Indiana State University: Criminology & Criminal Justice About Us

About Us

About ISU Criminology & Criminal Justice	ISU Criminology & Criminal Justice Programs	News Videos / Articles
The ISU Program	Department Highlights
Facilities	Faculty Awards

About ISU Criminology & Criminal Justice:
The public's growing concern about crime makes criminology and criminal justice two of the most dynamic and fastest growing fields of study in the nation. Indiana State University's Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice is at the forefront of this expansion. Offering you a four-year degree program and a master's degree, our goal is to offer you professional preparation in the areas of corrections, law enforcement, security, and crime and delinquency prevention programs. What makes our program outstanding are special features including:

State-wide contacts and education programs with law enforcement personnel
Modern forensic laboratory which offers the opportunity for hands-on investigations
A faculty with experience in the field
Internships to provide practical experience

The ISU Program:
The Criminology & Criminal Justice Department at Indiana State University has as its major goal for all of its students the achievement of a sound liberal education and the accumulation of knowledge about criminal behavior, the criminal justice system, and the relationship of these phenomena to the larger society in which they exist. Students electing to major in criminology and criminal justice are prepared for careers in the criminal justice field as well as for entry into law school or a graduate program in criminology or a related discipline. The wide variety of courses offered enables each student to determine his or her program in terms of interests and aspirations.

An integral part of the criminology and criminal justice program is the internship which allows students to gain a clearer understanding of criminal justice agencies. Indiana State University is ideally situated for providing a wide range of truly outstanding internship placements.

Within the immediate vicinity of Terre Haute are situated a U.S. Penitentiary, a juvenile detention center, an adult probation office, a state parole office, a city police department, a sheriff's department, and a state police post. If a student is willing to drive up to 70 miles, it is possible for him or her to serve an internship at the local, county, state, or federal levels of both law enforcement and correctional agencies. The Department maintains close and friendly relations with all of these facilities, which greatly enhances the learning opportunities.

Facilities:
Faculty offices are all located on the second floor of Holmstedt Hall and are convenient for students needing faculty advisement or other assistance. Most classrooms are located in Holmstedt Hall and all others are situated in nearby buildings. The Indiana State Library is conveniently located and contains an excellent collection of general and specialized reference books, microfilms, journals, periodicals, and newspapers. In addition, the library belongs to state and regional networks which provide access to library materials within a larger area. The Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice also maintains and posts current information on employment opportunities for interested students.

ISU Criminology & Criminal Justice Programs:

Criminology & Criminal Justice Major
Criminology & Criminal Justice Minor
Basic (9 hrs.) and advanced (18 hrs.) certificates in corrections and private security via correspondence courses
Graduate Programs, Criminology & Criminal Justice Master's Degree

Department Highlights:

Internships: All criminology and criminal justice majors serve two separate internships. The internship allows students to gain "real-work" experiences which can help them secure jobs in the field following graduation. Many students are offered jobs by their placement agencies during or immediately following the completion of their internship. Notable internships have included placements with the Organization of American States, the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. Customs Service, the federal Department of State, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, and the Indiana State Police.

Crime Lab: The crime lab provides opportunities for students to see how evidence obtained in the field is identified and/or analyzed. The crime lab allows "hands on" experience with forensic laboratory techniques at 24 work stations equipped with comparison microscopes. The laboratory has in its inventory examples of virtually all contemporary evidence collection kits and devices.

Moot Court: The moot court provides an opportunity for students to participate in simulated appellate arguments by researching and writing appellate briefs and engaging in oral argument before a court. Participants learn professional skills in legal research, analysis, and writing. The graduate seminar in Law and Society specifically relates social science research to legal approaches to the same social problems. Occasionally, the moot court facilities are used to simulate trial court procedures involving the presentation of evidence collected from a crime scene and the examination of witnesses. The moot court facilities are also used for video presentations of trial and appellate procedures.

Students Attend Professional Conferences: Students routinely accompany faculty members to professional conferences where the students have an opportunity to visit and tour local criminal justice agencies, to meet students from other criminology and criminal justice departments, and to hear criminology and criminal justice faculty members from Indiana State University and other universities present papers. Our graduate students themselves routinely present scholarly papers at national conferences.

Specialized Courses: In addition to its regular curriculum, the department offers a variety of symposia to address special needs and interests in the field. Such courses have included "Satanic Cults and Hate Groups," "Serial and Mass Murderers: The Criminal Justice Response," "Law of the Family: Husbands, Wives, Parents and Children," "Women in the Criminal Justice System," "Minorities in the Criminal Justice System," "Enforcing Environmental Laws," "Comparative Criminal Law," "Legal Aspects of Private Security," and "Drug and Alcohol Use and Crime." The department also offers "Advanced Criminalistics" (a course in homicide investigation) which is taught by a board-certified forensic pathologist who is a former coroner.

Career Fair: Each year the Department offers a Career Fair which attracts representatives from criminal justice agencies in Indiana and the adjacent states, as well as drawing representatives from some large criminal justice agencies from states as far away as Texas and New Mexico. Generally, we have representatives from all types and levels of crime justice agencies. The Fair lasts a full day, and students have an opportunity to meet with the various agency representatives to discuss employment opportunities. In recent years, many law enforcement and correctional agencies have sent recruitment representatives who are themselves ISU alumni.

Correctional Training Institute: The Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice has a special relationship with the Correctional Training Institute, the academy of the Indiana Department of Correction. The Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice and the Correctional Training Institute work together to provide advanced professional training to CTI and other Department of Correction personnel, to provide professional development programs for corrections managers, to develop new correctional programs and to provide planning and evaluation services for Department of Correction projects.

Faculty: Many of our faculty members have worked in the criminal justice field and are able to weave both theory and practice into their classroom presentations. Several of our faculty members have been elected to offices in state, regional, and national professional associations. Some faculty have research grants which allow students to work on field research projects. One of our faculty members has gained a national reputation as a writer and has won a number of awards for his publications. Our faculty have served as consultants to the National Institute of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Federal Election Commission, the U.S. Navy, Army, and Air Force, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Private Detectives' Association of Spain, the Indiana State Police, the Alabama Highway Patrol, the Indiana Department of Correction, the Indiana Department of Transportation, the National Sheriffs' Association, the Indiana Sheriffs' Association, the Indiana Association of Chiefs of Police, the Indiana State Coroners Training Board, the Indiana Campus Law Enforcement Administrators Association, the Indiana Association of Community Corrections Act Counties, the Hudson Institute, and numerous criminal justice agencies of local government.

International Students: The department has always had a significant enrollment of international students from countries as diverse as Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Malaysia, China, Japan, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Mexico, Venezuela, France, Italy, Germany and Canada. These international students are often practitioners who have taken professional leaves of absence to pursue degrees in the United States. Their presence in the classroom enriches the experience of American students by exposing them to other cultures, other criminal justice systems, and other ideas about law and justice. Our international alumni include an assistant superintendent of police in Sabah Province, Malaysia; the assistant to the governor of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; the associate warden of a major prison in Lagos, Nigeria; a professor at the Venezuelan national military academy; and many senior police officers in Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Malaysia.

Faculty Awards:

Dr. David Skelton is a recipient of the ISU Caleb Mills Outstanding Teaching Award.
Dr. Jeffrey Schrink was appointed by former Indiana Governor Evan Bayh to the Board of the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute.
Dr. Mark Hamm is the recipient of several scholarship-related awards including the Frederic Milton Thrasher Award for gang scholarship, the Critical Criminologist of the Year Award from the American Society of Criminology, and the Model University Curriculum Award by the Bias-Motivated Crime Division of the American Sociological Association.
Lisa Kay Decker was appointed by former Indianapolis Mayor Steven Goldsmith to the Board of Public Safety for the City of Indianapolis.
Dr. Jeffrey Schrink and Dr. Edmund Grosskopf were presented the Sagamore of the Wabash award by former Indiana Governor Joe Kernan.

News Videos/Articles:

Click on the links below to see the ISU Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice in action.

Videos

Articles

Professor to Examine Growth of Islamic Extremism in Prison

Criminology Major Gains Valuable Experience at Department of Correction