Introduction to Criminal Justice
Final Exam (Replaces Unit Test 6 -30 points and d2l Discussions-18 points) the less you
discuss, the less points you will receive.
Question One: Asst. Prosecutor, Susan Devos spoke to our class this semester. Talk in
detail about insights into what you learned from her talk?
When Susan Devos, Assistant Prosecutor, of Blue Earth County came to speak
with our class this semester she discussed a lot about how she came to this profession.
She went to into great detail about the different steps it took for her to become what she is
today. If I remember correctly I think she attended either Winona or Mankato University,
but I am not exactly sure. She also went through how she came to her career and who she
chooses it. From what I remember I know that she had a difficult time deciding what she
would have wanted to do with her life. It was the Assistant Prosecutor that full filled all
her desired needs for her occupation. The way she described a prosecutor is a lawyer with
a law degree and is recognized to be of higher status. They however, do not do the
investigating or deal with evidence. Their main purpose is in the court where they charge
someone of a particular crime that was committed. Her presentation was very brief and
mainly discussed the ways in which she came to her career and what it is that she is doing
now with it.
Question Two
Jayme Jackson the Program Director for the Blue Earth County Sexual Resource Center
gave many insights into the world of sexually related crimes. Discuss in detail the
insights you gained?
With all the sexual related crimes that have occurred on campus this passed
semester it was beneficial to have a trained professional in class to discuss more in depth
about what is and is not considered sexual harassment and ways in which to prevent it.
Jayme Jackson is the Program Coordinator of Blue Earth County Sexual Resource
Center. The definition that she gave for sexual violence “is an act, verbal and or
physical, which breaks a person’s trust or sense of safety and is sexual in nature. It is an
act of violence by a person who has the need to feel powerful by controlling, dominating
or humiliating the victim.” She also discussed how unlike some crimes that discriminate
to certain areas that sexual assault does not. In this type of crime everyone is in danger of
being a victim. The first step that she states to prevent being attacked is awareness. Also,
that this kind of crime does not only affect the victim, but it affects that person’s family
and friends as well.
There are many types of sexual violence that she listed out for us a few are: child
sexual abuse, obscene phone calls, sexual harassment, stalking, and prostitution. This
type of crime is different from others partially because it is a crime of power and control.
It is so the criminal can dominate and take control of his or her victim. This crime also
includes one’s most personal possession, which is the body, misunderstood by society,
emotions, and often target vulnerable individuals.
Reasons that she stated that assist these crimes is that the people that are doing
these crimes are usually people that one trusts, which she called the shock effect. This is
because the victim probably never saw it coming and someone that they cared about is
hurting them and they do not know why. Another is physical limitation this can be a
person’s strength or disability. This has some reasons to why many of these crimes are
done by males, because they are stronger.
For victims of these crimes they have many options to help them get through what
happened to them. Mrs. Jackson presented a few that are available around the Mankato
area. These are twenty-four hour crisis line, medical exams, and criminal justice process.
People like Jayme Jackson are hired to deal with these types of situations and in order to
help people need to come forward even if one feels ashamed of or embarrassed of what
happened to them. The point that she tried the hardest to enforce during her lecture was
that it “is not your fault.” Many people who got through this come up with a wide range
of ways that they feel that is was, because of themselves that this happened. People in
her possessions role as she stated is to “provide the survivor with a safe and confidential
environment to discuss options and choices.” They are there to assist and support the
victim not to judge them.
The phases that the victim must go through in order to overcoming what has
happened, is what Jayme Jackson called the Phases in Healing and Recovery, there are
four of these phases. The first one, is impact, this is to look back at how this made the
victim feel through blame, guilt, and shame. Second is outward adjustment, even though
the victim may seem to overcome the attack on the outside it is the opposite on the inside.
This type of attack can take a few years to resolve in a person’s mind. Thirdly resolution,
this is the break down point where the victim can feel depressed and anger. At this time
will need a lot of support. Lastly is the integration, it is accepting. It is the end of all the
worrying when can finally feel in control of one’s life again.
The amount of rapes that people do not report is around 61%, this means that all
those rapists are still out on the streets. Though, if the rape does get reported the chance
that there will even be an arrest is only 50.8%. Following an arrest it is an 80% chance of
prosecution. After that it goes to only having a 58% chance of a felony. After convicted
the chance of jail time is 69%. This means that of those 39% of attacks that were reported
the number of rapists that actually spend time in jail is only 16.3%. No wonder, people do
not report these crimes, because it almost seems pointless. She then went into detail about
ways that students can get involved in preventing and helping victims of these types of
crimes. The first time of volunteer is forty-four hours of training that can be done at
MSU.
Question Three
Active Learning is involving yourself in a class to generate your own knowledge of the
class rather than having the class taught primarily by an instructor. Discuss your views
either for or against Active Learning?
Throughout my short experience of just my freshman year at MSU I have seen a
variety of learning techniques from different professors. Some choose to do strictly
lecture, but this usually puts students to sleep. Others try to use discussions a lot; this is
better than lectures, but if students do not speak up it hurts their grade a lot. Then there
are those that teach by active learning. I found that this was very beneficial for me and
probably many others. It also worked well in the class, because many of the topics were
broad and we were able to open and discuss them more.
By having the students involve in the teaching was a more enjoyable then I
thought it would be. Then the students that were in charge of attendance, groups, grades,
and discussion points were able to see how course like these work and could see the
different side of the class room. Though, I was not one of the students who got to work
with the professor in that way I was able to get involved still. There are so many different
ways for a student to become involved in this class. They could be a part of the chapter
summaries, these people went through the main point of the chapter and made a power
point to present to the class and discuss people views on what had been shown. Then
there is the current event for each chapter. This group was supposed to find a clip on
YouTube and relate it to the chapter. The one that I enjoyed the most was about Chris
Brown and Rhianna. This type of teaching alone got students not only to read the
chapters, but also to look outside the box and see how it relates to society. The final
group was the imovies. I was part of one of these groups and I enjoyed it very much. The
assignment was for us to find a topic that related to the textbook and make a video about
it. The requirements were to have interviews, stats, and a skit. Process of making this
video was very beneficial. My group and I learned a lot not only about our topic, which
was underage drinking on campus, but also how to use the program imovie for the future.
Through this courses techniques students were able to use a variety of resources and learn
a lot more about the topics.
I feel that the use of active learning was very beneficial in the Criminal Justice
course. Considering this class was larger than most it got everyone in the class involved
in their own way that they chose. It also got students to learn how to use and experience
other sources that they may have never used before. I thought that this was very
beneficial and in my future class will look at other sources such as YouTube and the
news to learn more about what is being discussed. In the future I hope that other teachers
decided to use this in their course, because it gets students away from their original
surroundings and experiences of the classroom and out into something new and more
interesting. There are a few courses that I have taken this semester that I feel would have
been more interesting and beneficial if were taught like this instead. If more teachers
taught this way or similar to this I think that students would be more interested in
attending class and get more out of it in the long run. I know that I will take what I have
learned from this class’s technique and use them in my other classes to become more
aware of my subjects.
Question Four
Choose Four Elements of the Behavioral Dimensions of Grades and discuss in detail how
you used them in any of your classes this semester? Examples: Ability-Talent,
Attendance-Commitment, Attitude-Dedication etc.
On the first day of class when the professor passed out a plastic sheet of paper
with or what he called “behavior dimensions of grades” not going to fib I sort of laughed.
Though, as the semester went on I found myself actually looking at it time and again, but
not just the criminal justice class many of them. There are nine elements to this grade
process but there are four that I used most frequently and found most beneficial. They are
attendance, curiosity, attitude, and time commitment.
The element of attendance was a lot more beneficial to this class. For some that I
am taking this semester I could never attend class and probably still at least get a B, but
with this class attendance is key. I thought it was odd that so many people did not come
to this class. It said in the syllabi that attendance was crucial and if had more than I think
three absences that it would affect ones grade. By knowing this I was sure to get up for
class every day to be sure that my grade would not have to suffer. I am positive that I
have not missed more than one day of class for criminal justice. Regarding the other
classes that I have been taking this semester I am sure that I have not missed more than
one or two per class. This has showed me the responsibility it takes to be in class, and
how beneficial it is come test days.
Curiosity is another element that I found myself using in other classes.
Throughout my education I have heard many times that one should always ask questions
in class if they do not understand and or are interested in knowing more about a topic.
With the discussion points that were required for this course I found myself speaking up
more in class. Again it was not just this course, but all of my classes. I have gotten a lot
more respect from my teachers, and created a friendship with some. It was all because
our in and out of class discussions.
Another is ones attitude. I found that if I think positive about something even
though I may dislike it that I can go farther. If I just look at a class as another grade and
do not truly care about getting anything out of it and then that is all it will be and I will
not get as high of a grade. Though know that I am taking interest into my classes it makes
it better to volunteer in class. I have also found that if I have the attitude to push myself
that I can do much more than I had ever thought. All of this has been used throughout the
semester and I will continue not only academically but socially and professionally.
Finally, time commitment, this is to keep myself in check with everything that I
must have done in a certain amount of time. Ever since the beginning of the school year I
have always written down what is due for my classes. This helped me work through my
week better and have enough time to complete everything without having to rush. I have
also started to make daily and weekly schedules of other things, such as laundry. This
has helped me maintain my time much better and will continue using these kind of
techniques in the future.