Explore Our Department’s Student-Centered Approach to Learning
Students Participate in Plea Bargaining Simulation
Assistant Professor Jessica Gillooly’s Intro to Criminal Justice class participated in a plea bargaining simulation in March 2023. After 75 minutes of contentious negotiations, the prosecution and the defense entered a plea agreement in the case of the Commonwealth v. Ms. Kind. All court case and police report findings were provided by Professor Christina Miller at Suffolk Law.
Students Secure Internships
Students in our Sociology, Criminal Justice, and MS in Crime and Justice Studies programs began internships this semester in a variety of exciting organizations and agencies. These include the Salem District Courthouse, Suffolk Superior Court, Brockton Court, Marblehead Police Department, NYU Policing Project, Our Bodies Ourselves Today, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Innocent Convicts Inc, the City of Boston Department of Youth Engagement and Employment, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, the National LBBTQIA+ Health Education Center, and working with youth and with students at 902 Youth Inc. (in Cambridge) and 826 Boston.
Skylar Hathorn (featured on the left), a junior majoring in Criminal Justice and Psychology, was selected to be an inaugural Spring 30×30 Intern at the Policing Project at NYU School of Law. She will be researching evidence-based practices to increase female representation in policing. Skylar was a student in Assistant Professor Jessica Gillooly’s Police & Society course.
Sociology Major Performs Poetry on WGBH
Sociology major, Nayellie Estrella, performed her newest poem “Repressed…Representation,” on WGBH News’ Outspoken poetry series on April 1, 2023. Estrella is a Lynn native and told reporters that poetry helped her embrace her culture as a Latina. “It’s essentially about how important representation is and how I didn’t really know how to be unapologetically Latina until I became a part of the Lynn community,” Estrella said. “Lynn is definitely the city I call ‘home.’ ”
Student Directed Research
In June 2022, Lariona Jacobs, MSCJS Class of 2022, presented at the New England Association for College Admissions Counseling (NEACAC) Annual Meeting & Conference in Vermont. The workshop explored educational exclusion, revealed systemically oppressive narratives in higher ed, and opened the conversation for what equity and accessibility in higher ed truly looks like. It was attended by college admissions counselors in New England.
Inter-disciplinary Co-Teaching
Assistant Professor Carlos Monteiro co-teaching with Suffolk Law Professor Christina Miller on discretion and ethics among prosecutors in his Intro to Criminal Justice class.
Student Fieldwork
Nicole Malouf, dual-major in Criminal Justice and Psychology, presenting her Fall 2022 Honors project in Assistant Professor Jessica Gillooly’s Police & Society class. Her project involved participant observation in which she rode along with the Framingham Police. She found that officers make better decisions when they spend more time talking through options with their peers at the scene of an incident and slow down the decision-making process.
Experiential Learning
Assistant Professor Jessica Gillooly’s Intro to Criminal Justice class after observing Boston Municipal Court arraignments as part of learning about the criminal legal system. This visit included Suffolk Law Professor Christina Miller who discussed the decision-making processes among prosecutors.
Sharing Research with Suffolk Students
Assistant Professor Rebecca Stone speaking about the women currently incarcerated at MCI-Framingham prison. She spoke at the “Decarcerating Women Today: Charting a Path” conference organized by the Women and Incarceration Project and Suffolk Law School on Dec. 2, 2002. Departments members Professor Susan Sered and Professor Amy Agigian also participated in the conference.
Presenting In-Progress Research to Scholars, Practitioners, and Community Members
Assistant Professor Lucius Couloute presenting (with colleagues) at the Palm Beach Reentry Summit on his in-progress work examining the impacts of guaranteed income payments in the lives of people with felony records.
Presenting to Students and Scholars at Conferences
Assistant Professor Jessica Gillooly, in collaboration with Professor Brenda Bond, presenting findings from a qualitative study into Denver’s Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) program at the 2022 annual American Society of Criminology conference in Atlanta. The program is meant to reduce police presence to incidents involving issuees of mental and behavioral health.
Sharing Research with Students Across the US
Assistant Professor Jessica Gillooly, along with collaborator Dr. David Thacher, presenting research on the history of call-driven policing, 1880-1970 to students at Northwestern’s Comparative Historical Social Science Workshop.