They interview clientele, ride on patrol, write reports, observe court procedures, do legal research, process records, conduct case work, and discuss professional and personal concerns. The interns work full time. To complete Criminology Department requirements, the students maintain a daily log of activities and write an analytical paper examining the theoretical and practical aspects of the work at their agencies. The paper is a major research project designed to help the student apply classroom theory to real life situations. The employer benefits from the results of the paper and often aids in the supervision.
Students praise many benefits of the related field experience.
They see that internships provide a greater insight into criminal justice operations and provide job references and potential employer contacts following graduation. Perhaps more important, interns gain greater self-confidence and career goal clarification. Agencies typically express quite an interest in recruiting interns. This is primarily because interns are additional workers for the site and provide a pool of better trained prospective employees from which to choose when hiring additional staff. To be eligible for a twelve credit criminology internship, a student has to be in good academic standing, must have completed a minimum of fifty seven credits including at least eighteen credits in appropriate criminology courses, and must pass a screening interview.