice issues because there is overlap in the core curriculum. Finally, he warned the next generation of educators in the field of potential backlash from departments who are not open to change.

Dr. Allyn Walker was the last panelist to answer these questions. Their largest critique was that criminal justice programs are very unimaginative and focus too much on punishment being the only form of justice. The current curriculum reinforces that criminal justice in itself is criminalization. Similar to Dr. Buist, Walker emphasized that although the system has many flaws, we still need to be teaching students how to critically analyze and apply these topics to their work, without necessarily discouraging them from joining the law enforcement field for now. This would help create a more social justice-informed law enforcement and produce officers who mirror their communities and work best to service and protect them, as this is needed under our current system. Concurrently, however, work is needed to abolish the criminal processing system, in order to set up a society that can engage in providing true justice, and scholars in CCJ are needed to engage in this work. Their main point is that educational programs desperately need to change their focus to imagining a better society and to do that, they need to focus less on policing and incarceration and more on abolition and shifting toward transformative justice.

Collectively, the panelists advocated for dismantling the current educational system and rebuilding it in a way that is more inclusive for students and educators. Dr. Carrie Buist ended her presentation by telling the audience to “do everything with intention,” including when you talk to your coworkers, write your syllabus, and attend your department’s staff meetings. Professor Michael Mitchell emphasized that departments need to also intentionally hire professors who view their work through a social justice lens. This includes hiring those from marginalized communities, who come from non-elite universities, and who want to create new classes about topics without enough representation. In their final regards, Dr. Allyn Walker encouraged current educators to include these crucial topics in all of their classes, even introductory courses. They also encouraged educators to reach out to their local communities to work on projects and change local legislation. Lastly, Dr. Marilyn Corsianos called for educators to have those difficult conversations with their colleagues who are far removed from critical work.

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