Criminal Justice revives professional bulletin

The Virginia Criminal Justice Bulletin was published for the first time this November by the Department of Criminal Justice at Radford University. The newsletter consists of a broad range of topics that encompasses the field of criminal justice.

The focus of the Virginia Police Legal Bulletin, from which the Virginia Criminal Justice Bulletin evolved, was solely focused on police and legal matters.

“Our audience originally was intended to be police legal advisors,” said Professor Jack Call, who has been involved with the bulletin since its inception. “However, it became apparent that many of the Bulletin’s readers were increasingly line officers and police administrators. Given this unanticipated expansion of readers, it seemed reasonable to attempt to further broaden the readership.”

Self-publishing the bulletin allows for contributions from criminal justice professionals who otherwise would be unable to do so.

“We valued our relationship with Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, but we saw benefits from being independent,” Call said. “Not only would this enable us to receive contributions from people who were being prevented from contributing, but it would also permit us to expand the bulletin from focusing solely on legal issues related to law enforcement to including articles on a wide range of criminal justice topics.”

The audience for the bulletin includes criminal justice professionals, which are persons working in the fields of law enforcement, corrections, emergency management, criminal law and more.

“The bulletin will include legal updates on changes to laws and relevant new case law as well as articles on many different criminal justice related topics that will be of interest to a wider audience than the previous bulletin,” said Criminal Justice instructor Eric Snow.

Another hope for the resurrected bulletin is to provide timely information to the criminal justice professionals that need it.

“We hope that the bulletin will provide a useful service to criminal justice practitioners by sharing perspectives on timely issues,” said Criminal Justice chair Stephen Owen and co-editor of the bulletin. “We are fortunate to have a strong team of contributors with experience across a variety of areas, willing to share their experience and perspectives with others in the criminal justice community.” 

The Virginia Criminal Justice Bulletin is an online publication and is distributed via email. The bulletin is also accessible via a dedicated webpage.