Adventures in Advising: Strategies, Solutions, and Situations to Student Problems in the Criminology and Criminal Justice Field

Teaching and research are often the most focused upon aspects of working within academia in criminology and criminal justice (Sitren & Applegate, 2012; Jonson & Moon, 2014; Pratt, 2014), but an overlooked and underappreciated part of an undergraduate's overall higher education success is academic advising (Light, 2001). There has been scant research on advising within criminology and criminal justice, and this paper seeks to fill this gap by detailing reflections on the advising process within a successful and growing criminology and criminal justice program. Strategies for advising overall will be presented as will particular situations and student needs. Lastly, a case study of how advising works for a criminology and criminal justice department from a large, public institution located in the Southeastern United States will be discussed and demonstrate how the strategies, situations, and student needs apply.