About This Book

This textbook was created through Connecting the Pipeline: Libraries, OER, and Dual Enrollment from Secondary to Postsecondary, a $1.3 million project funded by LOUIS: The Louisiana Library Network and the Institute of Library and Museum Services. This project supports the extension of access to high-quality post-secondary opportunities to high school students across Louisiana and beyond by creating materials that can be adopted for dual enrollment environments. Dual enrollment is the opportunity for a student to be enrolled in high school and college at the same time.

The cohort-developed OER course materials are released under a license that permits their free use, reuse, modification and sharing with others. This includes a corresponding course available in Moodle and Canvas that can be imported to other platforms. For access/questions, contact Affordable Learning Louisiana.

If you are adopting this textbook, we would be glad to know of your use via this brief survey.

Cover Image

The cover image is “Lunar Justice” by Steve Calcott and licensed under a Creative Common Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license (CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED).

Sharing References and Adaptation Statement

Image credit: Oak Alley Plantation | Pixabay | Content License: Free for use

CCRJ 1013 Intro to Criminal Justice is an Open Educational Resource (OER). OER “are learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open license, that permit no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others” (UNESCO, 2023). This text is licensed under the Creative Commons (CC 4.0) format (creativecommons.org) with support to complete this project from the Rebus Foundation and LOUIS | The Louisiana Library Network. This OER is meant for dual-enrollment engagement for college credit for high school students in the Louisiana System of Education.

Image credit: St. Louis Cathedral, Jackson Square, New Orleans | Pixabay | Content License: Free for use

This textbook is particularly unique in that it has been adapted to suit the needs for students in the state of Louisiana using two previous OER submissions. The first, and original textbook was collaboratively written by Criminology and Criminal Justice professionals at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon, with support from Open Oregon Educational Resources. That course text is titled SOU-CCJ230 Introduction to the American Criminal Justice System.  It was then adapted with support from Penn State Libraries. That course text was labeled Introduction to the U.S. Criminal Justice System. Each OER was engineered to be specific to the needs of students for the region in which they were studying: CCJ 230 for Southern Oregon University, and CRIMJ 100 for Penn State University, respectively. Likewise, the CCRJ 1013 adaptation is also tailored to the needs of the students within the state of Louisiana while meeting the learning objectives outlined within, as well as covering the relevant subject matter required for an introductory course in Criminal Justice specifically for high school students seeking dual-enrollment credit for college courses.

Image credit: Alligator | Pixabay | Content License: Free for use

This course can be adapted to be used in both the quarter and semester format as the instructor of record sees the need. There has been considerable focus on core topics that are relevant to current issues including the courts, corrections, policing, and juvenile justice, as well as an expanded section on criminological theory. Newly added material has been included that discusses Cybercrime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security issues as they have arisen in the scope of 9/11, the emergence of social media, and post Hurricane Katrina emergency disaster management. The Louisiana adaptation has also been mindful of the uniqueness of the Louisiana Judicial System and has incorporated as much of its distinctiveness as possible into this OER for the benefit of the students’ learning needs. This adaptation has relatable examples that will test critical thinking skills as well as assessments, exercises, and audio/visual multimedia for enhanced student engagement.

If there are any questions about the Louisiana adaptation, please feel free to contact Shatiqua Mosby-Wilson at swilson@suno.edu. For information regarding the original adaptations, email Shanell Sanchez at sanchezs2@sou.edu with any specific questions about the original Southern Oregon University book or Katherine McLean at kjm47@psu.edu with any questions about the adapted Penn State University text.

Image credit: Crawfish | Pixabay | Content License: Free for use

References

UNESCO. (2023, February 27). Open Educational Resources. Retrieved from UNESCO: https://www.unesco.org/en/open-educational-resources