Briar Cliff Hosts Psychology and Criminal Justice Program Visit Day

Siouxland highschoolers investigate a teacher's death at Briar Cliff University.

The criminal justice department, psychology department, and behavior analysis clinic put together a mock crime scene, trial and profiling on March 1st to give students the experience of police work.

“It’s really interesting learning about crimes and what police do,” says Olivia Budden a criminal justice and psychology major at Briar Cliff.

The students were given roles throughout the day such as investigator, evidence collector and fingerprint collector; the BCU students were questioned as eyewitnesses and suspects.

The crime scene was set up to look as though a teacher had died by the hands of a student. They studied the scene, took fingerprints and samples to help them catch the culprit.

BCU students showed them step by step what they’ve learned in their classes to get them through the process. “I think they’re proud of the work they do in the clinic,” says Stephanie Bell, a psychology professor. “They’re proud of what they’re learning in their classes, and they want to showcase that.”

The professors then went through a psychological profiling of a real criminal from the 1900s and the BCU students help give hints to lead the high schoolers in the right direction.

Mike Hartman, the psychology and behavior analysis program chair, then showed the students what the behavior analysis clinic is and what it does on an every day basis.

“We have some unique majors here,” says Hartman. “Specific to behavior analysis, it’s a major that meets the needs of the community, so it’s also to get these folks interested in maybe becoming future mental health service providers and letting them know about all of these certain options.”

Kimberly Arreola, a senior criminal justice major with minors in sociology and Spanish, is using the programs to work for something she’s found a passion for.

“I have an interest in working with juvenile offenders and trying to keep them out of the system,” says Arreola.

Being able to speak another language helps with translating and getting proper information out for those in need.

"I think that taking my Spanish classes and bettering my Spanish was a good idea,” says Arreola. “I’m bilingual and a lot of the time there can be a language barrier with parents and officers or counselors, so that’s what kind of motivated me to take Spanish classes.”

Majoring in psychology and criminology can be beneficial in a jail setting, Budden says. She is hoping to become a psychologist.

“I’m really interested in doing psychology in jails,” she says. “I really want to work with people in jails and maybe do police assessments.”

Having BCU students show these high schoolers their passion in life and what they do here on campus helps bring light to these majors.

“We want to raise high school awareness of our majors and interest them in psychology and criminal justice and let them know what we offer here,” says Bell.