Criminal Justice Course Reflection

This was one of my first classes as a criminal justice minor, and if I weren’t already half way done with my sociology degree, I would totally switch to criminal justice. Every single class I have taken relating to the CJ system has been interesting and I actually want to attend class and read the material, which I’m not sure if I can say the same about sociology.
One thing I think I did well in class was time management. There were a lot of weekly assignments and it could’ve been very easy to slip up and forget about one of them. I tried to finish the chapter questions before the Monday class that was discussing the chapter so I had an idea of what was going to be taught. It also made me understand the material better since I read about …show more content…
I always viewed them positively, and I still do. I learned in this course how difficult it is to be a police officer. They are constantly always under an insane amount of stress, on duty and off. I definitely will give them more respect now (I always have) and appreciate everything they do. It’s difficult though because of the media and other news sources making them look bad, but after this course I learned that most of them are just doing their jobs. On the opinion questionnaire, when asked if the police are necessary in American society, I put ‘yes, without them I feel like society would kind of be like the movie The Purge.’ I realized after taking this course that society would end up being like the movie if police weren’t present. The police have so many roles besides arresting the bad guys, I feel like society would fall apart without the police and law …show more content…
He’s a labor attorney that represents police unions. I asked him so many questions through out the course especially during the courts and trials chapters. When I went home one weekend we had a long conversation about prisons and whatnot and it was nice to just talk to him about what I’m learning and him teaching me new things as well. Whenever I talked about this class to him he would relate it to some of the departments he represents or share stories from some of his officers. Another takeaway would be that I have more knowledge of what the police actually do. Before, I just thought they went around, looking for suspicious behavior or responding to calls, but now I realized they do much more than that. One last thing I will takeaway that relates to that is to not be mad at the police for enforcing the law. Every time I get pulled over and acquire a ticket I get super angry with the officer (after I drive away). I’m the one that broke the law I shouldn’t get angry with the officer who was just doing his job; I think a lot of negative views of the police spiral from that