La Sierra University’s criminal justice program ranks among top in nation

The 2019 Best Colleges for Criminal Justice in America ranking is produced by Niche.com, a site that produces annual rankings and analysis on thousands of K-12 schools, colleges, cities, and employers. On the best criminal justice programs list, La Sierra landed ahead of such schools as Florida State University, Rutgers University, Ohio State University and others. The ranking can be accessed here:  https://www.niche.com/colleges/search/best-colleges-for-criminal-justice/.

Niche.com states that its college rankings are based on student reviews, data from the U.S Department of Education and other sources.

The La Sierra criminal justice program, which was launched in fall 2010, operates under the umbrella of the College of Arts & Sciences at two campuses in Corona and Ontario. Since its inception, the program has expanded to reach enrollment last fall of 255 students. It offers Bachelor of Science degrees in criminal justice for those aiming for careers in public safety, criminal law, private security, court administration, forensics or corrections. 

Students learn from faculty members who possess extensive professional experience in various fields of criminal justice working for such agencies as the Orange County Probation Department, the Riverside County Sheriff’s forensics unit, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, and other entities. The program also provides many hands-on learning activities such as an EVOC police driving  simulator, crime lab, tactical training room and mock trial courtroom. Students learn specific skills such as arrest and control techniques, weaponless defense, fingerprinting, ballistics, crime scene processing, forensics and blood-spatter analysis, and report writing. The department is currently planning a special topics course covering narcotics in the 21st century.

“The strength of the program is the faculty because they have worked for years in a variety of criminal justice and related fields,” said Todd Bell, a criminal justice program faculty member. A former Southern California law enforcement officer, Bell helped start the La Sierra criminal justice program. “We have men and women from law enforcement, people from corrections, probation, forensic science, we have people from Homeland Security, and people from the legal field.”

The program is based at a Seventh-day Adventist Christian university which places a strong emphasis on the spiritual life and development of its students. Bell attributes the program’s growth to God’s blessing.

“It grew by the grace of God,” Bell said. “We believe that God blessed our program, that the faith and the grace of God was on our program, and we were able to mix academics with practical application which is attractive to young people. Also because we are a Christian university, students are learning biblical principles that help them deal with tough decision-making, and are acquiring biblical wisdom that helps them understand the spiritual underpinnings of justice.” 

Graduates of the program are heading into career paths with strong job prospects. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job market for police officers and detectives is expected to grow seven percent through 2026, while the job outlook for forensic scientists during the same period is expected to increase by 17 percent. 

Riverside native Edson Lucero Gonzalez graduated from the criminal justice program in 2017 and was accepted into the Los Angeles Police Academy, the fulfillment of a childhood dream. 

“I like helping people, especially younger individuals,” said Gonzalez. Police officers are in a position to directly influence and support young people and teach them constructive ways of dealing with life and its challenges, he said. He noted that news and social media posts often depict police in a negative light.

Gonzalez learned about La Sierra’s criminal justice degree when he attended a workshop at Norte Vista High School led by Bell. 

Gonzalez’s criminal justice degree directly impacted his work as an officer. English classes provided writing skills needed to write police reports and forensic classes and mock trials prepared him for giving testimony in court.  “The critical thinking classes I had helped me out on patrol,” he said. 

Senior criminal justice student Keoni Oliver was born in Pasadena and lived in Wasilla, Ala. for more than 14 years where his parents live and where his father, John Oliver, a La Sierra alum, is a physician. While Oliver comes from a long line of physicians going back to his great grandparents, he is pursuing a career in criminal justice and national security. This winter quarter he is engaged in a directed study researching hate groups, politics and media, and the forces that drive young people to join hate groups.

Oliver is considering pursuing a master’s degree in Homeland Security at the Raphael Recanati International School in Israel. He has read many books on Middle East conflict, enjoys reading about forensics and researching law enforcement-related news, he said. Last year he was able to personally experience the Middle East by joining an archaeological expedition in Jordan organized by La Sierra’s Center for Near Eastern Archaeology.

Oliver has thoroughly immersed himself in the criminal justice program by assisting professors with their classes, setting up mock crime scenes, helping with weapons defense classes, and handling IT and tech support. Knowledge and skills he has acquired along the way include conflict resolution and the ability to interview people, as well as the capability for interpersonal communication that can be used to mitigate dangerous situations, he said. 

“I love it,” said Oliver. 

The criminal justice faculty members at La Sierra spoke recently about the subjects they teach and the experiences they bring into the classroom.

Lowell Smith, former probation officer, extremism expert

Lowell Smith, assistant criminal justice professor, spent more than 15 years of his 26-year career as an Orange County probation officer supervising individuals associated with white supremacist gangs and extremists. He holds professional memberships with a number of investigative groups and serves as a consultant for attorneys and the media. His recent interviews include those with journalist A.C. Thompson in the PBS/ProPublica Frontline “Documenting Hate” documentary series about his insights on white supremacist groups and their activities in Southern California (https://lasierra.edu/article/pbs-taps-la-sierra-s-faculty-for-documentaries/).

Smith teaches classes on street gangs and terrorism, research ethics in criminal justice and victimology, and a class that covers social and gender roles in terrorism and critical sociological issues. He talks to the students about the need for the prevention of human trafficking, and for mental health and drug treatment and counseling as important aspects of the national security effort. He also recruits reformed hate group and gang members as speakers for student colloquium lectures. Past presenters have included the founder of notorious crime gang the Mongols Motorcycle Club who told the students of the racism he experienced in former street gangs which influenced his creation of the Mongols club. An eventual conversion to Christianity helped him leave gang life behind.

Smith received bachelor and master’s degrees from California Baptist University in Riverside and is completing a doctoral degree in criminal justice with an emphasis in Homeland Security. He wants to pursue additional research into anti-government and hate groups, and aims to raise awareness of security threats such as the radicalization and recruitment of hate group members. 

“Domestic terrorism has harmed more Americans than foreign terrorism,” said Smith.

Kelly Bradley, former government analyst

Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice Dr. Kelly Bradley teaches classes on public policy, corrections and criminology, as well as a course this year on miscarriages of justice. An alum of La Sierra, she arrived in the fall of 2012 from a career background that included serving as a senior research associate for the Institute for Law and Justice in Alexandria, Va., and as a senior analyst for the U.S. Government Accountability Office in Washington D.C. In the latter role, she evaluated human trafficking, workforce development, bioterrorism protections and weapons acquisitions by the Pentagon, U.S. Army and Coastguard. She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from La Sierra, and holds a master’s in criminal justice from Temple University as well as a Ph.D. from UC Irvine in criminology, law and society.

She also leads a dynamic class on public policy in criminal justice. The class final project involves students assigned to task forces to come up with solutions for different active shooter situations such as the tragedy that occurred in Florida at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the 2017 congressional baseball team shooting, the Sutherland Springs, Texas church shooting, and the Route 91 Harvest music festival attack in Las Vegas. A student task force last year devised recommendations related to the music festival shooting incident that nearly mirrored the guidance of a state panel that publicized its findings after the conclusion of the students’ class project.

Such situations represent “very complex problems,” Bradley said, adding that the taskforce public policy class provides a lesson on the importance of interaction with others toward crime solving. “In criminal justice we don’t work in isolation. We want to make sure they [students] are comfortable working with all kinds of people,” she said. “The biggest focus is being able to think critically. We want them to understand that [the field of] corrections and the entirety of criminal justice is really complex. I want them to see that everything they study is not black and white, but very gray.”

Carlton Fuller, former Riverside County Sheriff forensics manager

Carlton Fuller is passionate about his field of work and about teaching. He leads classes in blood spatter analysis and forensic photography for the criminal justice program, and has written courses and objectives for the forensic science emphasis. His students learn how investigators profile criminals and figure out how they think. 

Fuller has worked serial killer cases during his career in forensics and brings his knowledge into the classroom. Activities include presentations and papers that detail criminals’ methods for carrying out and concealing a crime, and identification of psychological behaviors that function as a criminal’s signature.

Fuller brings 28 years of experience with the Riverside County Sheriff’s office, 19 of which he served as the county’s forensics unit manager. He started in the forensics unit in 1997 and wrote training manuals, procedures and grants. “It kind of prepped me for writing curriculum,” he said.

He has also led certification training for professional forensic scientists through the California State Division of the International Association for Identification, or CSDIAI. The CSDIAI’s institutional members include such high-profile entities as Scotland Yard. Fuller noted that he has been elected director of the Southern Division of the CSDIAI more than 10 times. He has also taught forensics at UC Riverside, Cal State Long Beach, local offices of the U.S Department of Justice, FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and other agencies and education institutions. 

“It’s that kind of knowledge that I’ve been able to bring into the classroom,” Fuller said.