CCJS370 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Demar Lewis CCJS370 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 06/12/2024	Although there were a lot of readings for the class, you would only need to skim through them, participate, and show up to class in order to succeed. Dr. Lewis is very passionate about what he is teaching, which makes the course more interesting in my opinion. The class focuses on how race, class, and gender all intersect within the country and how they play a role in the criminal justice system. He also explains the assignments if you are stumped on what they are supposed to be about.
Demar Lewis CCJS370 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/19/2024	Dr. Lewis is a great person who is very passionate and knowledgeable about the topics of this class. Despite the name, this class isn’t super related to criminal justice or criminology; the majority of the class is focused on racism, sexism, classism, and other inequities in society. These topics are loosely tied back to criminal justice through two class debates. Dr. Lewis was very open to feedback and reconstructed the process of the second debate after the class agreed that the first one could have been tweaked. Overall, it was an interesting and valuable class, but it involved a lot of group work and did not really involve a whole lot of crim related topics. Dr. Lewis had a lot of guest speakers throughout the class, and most of them were engaging. Also, the final project is unique as it consists of a policy paper, 3 minute informational video, mock twitter thread, and infographic. Do not leave it to the last minute if you have never written a policy paper before; it is a lot of work. It’s rewarding through when you finish it.
Demar Lewis CCJS370 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/08/2024	Don't take CCJS370 with Dr. Lewis if you expect to talk about the Criminal Justice system. We only did this when we did 2 in-class debates during the semester and for our final projects. However, the assignments are not hard, and the workload is 100% manageable, minus the 100+ pages of reading per week which I simply did not do a lot of the time. You can tell that he is very passionate about the topic he is teaching which makes it more interesting. He can be a bit confusing at times though and often avoids giving straight answers to questions. He's not quite understanding when it comes to making accommodations, but he is a nice person in general. He brought us cookies.
Demar Lewis CCJS370 Anonymous 04/25/2024	This instructor is very well accredited, but when it comes to his class I do not recommend it. The class is called Race, Crime, and Criminal Justice when have never once talked about crime or the criminal justice system. His lectures are boring and have the same slides every week. There are 2 debates and are super disorganized and adds in instructions last minute as the debate is happening. Not to mention the final project has 3 components with very little instructions. There is also a group podcast, but fails to explain expectations. I wish the class discussed the correlates between race and crime, which I expected. Overall, would NOT recommend this class with this professor.
Demar Lewis CCJS370 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/13/2024	This course was way more work than I was expecting with little to no instruction about the expectations. Also, do not take this class if you are expecting to talk about the criminal justice system or specific problems pertaining to race, because you won’t. For each class (so twice a week) there are readings, usually 2-3 that are around 30 pages. Often times, these readings are briefly mentioned in lecture, but you don’t need to read them to understand what he’s talking about. The entire class so far has been about realizing the social constructs in place in this world. Dr. Lewis is very nice and passionate about his work though which does help. There is a group podcast assignment that is briefly explained and he does not give you any time to even find your group members in the class, which multiple classmates agree would have been helpful. There is also a paper to go with this. He neglects to mention when this assignment is due because it was only talked about one time. There was also criminological debates and the same thing applies to this as well: he expects you to find the instructions and does not give you time to meet your group members. Finally, there are in-class assignments, but he does not give you time in class to work on them. Overall, I would not recommend this class because we never talk about the criminal justice system directly and there is an overwhelming amount of work.
Maria Velez CCJS370 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/19/2023	Dr. Velez is a great professor and once you get a hold of the exam format (using the guide she gives you) its smooth sailing honestly. I struggled at first in 370 but it got so much easier so I took 418Q and 454 as well considering its the same format for the class. Paper is alright, she is really helpful if you ask. She does care about you and your success in the course, so not utilizing her would be your loss tbh.
Maria Velez CCJS370 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/19/2023	Dr Velez is a good teacher because she genuinely cares about her student's learning and grades. The class is hard, and there's a lot of reading and the exams have very specific questions, but the material is interesting and really important if you want to go into the criminal justice field. I honestly think everyone should be required to take this class. There's also a paper that's worth 30% of your grade and I found it really confusing at first, but she'll review it for you as much as you want before it's due so you can get lots of feedback and if you work with her you can get a 100% on it. I did poorly on the exams (my fault tbh) but the A on the paper saved my grade because I continued to get feedback from her throughout.
Maria Velez CCJS370 Expecting a W Anonymous 05/17/2023	She’s a kind professor and wants to help out her students BUT there is a lot of readings that you have to memorize for the exams which the first two are non cumulative but the final is. Taking notes in this class is also very difficult. Don’t recommend this class to any of my friends.
Brooklynn Hitchens CCJS370 Anonymous 12/20/2022	Class is one of the most interesting classes I've taken at UMD. But the final paper and the final exam are worth 50% of your grade. She also deleted the class before she put in the final grade which is annoying
Brooklynn Hitchens CCJS370 Anonymous 12/22/2021	The class subject is interesting but the Professor talks super fast and very quickly goes over material. Tests are theory and application-based and one of the most difficult styles of tests Ive taken. Seriously felt like a grad school class.

Demar Lewis
CCJS370

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
06/12/2024

Although there were a lot of readings for the class, you would only need to skim through them, participate, and show up to class in order to succeed. Dr. Lewis is very passionate about what he is teaching, which makes the course more interesting in my opinion. The class focuses on how race, class, and gender all intersect within the country and how they play a role in the criminal justice system. He also explains the assignments if you are stumped on what they are supposed to be about.

Demar Lewis
CCJS370

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/19/2024

Dr. Lewis is a great person who is very passionate and knowledgeable about the topics of this class. Despite the name, this class isn’t super related to criminal justice or criminology; the majority of the class is focused on racism, sexism, classism, and other inequities in society. These topics are loosely tied back to criminal justice through two class debates. Dr. Lewis was very open to feedback and reconstructed the process of the second debate after the class agreed that the first one could have been tweaked. Overall, it was an interesting and valuable class, but it involved a lot of group work and did not really involve a whole lot of crim related topics. Dr. Lewis had a lot of guest speakers throughout the class, and most of them were engaging. Also, the final project is unique as it consists of a policy paper, 3 minute informational video, mock twitter thread, and infographic. Do not leave it to the last minute if you have never written a policy paper before; it is a lot of work. It’s rewarding through when you finish it.

Demar Lewis
CCJS370

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/08/2024

Don't take CCJS370 with Dr. Lewis if you expect to talk about the Criminal Justice system. We only did this when we did 2 in-class debates during the semester and for our final projects. However, the assignments are not hard, and the workload is 100% manageable, minus the 100+ pages of reading per week which I simply did not do a lot of the time. You can tell that he is very passionate about the topic he is teaching which makes it more interesting. He can be a bit confusing at times though and often avoids giving straight answers to questions. He's not quite understanding when it comes to making accommodations, but he is a nice person in general. He brought us cookies.

Demar Lewis
CCJS370

Anonymous
04/25/2024

This instructor is very well accredited, but when it comes to his class I do not recommend it. The class is called Race, Crime, and Criminal Justice when have never once talked about crime or the criminal justice system. His lectures are boring and have the same slides every week. There are 2 debates and are super disorganized and adds in instructions last minute as the debate is happening. Not to mention the final project has 3 components with very little instructions. There is also a group podcast, but fails to explain expectations. I wish the class discussed the correlates between race and crime, which I expected. Overall, would NOT recommend this class with this professor.

Demar Lewis
CCJS370

Expecting an A
Anonymous
03/13/2024

This course was way more work than I was expecting with little to no instruction about the expectations. Also, do not take this class if you are expecting to talk about the criminal justice system or specific problems pertaining to race, because you won’t. For each class (so twice a week) there are readings, usually 2-3 that are around 30 pages. Often times, these readings are briefly mentioned in lecture, but you don’t need to read them to understand what he’s talking about. The entire class so far has been about realizing the social constructs in place in this world. Dr. Lewis is very nice and passionate about his work though which does help. There is a group podcast assignment that is briefly explained and he does not give you any time to even find your group members in the class, which multiple classmates agree would have been helpful. There is also a paper to go with this. He neglects to mention when this assignment is due because it was only talked about one time. There was also criminological debates and the same thing applies to this as well: he expects you to find the instructions and does not give you time to meet your group members. Finally, there are in-class assignments, but he does not give you time in class to work on them. Overall, I would not recommend this class because we never talk about the criminal justice system directly and there is an overwhelming amount of work.

Maria Velez
CCJS370

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/19/2023

Dr. Velez is a great professor and once you get a hold of the exam format (using the guide she gives you) its smooth sailing honestly. I struggled at first in 370 but it got so much easier so I took 418Q and 454 as well considering its the same format for the class. Paper is alright, she is really helpful if you ask. She does care about you and your success in the course, so not utilizing her would be your loss tbh.

Maria Velez
CCJS370

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/19/2023

Dr Velez is a good teacher because she genuinely cares about her student's learning and grades. The class is hard, and there's a lot of reading and the exams have very specific questions, but the material is interesting and really important if you want to go into the criminal justice field. I honestly think everyone should be required to take this class. There's also a paper that's worth 30% of your grade and I found it really confusing at first, but she'll review it for you as much as you want before it's due so you can get lots of feedback and if you work with her you can get a 100% on it. I did poorly on the exams (my fault tbh) but the A on the paper saved my grade because I continued to get feedback from her throughout.

Maria Velez
CCJS370

Expecting a W
Anonymous
05/17/2023

She’s a kind professor and wants to help out her students BUT there is a lot of readings that you have to memorize for the exams which the first two are non cumulative but the final is. Taking notes in this class is also very difficult. Don’t recommend this class to any of my friends.

Brooklynn Hitchens
CCJS370

Anonymous
12/20/2022

Class is one of the most interesting classes I've taken at UMD. But the final paper and the final exam are worth 50% of your grade. She also deleted the class before she put in the final grade which is annoying

Brooklynn Hitchens
CCJS370

Anonymous
12/22/2021

The class subject is interesting but the Professor talks super fast and very quickly goes over material. Tests are theory and application-based and one of the most difficult styles of tests Ive taken. Seriously felt like a grad school class.

Reviews for CCJS370