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13 W. Criminology Rev. 21 (2012)
The Marginalization of Critical Perspectives in Public Justice Core Curricula

handle is hein.journals/wescrim13 and id is 159 raw text is: Frederick/ Western Criminology Review 13(3), 21-33 (2012)

WESTERN
CRIMINOL OG Y

Online citation: Frederick, Brian J. 2012. The Marginalization of Critical Perspectives in Public
Criminal Justice Core Curricula. Western Criminology Review 13(3): 21-33
(http://wcr.sonoma.edu/v13n3/Frederick.pdf).

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The Marginalization of Critical Perspectives in Public Criminal Justice Core Curricula
Brian Jay Frederick
University of Kent at Canterbury
Abstract: Although critical perspective courses in criminal justice programs have grown considerably since the 1960s, the
failure of contemporary public criminal justice programs to require critical perspectives in their undergraduate
core curricula threatens to leave students without a framework for discussion of these issues within the greater context of
their degree programs. Students must thus look to the other social sciences to further their knowledge in these areas,
thereby perpetuating the neglect of criminal justice departments to present these views. Within most academic criminal
justice programs, preference is given to the administrative facets of the criminal justice system and the theories and
methods of social scientific research; for this reason, even general discussions of critical topics are limited.
Furthermore, because many elective courses also focus on various aspects of the administration of justice, critical
perspectives are conspicuously absent overall. This paper reveals the extent to which core, cognate, and other required
critical perspective courses are marginalized within public criminal justice programs, and how, on average, private
institutions require more of these courses.
Keywords: critical perspectives, criminal justice pedagogy, general education, liberal education

Within the core curricula of most academic criminal
justice programs, there is a preference for courses that
examine the administrative facets of the criminal justice
system, as well as the theories and methods associated
with mainstream criminological research. Unfortunately,
this predilection for cops, courts, and corrections (also
known as the Three C's) leaves little room for the
addition of core courses devoted to other topics or
theoretical perspectives, especially those which might be
critical of the criminal justice system's handling of issues
related to race, class, gender or culture. The present study
thus sought to determine if core, cognate, and prerequisite
criminal justice coursework at public institutions has
evolved to include these critical perspectives at a lesser
degree than at private institutions, which are largely
autonomous from state control.
In his treatise on class conflict and law, Karl Marx
asserted that, the State will never look for the cause of
social imperfections in the State and social institutions

themselves (Bottomore 1956:124). Those who subscribe
to a Marxist perspective, then, might expect public
institutions of higher learning to be unlikely places to look
for solutions to the State's shortcomings, especially where
issues of inequality are concerned. Indeed, because
compulsory education was originally meant to preserve the
values of bourgeois society, it was believed that
institutions that taught students to be critical thinkers
would potentially contribute to the development of
problem populations (Spitzer 1975:644). This viewpoint
is bolstered by Mills, who described public education as a
politically and economically tasked mass medium that
fails to impart knowledge, directly relevant to the human
need of the troubled person...or to the social practices of
the citizen (1956:319). According to Mills, the task of
public education is to create workers, not thinkers; instead
of promoting individual struggle and transcendence, it
encourages the happy acceptance of the status quo
(1956:319).
Though a criminal justice education is certainly not
compulsory, the core curriculum for the baccalaureate

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