The State of Black Criminology: A Focus Group of the Perspectives of African American Criminologists

Abstract

According to Minnesota State University, Mankato, diversity is a commitment to create an understanding and appreciation of diverse peoples and diverse perspectives; a commitment to create an academic, cultural workplace environment and community that develops mutual respect for all and celebrates our differences. Realizing that all perspectives cannot be easily addressed by any one course, Diverse Culture Graduation Requirements implemented Corrections courses under its Goal1, that failed to address or include perspectives of African American criminologists. To date, the Criminal Justice textbooks used in Corrections 106 and Corrections 444 do not include any African American criminologist’s perspective. From this study we hoped to gain a better understanding of African American criminologist perspectives on criminal justice and corrections policy. We hoped that our findings would have an impact on the corrections department and its faculty as well as encourage the implementation of a more diverse curriculum. In order to gain a better insight into the perspective of African American criminologist a focus group was conducted to examine two issues; their attitudes towards criminal justice punitive policy in the criminal justice system and the exclusion of their perspectives within in the classroom