CJ 3001 - Kids Who Kill
Fall semester I took the honors seminar Kids Who Kill (CJ 3001). The course explored the juvenile criminal justice system as well as the biological, environmental, and psychological factors that increase the risk that a child will commit a violent crime. My favorite class meetings were those with guest speakers. One possible career path I am interested in pursuing is working within the juvenile criminal justice system. Many of the guest speakers who spoke in class were former attorneys and judges from the juvenile court system. It was intriguing to listen to their stories of cases they worked on regarding violent and homicidal children.
Towards the end of the semester, we visited Hillcrest Training School (also called Hillcrest Academy). Hillcrest Academy is a rehabilitation center that houses violent male juvenile offenders, as an alternative to incarceration. At the facility, the children are called “student athletes,” rather than “offenders” or “inmates.” This change in identification allows for the children to feel valued, rather than labeled as criminals at a young age. Hillcrest Academy provides cognitive behavioral therapy, family visiting hours, housing and food, and athletic teams to aid in community-building and rehabilitation for the “student athletes.”
Kids Who Kill was an honors course with no prerequisites. Therefore, the people in the class were from various majors and colleges across UC. The class was largely discussion-based and the variety of majors allowed for interesting class discussions with differing opinions on how violent children should be treated within the juvenile criminal justice system.
Every week throughout the semester, I wrote a response paper after reading a section of the textbook or watching a film related to course content. The document below is in response to a prompt asking me to create and describe my own violent juvenile offender based on a textbook reading about common risk factors. I then had to utilize the Disposition section of the Ohio Youth Assessment System (OYAS) to give the child a score reflecting his or her chances of recidivism (risk of re-offending).
Fall semester I took the honors seminar Kids Who Kill (CJ 3001). The course explored the juvenile criminal justice system as well as the biological, environmental, and psychological factors that increase the risk that a child will commit a violent crime. My favorite class meetings were those with guest speakers. One possible career path I am interested in pursuing is working within the juvenile criminal justice system. Many of the guest speakers who spoke in class were former attorneys and judges from the juvenile court system. It was intriguing to listen to their stories of cases they worked on regarding violent and homicidal children.
Towards the end of the semester, we visited Hillcrest Training School (also called Hillcrest Academy). Hillcrest Academy is a rehabilitation center that houses violent male juvenile offenders, as an alternative to incarceration. At the facility, the children are called “student athletes,” rather than “offenders” or “inmates.” This change in identification allows for the children to feel valued, rather than labeled as criminals at a young age. Hillcrest Academy provides cognitive behavioral therapy, family visiting hours, housing and food, and athletic teams to aid in community-building and rehabilitation for the “student athletes.”
Kids Who Kill was an honors course with no prerequisites. Therefore, the people in the class were from various majors and colleges across UC. The class was largely discussion-based and the variety of majors allowed for interesting class discussions with differing opinions on how violent children should be treated within the juvenile criminal justice system.
Every week throughout the semester, I wrote a response paper after reading a section of the textbook or watching a film related to course content. The document below is in response to a prompt asking me to create and describe my own violent juvenile offender based on a textbook reading about common risk factors. I then had to utilize the Disposition section of the Ohio Youth Assessment System (OYAS) to give the child a score reflecting his or her chances of recidivism (risk of re-offending).
response_3.docx | |
File Size: | 19 kb |
File Type: | docx |