Criminal justice students study in the UK

Seventeen UCF students spent their spring break in chillier weather in the United Kingdom studying criminal justice.

The students, all pursuing majors or minors in criminal justice, along with Associate Professor Ross Wolf, traveled to the U.K. March 2-14 to learn the system of community policing and understand the fundamentals of how the American criminal justice system was founded.

After an extensive application process, which included a personal interview with each student, Wolf handpicked the 17 students that showed the most compelling interest to learn about a different culture so that the trip experience would help them not only as students but as professionals in the future.

"I focused primarily on their ability to work with other people, how I felt they could handle stress and their educational standpoint," Wolf said. "I had students that just wanted to go to the U.K., but the people that I felt were the most interested to learn were the ones to qualify."

This year was the first time the criminal justice program at UCF went to the U.K. and the first time Wolf was in charge of a study abroad trip. In previous years, UCF's criminal justice students had gone to study abroad in Russia, Costa Rica and Trinidad.

"The trip went very well," Wolf said. "For the first time and not really knowing how things were going to fall together, the trip fulfilled the students' and my expectations."

One of the main differences between the criminal justice system in the U.K. and the U.S. that the group was able to witness was the aspect of community policing.

"There's a lot of community policing in the UK," Wolf said. "American policing uses a lot of it [community policing] too, but I would argue that the UK tends to really emphasize the community and its role with criminal justice a little more than in the U.S."

According to an article from UCF News & Information, the U.K.'s police system is composed of at least 40 agencies, but the U.S. has more decentralized police systems with more than 18,000 different law enforcement agencies.

That type of policing in the U.K. has been a part of the community since the early 19th century.

Karla Amaya, a senior criminal justice major, had no expectations prior to the trip because she had never studied abroad. She said she was surprised how closely the students were able to work with the police system and she was also intrigued in how closely the police work with the community.

"The police there use less force because the community police don't carry firearms," Amaya said. "Most citizens there don't carry guns because they aren't allowed to. At first that was hard to believe. A place where citizens are raised without guns can tell you a lot about a culture."

The criminal justice program at UCF offers opportunities for students to partake in internships and other activities with local police departments, said Wolf.

The international experience from the U.K. experience also provided students with ways to maintain contacts when applying for jobs.

Junior criminal justice major Dylan Crimmins took advantage of the trip not only to experience a new environment, but to learn the most from it.

The trip helped him establish connections and network with people in a different country, which he thinks will come in handy in the future.

"Dr. Wolf did a great job at setting everything up for us and establishing a lot of contacts for us. As a result, we were able to know people from the U.K. police department on a very intimate basis," Crimmins said. "I have the contact information of at least two constables over there that I want to keep in touch with because they impacted my trip so much and opened my eyes to a new experience I've never lived before."