Honors Class 4: Administrative Issues in Criminal Justice
When I heard about the opportunity to enhance Administrative Issues in Criminal Justice, I immediately took it. After taking a break from an Honors course a couple of semesters ago, I needed to get back on the right track. Unfortunately, I did so more out of a necessity for an Honors class rather than the content itself. At the start of my junior year, I decided to do a complete turnaround with what I want to do as a career, switching from law enforcement to diplomacy and foreign service. However, I decided to keep my major, and being that the class was necessary for my degree, was a win-win situation.
Dr. Burger’s class was interesting, to say the least. Each class would begin with a ten to fifteen minute discussion of current events. Many may have seen it as rambling or a waste of time, but Dr. Burger always found a way to turn it into something relevant with the criminal justice system. Topics ranged from the structure of the criminal justice system to the rundown of amendments and important court cases that coincided with them. The courseload seemed simple enough, or so I thought. The regular section would write a three to five page paper every other week, those being the only grades in the class. However, me and the other three Honors students were given a much more difficult task.
Dr. Burger gave us an option at the beginning of the semester: two assignments, worth 50% of our grade a piece, or one assignment that would constitute or grade for the whole class. We decided on the latter, and we were paired up to work on very intriguing project. My partner and I were tasked with writing a twenty-five page paper on one of the topics we covered in class, including a very well-constructed policy on the topic to implement in the community. When I heard this, I immediately panicked. Not to mention the fact that the project was 100% 0f our grade, the paper layout seemed very broad. My partner was just as worse for wear, but we decided not to hesitate till the last minute and begin our research immediately. We decided to research community-oriented policing, which is a more progressive approach used by law enforcement agencies to build better relationships with the public and solve local issues. After hours spent in the library and brainstorming ways of approach, we finished up the class with a 95%. Dr. Burger’s class was the most stressful class I have ever taken at Longwood, but I learned a lot from it. His assignment was practical. The fact that we had to draft up a policy that could be used as a framework down the road ensured that our coursework was relevant and it wasn’t material we left in a classroom after the semester was over. In addition, I strengthened my time management skills and learned to work better with a partner and group setting. The fact that we shared the grade made us rely and depend on each other to get our fair share done. Whereas I would previously wait longer and stall to tackle something like this, my partner motivated me to be proactive, and I like to think I motivated her to find all the research possible to build a sound policy. All in all, I took away much more than I ever thought I would in this class, both in work ethic and in material.
Attached is our group project, filled with details on community policing such as different interpretations, case studies, and our final policy.