Criminology students join professor to present at Denver conference

Criminology Professor Dr. Sarah Lazzari and five Heidelberg students traveled to Denver the week of March 10 to give a pair of at the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Conference.

Students Paige Collins, Dominic Regalado, Maddie Moore and Logyn Chamberlin joined Sarah to present Horizon Prison Initiative: Insights from Participants.

The Horizon Prison Initiative (HPI) has been in existence for over 20 years. They provide programming for incarcerated men and women. The current study is part of a larger ongoing evaluation of the program. The presentation explored data from a male facility and provided program administrators and prison officials a chance to determine if their goals for the program align with what the men are experiencing. The exploratory study included the Measure of Criminogenic Thinking Styles (Mandracchia, 2018). Early results and policy implications were discussed, including the next steps of the larger program evaluation.

Paige Collins and Yaniah Powell co-presented with Sarah on High Impact Teaching Practices: Exploring the Impact of Experiential Learning Experiences on Criminology Undergraduate Students.

High impact teaching practices (HIPs) are important in engaging students during their educational journeys. This study explored the experiences of undergraduate Criminology students who experience various types of experiential learning opportunities, such as a prison pen pal program, prison tours, a writing workshop with incarcerated youth and undergraduate research. Scholarship has defined various activities as HIP, but each professor creatively implements unique opportunities. Research has shown that underserved students are impacted the most by HIPs, but have the least access to HIPs. Classroom and sustainability challenges were also discussed.