For Those in Pursuit of Higher Education!

[GRACE]

For those of you who started your semesters of school recently, how do you feel?

I am carrying 16 units and work part time and right now I have the biggest headache I have ever had in my life (well, not quite the biggest but close )

I have a Victims and Criminals class, Youth in Society, Law Enforcement, Research Methods, and 3d Sem. Spanish.......... UUUGGGGGGHHH!

I hope it gets better and is over soon. I have two reasearch projects, six papers, two community service projects, two class presentations (LE Related)and TONS OF READING!!

Hope all is going well for all of you who are trying to get that wonderful piece of paper .

Sorry for the rant.

[kateykakes]

Hang in there, Grace. It'll all pay off in the long run. *hugs*

[jarhead6073]

I don't have that much of a workload, 13 credits. I am taking that research methods class though, ugh.

I'm annoyed with my Intro to CJ book. It's increcibly liberal and it p*sses me off. It feigns an attempt to appear balanced but it isn't. It will list "conservative" views and then 2-3 negative things about it. Then "liberal" views and 2-3 positive things about it. Just from reading this book you would think that the entire CJ system is comletely racist, doesn't care about justice or due process. And my favorite parts are where it says that the police are racist because they spend more time going after "visible crime, or street crime" than they do going after "occupational, or white collar crime"

I also like how it puts the burdon of ending "crime producing poverty" on the CJ system.

Other than that it's going pretty well for my first actual year of college.

[FLLawdog]

Hey, Jarhead, your book isn't by Schmellenger, is it? That's the series we use and they seem OK.

Wow, Grace 16 units? I tried doing 13 credits, plus work an 84 hour pay period on nights...ONCE. Never again! Now I only two classes at a time. It takes longer, but I actually learn more and do better.

Good luck to you, and remember you can always count on us (most of us anyway ) for help at all hours of the night.

[Sam]

I just started a Masters program in C.J. I am taking Perspectives in Criminology and Basic Research. The first book I read by Messner cites Karl Marx as an expert on human behavior. He thinks the root cause of criminal activity is "the American dream". I am with you Jarhead, it is tough reading.

[jarhead6073]

quote:

---

Originally posted by FLLawdog:
Hey, Jarhead, your book isn't by Schmellenger, is it? That's the series we use and they seem OK.

---

No, it's some knuckleheads named Cole and Smith

[CinaC]

Why don’t you list some of the “negatives” and some of the “positives”? I still have my CJ text from when I took the course when I was a CJ major -- waaaay back in ‘97, before I became a history major, and waaay before I became an English major. Anyway, it’s by Albanese.

I’m taking 12 credits -- Shakespearean Comedy, Structure of the English Language (aka - Linguistics 101), Advanced Fiction Writing, and Writing Literary Essays. I love my professors (no kidding, I have a Dr McCool!!!!), I love the subjects, and I’d be really happy about this semester ...

... except my a**hole boss at PJs keeps slashing my hours, and my continued search for employment at a non-delivery restaurant seems DOA. I’m going to swing by two places tomorrow morning before I go into work, and hopefully something will come from that. I’m also working 10 hours a week in the computer lab. Not a horrible job.

(The best part is -- in everything but my Shakespeare class - the girls outnumber the guys at least 2:1. Someone is gettin‘ laid this semester!*. )

*And it had damn well better be me!

[KCadet]

I only have 13 credits right now. I'm taking General Biology, German 1, Global Issues in Lit, and Finite Math. Pretty easy...And I love my Lit professor! Makes me actually want to go 3 days a week!

[jarhead6073]

CIJ, you should look into private security. If you get a post where you sit at a desk and watch monitors it rocks for college students. I get paid 16 hours a week to do homework.

I don't have the book handy but I'll post some of them later.

[shorty]

Well, I don't miss the whole college thing. I did think about going back and getting my masters then I said, What the he11 am I thinking? So, I decided a B.S. in CJ is good enough. There at the end I was taking 21 hours a semester and working 40 hours a week (on 3rd shift on doubt), I remember going to work at night and not remembering driving there. I was exhausted!!!!

Keep your heads up, it is worth it in the long run. When you get that little piece of paper and you think of all of the work, money, stress, etc that you invested and all you have is this little piece of paper you will say WTF? lol
Seriously, I am glad I stuck with it, they can take my house, they can take my car, they can take everything I own, but I will ALWAYS have the right to say I have a degree that no one can take from me! (Corny huh?)

[kheya]

I know how you all feel. I am in an amazingly difficult Ph.D. program right now. I just got my Masters this summer (YEAH!!!!!!!!) and am on to upper level course work. I took 18 credits my first semester, 16 credits my second semester and 11 credits over the summer. I also have a 16 hour assistantship and a 16 hour practicum...there are days I don't know which end is up. This semester I am doing 20 credits....( no I'm not crazy...its the required work load...) Thank god I have a wonderful husband and family who take over the everyday things so I can concentrate on school.

Oh yeah...my Ph.D. will be in School Psychology..then I can shrink all of the kids I come into contact with...lolol

kheya

[jarhead6073]

For those interested; Stupid Things in my CJ Book

"Policies that have been adopted over the past decades to deal with crime have been promoted by those who can be classified as either conservative or liberal in their thinking about social issues.
Conservatives believe that the answer lies in stricter enforcement of laws that require swift and certain punishment of criminals...
liberals argue that stronger crime control measures endanger the values of due process and justice. They claim that strick measures are ineffective because the answer lies in reshaping the lives of offenders and changing the social and economic conditions from which criminal behavior springs"

"Crime increased in the 1960's when the liberal approach of rehabilitating offender was taken. Does this mean that the approach does not work? Perhaps it was merely overwhelmed by the sheer number of people who were in their crimeprone years. Perhaps there would have been even more crime if not for the efforts to rehabilitate people. Crime rates decreased when tough policies were implemented in the 1980s. Was that because of the conservative policies in effect, or because fewer people were in the crime-prone age group? If conservative policies are effective, then why did the violent crime rates rise in the early 1990s, when tough policies were still in force?"
-----------------------------------------------
So, liberal policies resulted in higer crime rates. Oh but perhaps it was just because of more people, maybe there would have been more crime with out lieral policies (no proof of that) = no sucess

Conservative policies resulted in less crime, but it can't be because the policies worked! = some sucess.

Crime control (conservative) vs. Due Process (liberal: as if conservative policies don't have due process)

Basically lists all these things under the Due Process model and says nothing of them in the Crime Control model;

...assumes that freedom is so important the avery effort must be made to ensure that criminal justice decisions are based on reliable information... Stresses the adversarial process, rights of defandants, and formal decision-making procedures.. Because people are poor observers of of disturbing events, police and prosecutors are likely to be wrong in presuming a defandant to be guilty. Thus, people should be labeled as criminals only on the basis of conclusive evidence... the government musht be forced to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defandant is guilty..."

It goes on and on as if all of this is unique to the Due Process model and not Constituinally required for both models.
The criminal justice system is racist is the section that really bothers me but I don't have time to post it. Here's a gem;

"Evidence of racism exists in the way society asks the CJ system to operate. For example, federal sentencing guidelines punish users of crack cocaine about one hundred times more harshly than users of powder cocaine, even though the drugs are almost identical. The only difference is that people of color in the inner cities tend to use crack cocaine, while whites tend to use cocaine in its powder form."

So it's racist to punish users of the cheaper more addictive more crime related, more generally devastating drug?

If I could I'd post the whole first chapter because it's hard to give the overall impression with a few paragraphs. Maybe I'm reading too much into this. But half the chapter is about how minorites are picked on, falsly arrested, singled out, victims of society, economics, education... and how whites are supporting a racist society, blah blah blah it really wore on me.

[ 09-06-2002, 11:31 PM: Message edited by: jarhead6073 ]

[Rimfire]

My first semester is going pretty good.

I have to agree with Jar, I take my homework to work every night. Make rounds, study for test, lock doors, finish algebra.......

Just graduated from high school in May and I did NOT want to go back, if I don't do it now though I never will.

[p01ic3m4n]

i go to school 20 hours a week (4 days a week/5 hours a day), i work 4 10 hour shifts that vary sometimes, but for the most part stay pretty regular, AND i work a part time job on my days off, when i'm not in school. did i mention i'm married and have a kid?

[Godside]

I'm currently dealing with 17 hours. No job at this point. I am getting married in May, so I should probably be looking for one. I am talking a Service Learning Class (Internship), a P.E. class, Finite Math, Man and The Environment (Biology class), plus a lab for that class, Intro. to Philosophy and Intermediate Spanish.

Lord, help me...