When Boise State first introduced criminal justice education in 1966, the university had only been a four-year institution for one year.
Sixty years later, the program has grown to more than 600 undergraduate and graduate students, with coursework spanning policing, courts, corrections, victimology, research and other areas of the criminal justice system.
The Criminal Justice Department celebrated its 60th anniversary Sept. 18, recognizing six decades of growth that faculty members say transformed both the program and the field it prepares students to enter. The anniversary also comes during the department’s transition into the newly formed College of Education and Public Service.
Professor and Criminal Justice Program Lead William King said the program looked significantly different when it began.
“In the early years, the faculty would be instructing out at agencies, and then they would be teaching classes here half of the day,” King said. “So there was this connection between everything that’s happening off campus and what’s going on on campus.”
The program initially targeted professionals already working in the field, including correctional and police officers, according to King. Today, students enter a traditional four-year program before pursuing careers, graduate school or law school.
Despite those changes, King said the connection between the classroom and criminal justice agencies has remained a defining part of the program.
The program offers internships and field work designed to give students experience outside the classroom. Boise State describes its curriculum as covering areas including victim advocacy, policing, law, criminalistics and courts.
Professor Lisa Bostaph has watched much of the department’s more recent evolution firsthand since arriving at Boise State in 2003.
“I think the department is still a really good reflection of what it was in the early days,” Bostaph said. “It’s had an identity that it has really fought to try and maintain over 60 years.”
Bostaph said one of the most significant changes has been the growth of research within the department. She also pointed to the increasing emphasis on victimization, an area she has researched and taught throughout her career.
Victimization examines how people experience crime, its effects on victims and the ways the criminal justice system responds to these experiences.
Victimology and Victimization is now required for criminal justice majors, alongside courses covering policing, courts, corrections, criminal procedure, research methods and statistics.
Bostaph said victimization received far less attention nationally when she entered academia. While completing her doctorate, she said she had no victimization classes available and instead created her own reading lists to study the subject.
Boise State eventually became one of the earlier criminal justice programs to require victimology coursework, according to Bostaph.
That shift is now visible in the experiences of current students. Graduate student Mikey Stanciu said he entered criminal justice with a narrower understanding of what the field involved.
“I think it’s a really misunderstood field and kind of institution within our society,” Stanciu said. “There’s so much to it.”
Stanciu initially considered corrections as a career path. His classes eventually pushed his interests toward research, public policy and advocacy. He said coursework has also introduced him to trauma-informed approaches and the experiences of victims throughout the justice system.
Undergraduate student Kimberly Perez experienced a similar shift.
Perez initially planned to enter law enforcement but became interested in courts after taking criminal justice courses. She added a legal studies minor and now plans to attend law school and pursue family law, with an interest in helping children and victims of domestic violence.
“I think what surprises me the most was that there’s so many opportunities and so many different things that go into the criminal justice system in general,” Perez said.
The department’s growth is also occurring alongside another institutional change. The former School of Public Service merged with the College of Education this summer to create the College of Education and Public Service. University officials say the merger is intended to expand collaboration across education, public service and policy, The Arbiter previously reported.
For King, however, the department’s priorities moving forward begin with the same group at the center of its growth.
“One, continuing to serve students,” King said. “They’re the bread and butter. They’re the lifeblood of what’s going to happen in [criminal justice] for the next decades.”
King said maintaining relationships with agencies and community partners will remain another priority. In that respect, he sees the department’s future connecting back to its beginnings, when faculty moved between agencies and Boise State classrooms.
“That goes back to the founding days in ‘66, where faculty were going out to train and work in agencies, and then coming back to campus,” King said. “We’ve always done that.”
