Dr. Kelly Asmussen has taken college students from Peru State College, as well as other colleges, on international study tours since 1995. A total of seven study tours have been taken to Costa Rica and Australia. A 3-credit undergraduate course, Comparative Justice Systems (CJUS 498), is typically offered on-line in the spring semester preceding the study tour experience. An additional 3 credit hours may be earned while in-country. This is a specialized international field experience course where students examine and compare another country's criminal justice system with the United States system. Students are immersed within the criminal justice system of study to examine and contrast the courts, policing, corrections, and juvenile justice systems with the American system. In addition, innovative human service delivery systems are studied from a criticfal policy response perspective. Cultural and social factors that have influenced the development of each system under study are examined.

Course objectives include; studying the criminal justice system of the country we are traveling to and comparing their method of processing people accused of crimes with that of the United States.  Our intentions are to view this process from a cross-cultural perspective, studying the cultural impact in terms of the economy, language, religion, customs, political structure and laws, etc.  Thus, students study the politics, history, economy, culture, social welfare system, crime and interagency cooperation, various courts and justice system, juvenile programs, as well as touring many agencies and historical sites.  Another one of the main objectives is to expose students to another culture and to help them appreciate and celebrate the similarities and differences.  Therefore, scheduled activities emphasize and allow students to gain unique cultural experiences. 

We have visited an Indian reservation in Costa Rica and eaten a meal prepared by an indigenous family, watched artisans paint and weave crafts, visited a home with a dirt floor and tin roof, watched oxcarts loaded with bananas being driven to market, swam in the Caribbean and rode horses on a black sand beach, and visited one of the worst prisons in the world in terms of cruelty, treatment, and living conditions, spoke with the President of Costa Rica and having his wife discuss domestic violence issues, seeing the largest crater volcano in the world, white-water rafting in the jungle of Costa Rica, and seeing some of the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets in two different continents in the same day! 

Other highlight experiences have included; visiting a safe injecting heroin program in Sydney, Australia where addicts were allowed to inject drugs under medical supervision, visiting a prison where inmates were transported to when they were banned from England, watching terrorism training on the beaches of Sydney, Australia preparing for the 2000 Olympics, snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef, visiting Parliament in Canberra while in session and New South Wales, holding a koala and a kangaroo while visiting nature preserves and zoos, watching an Aboriginal troupe of dancers perform ritual dances and learned and sang cultural songs.   Students have learned how to throw a boomerang and play music on an indigenous didgeridoo. Students have also participated in fund raising and community service projects; most recently barbequing on the University of Queensland main campus and donating the monies to a domestic violence center to help defray children's educational expenses. 

For more information, contact

Dr. Kelly Asmussen

T.J. Majors Hall, Room 308

402.872.2426

kasmussen@peru.edu