Lessons Learned from an Undergraduate Criminal Justice Internship: The Student Experience (by Nancy Blank, Robin S. Goldberg-Glen, Lori Simons, Denna Grande, and Nicole Scharfetter): Review 1

Vote: Publish pending minor changes.

Overall the paper is well-written and provides insight into internships above typical quantitative data. I have a few suggestions to strengthen the paper.

The literature review would benefit from a specific definition of what an internship is and how they are typically carried out within criminal justice programs. A sentence or two on paid versus unpaid and when they typically occur in the curriculum could also be helpful.

Did students give permission for their journals to be used or did they sign informed consent? A little more information on the procedure would be helpful.

For the section that describes theories applied, I would add the word “criminological” before theory for readers who may not be from the CJ field.

The discussion section could benefit from a dialogue on how the findings could be used beyond the specific University. How could these findings be used to support adding an internship program to a curriculum that does not have one? What does this say overall about the importance of internships to CJ programs and beyond? Adding this really strengthens the findings and provides implications for internships beyond the specific experience at this University.