The Benefits of Criminal Justice Internships at a Historically Black University: An Analysis of Site Supervisors’ Evaluations of Interns’ Professional Development

Abstract

There are numerous studies on the benefits of internships in the extant literature, although many of these studies focused on the views of students and professors/instructors. These studies were also conducted mainly in predominantly White institutions. The present study makes an important contribution to the literature by being the first to examine site supervisors’ evaluations of criminal justice interns at a historically Black university (HBCU). It is also one of the first studies to examine the role of internships in professional development at an HBCU. We used ordinary least-squares (OLS) regression to examine data collected between 2015 and 2018 (with an overall sample size of 352), and found that good communication with clients, a professional appearance, and punctuality predicted interns’ professional development. Contrary to expectations, gender and internship length did not predict professional development. The implications of our findings for student professional development and benefits of internships, especially at HBCUs, are discussed.