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Accreditation - Is It Necessary? Yes!

NCJ Number
72253
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 8 Issue: 2 Dated: (1980) Pages: 77-87
Author(s)
G T Felkenes
Date Published
1980
Length
11 pages
Annotation
Accreditation of criminal justice educational programs is needed to legitimize them in the academic community, as well as to assure their quality. Accreditation efforts carried out by the Criminal Justice Accreditation Council (CJAC) are analyzed.
Abstract
The benefits of criminal justice accreditation include administrative benefits (e.g., securing institutional benefits for the individual program, encouraging parity with other academic programs), qualitative benefits (e.g., upholding program quality and encouraging innovative programs, developing minimal faculty qualifications), and systemic benefits (e.g., better education for criminal justice professionals and development of a more effective and efficient criminal justice system). The Criminal Justice Accreditation Council (CJAC) and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) are currently carrying out efforts to be recognized by the Council on Postsecondary Accreditation (COPA). This accreditation process involves checking to determine if the program meets the minimum standards which have been developed by the ACJS, paying accreditation fees, self-evaluating each program previous to a review by a site visitation team of trained criminal justice practitioners and educators, and more. Accreditation will not solve all the problems of criminal justice education, but it is one of the most important mechanisms to encourage improvements. Historical background of accreditation processes, analysis of the problems facing the criminal justice education programs, and 18 references are included.

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