United Kingdom: Criminal Justice in Scotland
Study abroad trip to Edinburgh and Glasgow
During spring semester, I enrolled in the course International Criminal Justice (CJ 4025). In this course, many professors and criminal justice researchers from different countries gave lectures about their respective legal systems. I gained much more from this method of teaching than learning from a textbook or secondhand source.
The trip itself had a great mix of cultural excursions and criminal justice-related trips. The first few days were spent exploring Edinburgh and visiting significant locations. Then we traveled to Glasgow for the remainder of the trip. Throughout the trip, I visited a working prison, sat in on real cases at a courthouse, attended a criminal justice lecture at a university, toured a forensic science lab, and visited a historical jail and police museum--of course, I couldn't take many (if any) pictures during the criminal justice-related visits. However, the other part of the trip was cultural immersion including a tour of the underground historic vaults in Edinburgh, visit to the Edinburgh Castle, hike to Arthur's Seat and Calton Hill, high tea in Glasgow, visit to Inverary and Loch Lomond. On my free day, I went to the Harry Potter sites in Edinburgh and woke up early almost every morning in Edinburgh to read Harry Potter at Elephant House (where JK Rowling wrote some parts of the book) and explore the city.
As someone with a passion for reforming the legal system here in the United States, it was invaluable for me to learn about the criminal justice systems of many other countries as well as examine
Scotland’s criminal justice system firsthand.
Please view the slideshow at the bottom of this page to see some pictures from my trip! Please note that I could not take pictures during the criminal justice-related trips, so most of these are from the sightseeing and cultural excursions.
Study abroad trip to Edinburgh and Glasgow
During spring semester, I enrolled in the course International Criminal Justice (CJ 4025). In this course, many professors and criminal justice researchers from different countries gave lectures about their respective legal systems. I gained much more from this method of teaching than learning from a textbook or secondhand source.
The trip itself had a great mix of cultural excursions and criminal justice-related trips. The first few days were spent exploring Edinburgh and visiting significant locations. Then we traveled to Glasgow for the remainder of the trip. Throughout the trip, I visited a working prison, sat in on real cases at a courthouse, attended a criminal justice lecture at a university, toured a forensic science lab, and visited a historical jail and police museum--of course, I couldn't take many (if any) pictures during the criminal justice-related visits. However, the other part of the trip was cultural immersion including a tour of the underground historic vaults in Edinburgh, visit to the Edinburgh Castle, hike to Arthur's Seat and Calton Hill, high tea in Glasgow, visit to Inverary and Loch Lomond. On my free day, I went to the Harry Potter sites in Edinburgh and woke up early almost every morning in Edinburgh to read Harry Potter at Elephant House (where JK Rowling wrote some parts of the book) and explore the city.
As someone with a passion for reforming the legal system here in the United States, it was invaluable for me to learn about the criminal justice systems of many other countries as well as examine
Scotland’s criminal justice system firsthand.
Please view the slideshow at the bottom of this page to see some pictures from my trip! Please note that I could not take pictures during the criminal justice-related trips, so most of these are from the sightseeing and cultural excursions.
For one of the assignments in the course, I was required to compare and contrast the criminal justice system of two or more countries by examining one aspect of their criminal justice systems. I chose to research the handling of juvenile offenders in Denmark and Germany. I occasionally explained how these two countries relate to the United States system, though it was not the main focus of my paper. This does not showcase the trip--rather, it shows the types of papers and lectures included in the course before the trip.
hamiltona_special_topics_paper.juvenile_offenders.docx | |
File Size: | 34 kb |
File Type: | docx |