Educating for rights and justice: a content analysis of forensic social work syllabi

ABSTRACT

The Council on Social Work Education underscores that social workers should be educated to advance human right, social, economic, and environmental justice. This article asserts that forensic social work is an integrated practice specialization at the intersection of the law or legal system, and historically has done just that. However, there is a dearth of research examining forensic courses. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to conduct a content analysis of forensic social work and social work and the law syllabi. A comprehensive search of the Internet was conducted to identify publicly available forensic social work or social work and the law syllabi from CSWE accredited social work programs in the United States. Twenty-two syllabi were identified. A content analysis of available syllabi revealed an overarching theme of forensic social work and ‘the pursuit of justice’ and as practice at the intersection of the law and/or legal system. Forensic social work education grounded in a human rights and global justice approach can serve an important functioning in measuring student learning outcomes that target advancing human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice using clinical, interdisciplinary, and policy practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Qualitative methods
• research
• social justice
• values
• criminal justice social work
• practice
• history of social work
• knowledge
• competency
• education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the No funder [000].

Notes on contributors

Tina Maschi

Dr. Tina Maschi is an associate professor at the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service with an expertise in forensic social work research, practice, advocacy, and education. 

Jo Rees

Dr. Jo Rees is an assistant professor at the Long Island University Department of Social Work with an expertise in forensic social work research, practice, policy, and education. 

George Leibowitz

Dr. George Leibowitz is a  professor at the School of Social Welfare, Stonybrook University with specializations in forensic social work research, practice, policy, and education. 

Margaret Bryan

Margaret Bryan, MSW is a recent graduate of the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Services with a growing expertise in forensic social work with justice involved youth.