Experiential Learning

The criminology department has had a long tradition in encouraging experiential learning. In the introductory courses, each student is required to attend a felony trial. It is not unusual that during a recess in the proceedings that our students will have an opportunity to ask questions of the state attorney, defense attorney and presiding judge.

Mock Trial is an experiential course that uses the American Mock Trial Association case problem or another real case to teach students how to analyze and prepare a case for trial presentation. Students learn about the trial court process and participate in the various aspects of a trial: opening statements, direct and cross examination, and closing arguments. During the course, students are introduced to the use of exhibits and demonstrative aids in preparing a case as well as the use of case law to make legal arguments and evidentiary objections. At the end of the semester, students present the mock trial at the University and may compete in the regional competition for AMTA.

Moot Court is an experiential course that involves a simulation of an appellate court hearing. It involves “teams” of attorneys representing hypothetical clients, who attempt to persuade a panel of judges that a trial court reached a “correct” or “incorrect” decision. Students are required to develop the hypothetical case taken from the American Collegiate Moot Court Association and compete at the University to be chosen for involvement in the regional (and perhaps national) competition.

In the Introduction to Victimology class, students are required to satisfy a service learning component by developing a creative and informative presentation on date rape, child abuse, dating violence, or bullying. Students, working in groups of five to seven students, create and present the programs to educate, inform and prevent date rape, child abuse, dating violence and bullying for the children held in the Hillsborough County Juvenile Detention Center.

During each fall semester, both the Introduction to Corrections and the Correctional Law classes visit two state facilities (one male and one female) and one federal prison complex. The students are encouraged to see the difference between male and female institutions and between state and federal facilities. There is ample opportunity to question administrators, correctional officers, classification officers and inmates themselves.

The community-based corrections class examines alternatives to prison in the community. The students tour jails, a federal half-way house, a residential drug treatment facility and sit in on drug court. Besides the tours, each student is required to ride along with a community control officer to meet with the individuals who are on house arrest. These are but a few of the examples of experiential opportunities available to criminology students. Each faculty member attempts to include an experiential learning component in every class taught.