International Criminal Justice Education in Developing Countries

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International Criminal Justice Education in
Developing Countries

• Mangai Natarajan
• Department of Sociology

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This presentation will

• Describe the ICJ curriculum at John Jay
• Purpose
• Course Structure
• Discuss what would it take to develop a similar
  curriculum for developing countries
• Feasibility
• Resources

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International Criminal Justice Education

• International Criminal Justice is a new, evolving
  interdisciplinary field that covers crime and
  justice from a global perspective

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ICJ covers a broad set of topics

• International crimes and transnational crimes
• Comparative criminology and criminal justice
• Human rights issues at local, national and
  international level
• Treatment of women and children
• Atrocities and torture
• Rights of illegal immigrants
• International criminal law and international
  relations
• The International Criminal Court
• The role of the United Nations and other
  international agencies in preventing crime and
  establishing criminal justice standards.
• And much more.

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International Crime Justice
Transnational Crime Justice
Comparative Criminology/CRJ
Criminology/CRJ
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(No Transcript)
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John Jays purpose in establishing the ICJ major

• 1. To prepare undergraduate students with the
  knowledge, skills and perspective needed to
  compete for careers in the field of international
  criminal justice
• 2. To prepare students for advanced work in
  graduate and professional schools
• 3. To improve understanding of international
  crime and criminal justice through research
  conducted by faculty and students, ensuring that
  emerging global realities purposefully inform the
  study of crime.

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Development of the curriculum

• The major was built upon existing courses taught
  by various departments. Only 12 of the 36 courses
  (current) were exclusively prepared for the major
• The curriculum is designed to be flexible so as
  to accommodate new additions to the program.

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ICJ Curriculum

• The curriculum includes
• core courses
• foundation courses
• skills courses
• specialization in global and regional studies
• a capstone course
• an internship
• (totaling to 39 credits)

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Required Courses (24 credits)

• Introduction to International Criminal Justice
  (100 level)
• Global Economic Development and Crime (200 level)
• Comparative Criminal Justice Systems (200 level)
• International Criminology (300 level)
• Foreign Language (200 level or above)
• Principles and Methods of Statistics (200 level)
• Foundations of Scholarship in International
  Criminal Justice (300 level)
• Capstone Seminar in International Criminal
  Justice (400 level)

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2006 World Map of the Rule of Law Index, which
measures the extent to which agents have
confidence in and abide by the rules of society.
Colors range from green (top quartile), to yellow
(middle high), orange (middle low) and red
(bottom quartile). Kaufmann, Kraay, Mastruzzi
ww.govindicators.org .
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Mainstreaming the rule of law around the world

• One of the many ways is through ICJ
• education

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Developing ICJ program for Developing Countries

• Drawing on my experience in developing the ICJ
  program at JJ, and my visits to many developing
  nations I would comment upon two salient issues
• Feasibility
• Resources

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Feasibility

• Delivery of the program is problematic
• In many developing nations full-fledged
  criminology or criminal justice programs do not
  exist at the undergraduate level
• Criminology/CJ courses tend to be offered by law,
  psychology and sociology departments as
  electives or special areas
• Criminology/criminal justice tends to be taught
  at the graduate level

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Resources

• Faculty training, expertise and scholarship
• Reading materials
• Internships and Job placements

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Concluding Remarks

• It has taken several decades for criminology and
  criminal justice to become established in
  developed countries at a college level. So we can
  expect the same with developing countries
• If the program is job or career oriented there
  will be a demand for criminology and criminal
  justice education
• An undergrad course that surveys international
  crime and justice issues could serve as a gateway
  course to a larger program such as J.J.s.

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International Crime Justice
Transnational Crime Justice
Comparative Criminology/CRJ
Criminology/CRJ