The Criminal Justice and Legal Studies department has a lot of events throughout the academic year.
The UWF Department of Criminal Justice and Legal Studies and the U.S. Attorney’s Office presented a special seminar for law enforcement and public safety on criminal street gangs in August. The training was conducted by one of the trainers from the Florida Gang Investigators’ Association (FGIA) who assisted attendees in understanding some of the major gangs, their methods of operation, the activities they are involved in and how to identify gangs in our area.
The University of West Florida Department of Criminal Justice and Legal Studies hosted a candidate forum for office-seekers in the primary elections for Sheriff of Escambia County and Public Defender for the First Judicial Circuit. The event was a great opportunity for those involved in criminal justice, the local legal community, as well as all citizens of Escambia County to find out more about each candidate. Students from the UWF Criminal Justice Student Association, Phi Alpha Delta and UWF Student Ambassadors assisted in making the event a success!
The 3rd Annual Honors Banquet was held March 7, 2008 in the commons auditorium. Students that have demonstrated excellent academic acheivement and public service were honored. We honored over thirty CJ and LS majors at the ceremony. For more about the program and awards, see the Program Brochure (pdf).
On August 26, 2007, the Pensacola News Journal ran an article called "UWF's Cavanaugh sets sights High". In the article he was asked the question: What are the top regional needs UWF can help meet? In his answer he says:
"Our criminal justice program is absolutely first rate, and our legal studies and para-legal program is extremely well regarded." For the complete article click here.
UWF and CJLS are enhancing student learning experiences by adding a high-tech mock trial courtroom. The courtroom will be used by the UWF mock trial team, UWF and high school students, debate teams criminal justice practitioners and other community related activities. The courtroom will provide the UWF mock trial team the ideal setting for preparing for state and national undergraduate mock trial competitions....More
The courtroom is going to begin contruction in summer 2008. It will be located in Bldg 78, Room 145!
The 3rd Annual CJLS Career Expo was held on Thursday, November 1st, 2007. We had approximately 30 agencies participate in this year's expo. The Expo offered students an opportunity to interact with practitioners and gain career information in juvenile justice, victim advocacy, law, corrections, law enforcement, legal and criminal justice administration, and courts. Special thanks to students of the Criminal Justice Student Associationfor their work in welcoming the agencies to campus, assisting them in set-up, and attending to any requests during the event.
Two criminal justice students presented papers at the annual Academy of Criminal Justice Science conference in Seattle, Washington in March 2007:
Matthew Kruse, Master of Science in Administration - Criminal Justice Administration, presented a paper titled "Student perceptions of the police: The impact of education". The manuscript is a revision of the Honors Thesis he completed as an undergraduate student at UWF. Matthew was awarded travel stipends to participate in the conference by the Student Government Association, Department of Criminal Justice and Legal Studies, and the Office of Graduate Studies. Please congratulate Matt on his successful presentation and chair facilitation of the panel of presenters; he continues to be an outstanding ambassador for the College of Professional Studies, the Criminal Justice program, and the University of West Florida.
Sheena Tirpak, Senior Criminal Justice Major, presented a paper titled "Student perceptions of the utility of criminal profiling". Sheena did an excellent job presenting the findings of her research which was co-authored and advised by Dr. Tammy Castle, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice. Please congratulate Sheena if you see her; this is an outstanding accomplishment for an undergraduate student.
