Field Placement Option in Criminology and Criminal Justice  (CRCJ 3901) – 1.0 credit

The Field Placement option in Criminology and Criminal Justice has been offered at Carleton University since 1973. Through a field placement in an agency setting, students are provided the opportunity to obtain practical involvement in various aspects of the penal field. This may include work related to policy development and to the administration of criminal justice, support for marginalized and/or criminalized individuals, support for victims of criminalized incidents or persons in distress, and crime prevention initiatives, to name a few. Below you will find a few examples of organizations offering placement opportunities for ICCJ students.

Students interested in participating apply for acceptance to the Field Placement after completing nine credits (for 3rd year standing). Students must have 3rd year standing in order to participate.

BA Honours students accepted into CRCJ 3901 (1.0 credit) may also be eligible to complete CRCJ 3902 (1.0 credit) which would require them to work an additional 8 hours a week at their assigned agency.

Information Session:

Virtual 2024-2025 Field Placement Practicum Info Session

Field Placement Application:

The application for the 2024-2025 field placement application is now closed.

Changing our method to allocate placement opportunities:

The Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice (ICCJ) is changing the ways in which placement opportunities are allocated to our students. The tradition has been to simply offer all our placements opportunities to students presenting the highest GPA (grade points average). We understand that placement opportunities motivate many students to strive towards academic excellence. As such, we will continue to allocate many placement opportunities on the basis of recorded GPA. But we also understand that academic achievements are mediated by a host of complex factors and that meritocracy is, in many instances, simply masking the role of the educational system in the reproduction of social inequalities. Strong disparities in academic performance persist and are irreducible to individual factors. In line with our orientation towards social justice, we are experimenting with randomizing a portion of the allocation of our placement opportunities. We think that this is a way to take stock of the barriers to academic success and opportunities which exist for some of our students, including our BIPOC students, our students from disadvantaged backgrounds, as well as first-generation university students. We also recognize that academic performance, as measured by the GPA, may not always be a strong indicator of the peculiar skills and human qualities required by some of our placements, particularly those involving intense interpersonal interactions with marginalized and criminalized individuals. To repeat, this is an experiment. Help us allocate our placement opportunities in the most just and equitable way: if you have comments about this initiative, or if you would like to share your student experience in relation to placement opportunities, please write to: criminology@carleton.ca

Examples of Organizations Offering Placement Opportunities: