Criminal justice and non-criminal justice students' views of U.S. correctional issues

The Influence of Criminal Justice Major on Punitive Attitudes

“…The adjusted R-square is .195, which indicates only a fairly modest amount of the variance in punitiveness is being explained by this model. Even so, this R-square is much higher than previously published studies that used multivariate statistics (e.g., see Hensley, Tewksbury, Miller, Koscheski 2002;Mackey and Courtright 2000;Tsoudis 2000). Separate OLS models for CRCJ majors and non-CRCJ majors are also displayed in Table 4.…”

“…Among CRCJ majors, Hispanics are less punitive while fear of property crime increases punitiveness. The adjusted R-squared for the CRCJ sample is .118, which indicates only a small proportion of the variance in punitiveness is being explained with this model but as pointed out earlier, this is consistent with other studies (e.g., Hensley et al 2002;Mackey and Courtright 2000;Tsoudis 2000). Z-scores to examine the slope differences between the models for CRCJ and non-CRCJ students were computed.…”

Drinking and drug use by college students: Comparing criminal justice majors and non-majors

“…Examining views of college students toward female police officers, Austin and Hummer (1994) found that CJ majors were less supportive of women in policing than non-CJ majors and more doubtful of their capacity to perform the duties required by the job. Hensley, Tewksbury, Miller, and Koscheski (2002) found differences between CJ and non-CJ students' views of the seriousness of prison overcrowding; CJ students viewed overcrowding as more of a problem than non-CJ majors. Hensley et al found no difference in views between majors as to the seriousness of other correctional issues (e.g., violence, sexual assault, drugs).…”

“…Hensley et al found no difference in views between majors as to the seriousness of other correctional issues (e.g., violence, sexual assault, drugs). These same authors found no difference between majors when examining views towards inmate "privileges" (e.g., counseling and education programs, television, gym equipment, conjugal visits) (Hensley et al, 2002). No difference between CJ and non-CJ majors was uncovered by Wolfer and Friedrichs (2001) when examining definitions of "justice" or ranked goals for justice professionals.…”

Support for Balanced Juvenile Justice: Assessing Views About Youth, Rehabilitation, and Punishment

“…Use of a criminology and criminal justice pool of subjects for a study of sanctioning views is consistent with prior work and, in reference to the student population, does not appear likely to unduly bias the results with respect to opinions about sanctioning youth or the factors that predict these views. Prior scholarship, for example, is mixed, with some studies finding that criminology and criminal justice students may be somewhat more punitive (see, e.g., Hensley et al 2002;O'Connor et al 2011) and others finding that they are somewhat less punitive (see, e.g., Falco and Martin 2012). In addition, although college students tend to be younger and more highly educated than the general public, studies have produced inconsistent results concerning the relationship between age and punitiveness as well as education and punitiveness, with some finding no association, some finding a positive association, and still others finding a negative association (see, e.g., Langworthy and Whitehead 1986;Mears 2001;Moon et al 2000b;Pickett et al 2013).…”