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18 J. Crim. Just. Educ. 254 (2007)
The Vanishing JD - How ACJS Certification Ensures Extinction of the Species

handle is hein.journals/jcrimjed18 and id is 260 raw text is: JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE EDUCATION VOLUME 18 NUMBER 2 (JULY 2007) The Vanishing JD-How ACJS Certification Ensures Extinction of the Species Roger Enriquez Criminal Justice departments across the country are experiening unprecedented growth. This growth has created a demand for qualified tenure-track faculty. Obviously, it is important to maintain quality standards for the hiring of tenure- track faculty during periods of growth. In an effort to improve the quality of Criminal Justice education, the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences has adopted standards for certification of baccalaureate and graduate degree programs. One area adressed by the ACJS standards is the area of acceptable faculty credentials for certification. For example, graduate programs that desire the ACJS imprimatur cannot have a faculty with more than 1 in 10 faculty members who hold a Juris Doctor degree. Efforts to eliminate the JD from the CJ faculty ranks are misguided. Instead, CJ departments should focus on the individual candiadate. Graduates from top-tier institutions with a history of scholarly productivity and who possess ample skills in empirical study should not be excluded from tenure-track consideration solely because they lack a PhD. The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers. -William Shakespeare, Henry VI (Act IV, Scene II) At the forefront of the movement to improve the quality of criminal justice (CJ) education is the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS). In recent years, one of the biggest casualties of this movement is the JD-the much maligned Juris Doctor degree is all but extinct in many CJ departments. Moreover, new job postings are nearly universal in their condemnation of the JD only candidate. Language in job ads like JD is not a terminal degree or JD alone is not suitable is as ubiquitous as backpacks on campuses. While few could argue against the push toward improving the quality of CJ education, reaching the dubious conclu- sion that eradicating JDs will improve the overall quality is simply not supported. ACJS and Certification On May 2, 2005, the ACJS Executive Board approved the certification standards and review process intended to measurably improve the quality of criminal ISSN 1051-1253 print/1745-9117 online/07/020254-07 Z Routledge © 2007 Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences To ,,&Co ,. p DOI: 10.1080/10511250701383368

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