Infusing Criminal Justice Content Into the Graduate Social Work Curriculum

Abstract

Despite the intersection of social work and criminal justice, criminal justice content is only marginally present in social work education. Given that most social work students will at some point in their career work with clients who are directly or collaterally affected by the criminal justice system, this marginal presence is problematic and needs reversing. This article makes the case for graduate social work education programs to consider infusing criminal justice content into their social work curriculum. Supporting this case is a description of an infusion approach and pedagogical strategies for delivering criminal justice content to students.

KEYWORDS:

• criminal justice content
• social work curriculum
• infusion