FAQ

Anyone! Your undergraduate years are an exciting time of discovery, skill-building, knowledge
formation, and idea generation. Getting involved in research can help fast-track all these experiences.

Involvement in research is an excellent way to sharpen critical thinking skills and develop important
technical and professional skills that will be required in a wide variety of careers after graduation.
Research experiences also allow you to network with faculty and other students, which can be useful
when you need a referral or recommendation for a job or graduate/law school. Ultimately, research
exposes you to new ideas and people, expands your mind, deepens your awareness, and positions you to facilitate change and improve practices within the criminal justice field and beyond.

Criminal justice researchers come from a wide range of academic backgrounds (psychology, criminology, sociology, etc) and have varying research interests and goals. Some researchers study existing policies, practices, and initiatives within the criminal legal system, while others test different criminological theories or explore important issues facing justice-involved persons or people working in criminal justice and related professions. The School of Criminal Justice has faculty that study all kinds of topics, including but not limited to policing and crime prevention strategies, prison systems and policies, reentry of individuals from prisons/jails back to the community, development of antisocial behavior and desistance from crime, victimology, violence, gangs, biopsychosocial influences of behavior, and public opinion of criminal justice policies, issues, and practices. Please visit the faculty page for the School of Criminal Justice to learn more about current studies being conducted by faculty within the school.

One way to get connected with a faculty mentor is to reach out directly to someone who shares your
interests. Talk to them after class or email them to see if they have research opportunities presently
available. You do not need to have identified a faculty mentor to participate in research, however. The School of Criminal Justice Undergraduate Research Program team will assist you with this, once you submit your application for CJ3002, CJ4096, and CJ3057.

The School of Criminal Justice Undergraduate Research team is comprised of faculty, staff, and graduate students who are there as resources for you while you participate in any of the research courses or experiences we offer. Several of the courses have embedded formal mentoring meetings with the team, which will focus on your professional development and personal growth. Your primary research supervisor may also provide mentorship but they are not expected to. They will, however, be available for training and technical assistance as you work on their projects(s).

Your responsibilities will be dictated by the needs of the project on which your main research mentor is working. You will likely start out with tasks that require little training and supervision (e.g., reference
lists, literature searches, data cleaning, qualitative data transcription, annotated bibliography, various
administrative tasks) and advance to more complex tasks or tasks that entail more training and
responsibility (participant recruitment, study interviews, data collection, data analysis), as you
demonstrate your capacity for them.

Most likely, you will be working as part of a team that includes other undergraduate students, graduate students, and a senior researcher who may be a faculty member or individual with advanced research skills, experience, and relevant credentials (masters or doctorate degree). These folks are there to support you and provide you with training and supervision in your placement (CJ 3002 or CJ 4096). Because you apply for these experiences, you will be matched as best as possible with a project and a placement that aligns with your research interests and your level of training/experience in research. It is recommended that you take CJ3055 to provide you with foundational knowledge and skills for entry- level research work. CJ 3056 offers advanced skills training, and your individual research mentor will likely also provide you with specific training related to the project and tasks to which you are assigned.

The School of Criminal Justice has many partners within the community and at UC where students can be placed for their Research Field Placement. Most placements are in-person placements, but some will allow for hybrid in-person and virtual work. The list of possible research field placements is in ongoing development. Please contact Dr. Sarah Manchak (manchash@uc.edu) for additional information.

Doing your own research project takes a lot of time and work and cannot typically be completed within one semester. As such, the independent research course (CJ3057) is reserved for students who have already an established relationship with a research mentor and have been working on a research project in another capacity (e.g., CJ 3002, summer immersive program, CJ4096). Students in Independent Research will “carve out” a smaller, more feasible research question from the larger project and will work with the faculty mentor to analyze the data and produce an oral or poster presentation for a professional conference.