Criminal Justice Internship Overview

The criminal justice department internship program is more than 20 years old.  Over these years literally hundreds of students have volunteered at many agencies here in Clark County that relate in some capacity to the problem of crime and delinquency. The agencies that have participated range from the usual criminal justice agencies like the police department and the courts to social service agencies that deal at least indirectly with crime and delinquency (especially on the prevention side) such as Boys and Girls Clubs and Boys Town.

The internship experience has proven to be very valuable for both the students and the agencies.  The students are able to learn a great deal more than what they have learned in the classroom and the agencies also benefit from the students in many ways as well. Many students have remained with the agency as a full-time employee.  Most students go on to work elsewhere, but find that the internship experience opened more doors than would otherwise have been possible.

As far as learning objectives are concerned, the basic goal of an internship is to learn as much as possible about the agency and the nature of the work itself.  We would expect each student to come away from this experience with as much knowledge as possible about the agency.  Ideally each intern would either learn that this might be the kind of work they might want to do for a living and even to try and apply for a full-time position in the future, or they may realize that this is not something they would want to do for a living (which sometimes can be a very valuable experience!).

We evaluate our interns based upon a journal that they keep, a final paper which summarizes their experiences, along with a description of the agency, plus periodic contact with the Internship Director during the course of the semester.  We encourage agencies to feel free to conduct their own evaluation of the intern and we supply them with a form to do this with. 

It is hoped that you will review the list of participating agencies and apply for one of these for either the fall or spring semester.