Implicit Criminal Associations: The Consequences of a Criminal Justice Education

A criminal justice education often lays the foundation for future criminal justice practitioners. The course work of these programs may impact students' cognitions about offenders, both implicitly, or automatically, and/or explicitly, or consciously. This study tests whether criminal justice students exhibit stronger implicit associations with the group criminal and well-known group members (i.e. celebrities) versus non-criminal justice students. Implicit Criminal-Self Association Test and Explicit Criminal-Self Association Test were used to measure implicit and explicit criminal-self association strength. Using a pre-test (n = 72) new Implicit and Explicit Association Tests were developed to measure implicit and explicit associations with well-known criminals. In the main study participants (n = 92) completed implicit and explicit criminal-self association tests and implicit and explicit well-known criminal association tests. Results showed that non-criminal justice students exhibited stronger implicit associations with well-known criminals in comparison to non-criminal justice students. This research has implications for criminal justice pedagogical practices.