The “Guns on Campus” Study: A Collaborative Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) in Criminal Justice

Abstract

Course-based undergraduate research experiences, or CUREs, have been shown to promote equitable participation in undergraduate research, an opportunity with potent benefits for first-generation and underrepresented minority students. Yet, CUREs are employed disproportionately within STEM fields, and among upperclassmen, despite evidence of their positive effects for lower-level, social science, and humanities students. The project described herein represents an attempt to democratize access to undergraduate research experiences through the implementation of a multi-section, cross-campus CURE in a general education course in criminal justice. Pre- and post-test surveys demonstrated significant increases in participants’ perceived research ability, confidence, interest, and knowledge, with gains stable across students by race, income, and class standing. We conclude by proposing a framework for implementing course-based research experiences within introductory courses in the social sciences, including introduction to criminal justice.

Keywords:

• Undergraduate research activity
• inquiry-guided learning
• high impact practices
• general education
• collaborative teaching

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 For example, faced with secondary data showing that gun owners were more likely to report a history of being shot, several research groups asked, “Do individual motivations for gun ownership differ by victimization history?” Others wondered whether higher rates of gun ownership in rural areas indicated a lack of confidence in the police, and the ability of police to reach them in a timely manner.

2 After completing Research Project 3, some student groups decided that their original measures were redundant with existing survey questions and requested to analyze the latter in completing subsequent research projects.

3 This project was supported by a Student Engagement Network (SEN) grant provided to the author-instructors by their university’s student engagement office. Financial and pedagogical support from this network, and the administration more broadly, was imperative to the success of the project.

4 Due to small sample size, a higher alpha (.10) was used.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Student Engagement Network at the Pennsylvania State University

Notes on contributors

Nathan Kruis

Nathan Kruis (PhD, Indiana University of Pennsylvania) is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Criminal Justice at Penn State Altoona

Katherine McLean

Katherine McLean (PhD, City University of New York Graduate Center) is an Associate Professor of Administration of Justice at Penn State Greater Allegheny

David Bish

David Bish (J.D., Valparaiso School of Law) is an Assistant Teaching Professor at Penn State Dubois

Bobur Rakhmatullaev

Bobur Rakhmatullaev (B.S. expected 2022, Penn State Greater Allegheny) is an undergraduate student in criminal justice and psychology at Penn State Greater Allegheny.