Bernice Petit is earning a Baccalaureate of Science in Criminal Justice and a Baccalaureate of Arts in Chemistry with an emphasis in Forensics, as well as minors in Psychology and Biology. She is planning to graduate cum laude in June 2024.
Bernice has a desire to get a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice and Criminology. She is very interested in crime statistics and offender recidivism/rehabilitation. She would like to understand the factors, be it societal, economic, or personal, that influence the recidivism rate in America. The criminal justice system is a system that has work needing to be done. She had the opportunity to go to Ireland to learn about their criminal justice system, and she found the differences between Ireland’s criminal justice system and America’s criminal justice system to be very fascinating. Bernice has a desire to study prison populations and recently released offenders to develop a better understanding of why certain offenders have an increased risk of re-incarceration while others do not. She wants to tackle prison climates and research whether there is a correlation between prison environments and recidivism. Bernice wants to also research the correlation between substance abuse, mental, and psychiatric disorders and recidivism. In terms of prison rehabilitation programs, Bernice argues that there needs to be a stronger focus of rehabilitation programs in prisons for offenders. She completed her criminal justice research capstone on the pros and cons of rehabilitation programs for offenders. She developed a 15-question survey about prison systems and rehabilitation programs and analyzed 210 responses. The analyzation of the data and the literature review motivated her to further her research on rehabilitation because if our society desires to see a decrease in crime and recidivism, then we need to find other ways and resources to help our offenders post-releasement. It is very easy to fall back into a never-ending cycle of criminality and deviant behavior, especially if that is all one knows as no one is born inherently criminal or “bad”. So, Bernice wants to research ways to provide offenders with successful resources that will enable them to be able to re-integrate back into society. Bernice wants to help offenders find their place in a society that tends to shut them out, especially since not all offenders committed violent offenses. Bernice believes that getting a Ph.D. will allow her to be able to research these arrays of topics and potentially implement future educational or policy changes. Bernice’s career end goal is to eventually become a Forensic Pathologist, but she has a plan to continue her research studies as she hopes to see great changes in the future. Change can start with one individual, and she hopes to make a difference.
Bernice is currently working as a mentor to low-income, first-generation college students. As a low-income, first-generation college student herself, it fills her with joy to help others that may have similar situations as her. Bernice also works with the homeless population at the OHRA shelter located in Ashland, Oregon. She has been working with the organization for 2 and a half years, and she hopes to continue working with underserved populations in the future. In 2022-2023, she was awarded Southern Oregon University’s ‘Outstanding Junior Award’ for the Criminal Justice & Criminology Department. In 2022, she had the opportunity to do an internship with the Victim’s Assistance Unit at the Jackson County District Attorney’s Office. She learned about trials, court cases, determination meetings, and even got to witness sentencings, arraignments, pre-trial conferences, grand jury, preliminary hearings, and a murder trial. In January of 2024, she has plans to do an internship with the Jackson County Sherrif’s office and work alongside the Medical Death Investigation Unit. Throughout her S.O.U. career, she has made the President’s list three times, and the Provost’s list five times. She had the honor of being featured in a 2023 article about Southern Oregon University’s Bridge program that works with under-represented, low-income, and first-generation freshman students. Bernice’s education is being and has been supported by the Churchill Freshman Scholarship, many pell grants, the Claude and Sadie B. Jones scholarship, from which she has been awarded around $38,000, a Soroptomist international scholarship, Kaiser Permanente, Oregon Opportunity grant, Ellis H. Bremer memorial, and the Dr. Alvin Fellers Scholarship. She is extremely thankful for all the support and aid that she has received throughout her college career.
After Bernice finishes her Baccalaureate of Science in Criminal Justice and a Baccalaureate of Arts in Chemistry with an emphasis in Forensics, as well as minors in Psychology and Biology, Bernice will be continuing her education by pursuing a doctoral degree in Criminal Justice and Criminology with an emphasis in recidivism, offender rehabilitation, theoretical explanations for criminality and deviant behavior, and substance abuse, mental, and psychiatric disorders in offenders and how that might affect recidivism. She then would like to pursue a degree in pathology and embark on a journey to become a Forensic Pathologist. She is looking forward to exploring more of the criminology world and diving deeper into crime, rehabilitation, recidivism, and forensics.
McNair Faculty Mentor: Dr. Shanell Sanchez, Associate Professor of Department of Criminal Justice & Criminology
Scholar Curriculum Vitae
