Integrating Community-based Research into a Criminal Justice Capstone Course

Abstract

There have been a number of themes influencing teaching approaches in undergraduate education in recent years. These include experiential learning and an emphasis on providing research opportunities to students. Couple these themes with the current emphasis in the criminal justice field for researcher–practitioner collaboration and the confluence points toward a community-based research (CBR) approach. This study discusses CBR pedagogy and provides a specific example of its implementation in a criminal justice capstone course. Student outcomes indicate that CBR is a positive way to integrate collaborative, experiential research opportunities for undergraduate students.