Jeong Lim Kim

  • Associate Professor, Criminal Justice
Enjoying smell of books

Hi, I'm Jeong Lim Kim, an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice Program at Mercy University. I teach courses about Introduction to Criminal Justice, Introduction to Corrections, White Collar Crimes, Criminology, Probation and Parole, Policing, Research Methods, Statistics, and Senior Seminar.

Ph.D. Sam Houston State University, August 2014

          Major: Criminal Justice

M.A. Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan, March 2003

          Major: Criminal Procedural Law

B. A.  Korea National Police University, Republic of Korea, April 1988

          Major: Law

Research interests include the police strategies, police subculture and deviant behavior: misconduct and corruption, police use of force, police occupational stress, crime prevention, and CCTV.

As of May 10, 2021, I have applied for 11 grants (9 funded), published 16 refereed journal articles, one book review, two reports, and four research monographs, and made 20 refereed conference presentations. Of these accomplishments, I completed the following since arriving at Mercy University in the fall of 2016: four internal research or teaching grants awarded by Mercy, 10 refereed journal articles, seven refereed conference presentations, and three poster sessions associated with internal grants at Mercy.

1) Scholarship of Discovery

I gathered and analyzed primary data for the purpose of generating knowledge in areas in which there is little scholarly information available (e.g., surveys conducted on a group of Korean citizens to examine their experiences from interacting with Korean police officers; surveys conducted on a group of U.S. undergraduate students to examine their perceptions towards school resource officers (SRO); and surveys conducted on Korean police officers to examine their occupational stress). As of May 10, 2021, 10 of my 16 peer-reviewed journal articles were cited 140 times in total.

2) Scholarship of Integration

My works are based on the scholarship of integration in various ways, as reflected in my articles’ literature reviews, critical book reviews, and presentations at conferences, seminar, or workshop. One of my articles, Organizational stressor associated with six aspects of police officer stress in South Korea, utilized Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS). I strive to integrate different disciplines into my work in order to improve and develop existing knowledge.

3) Scholarship of Application

I have written two reports for governmental agencies: (1) Executive summary for determinants of citizens’ attitudes toward police activities: Comparison between Korea and the United States - Report to the Commissioner General of Korea National Police Agency, The Republic of Korea (South Korea), and (2) Illegal Gun Markets in Trinidad and Tobago - Report to the Minister of National Security, Trinidad and Tobago. In addition, most of my articles address possible ways the studies’ findings can be used in the field.

4) Scholarship of Teaching

Whenever I learned new techniques from seminars and workshops, I integrated them into my courses using up-to-date technologies In addition, I employed various teaching methods, primarily metacognitive teaching skills and active learning. During the summer of 2018, I participated in Maverick Toolkit Summer Project funded by Mercy University and completed an online course material on Policing. Recently, I found myself on a website called RateMyProfessor.com by chance and felt a little bit rewarded to see an 5 out of 5 rating on overall quality (https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=2314830). With two criminal justice faculties, I have revamped the Senior Seminar course and Research Methods during the summer of 2019 and the spring of 2020.

 

I would like to guide my students to become creative problem solvers, analytical thinkers, and effective communicators and collaborators who can apply and benefit from these critical skills in real life. Core question was: how do I make this happen? I used to simply believe that if students are aware of what they know and do not know, and are given the strategies they can utilize to support their learning, they are much more likely to be successful at school. However, I came to realize that none of this is possible without students’ willingness to learn. One of the imperative factors in a student’s preparedness and desire to learn is their motivation to learn.

Motivation is one of the basic foundations of the students’ academic performance and achievement. I strongly believe that motivation comes from an intellectual curiosity. While traditional classrooms use lecturing as the main method of teaching, educational research clearly indicates that the attention span of a typical undergraduate student lasts about 10 to 15 minutes, after which boredom and fatigue set in. Consequently, the students’ retention of knowledge and performance declines significantly after this short period of time.

In order to compliment the shortcomings of pure lecturing, I have applied a metacognitive teaching methods which encourages students to engage with course materials and facilitates learning, retention, and application of information gained from a course. More specifically, four categories of teaching have been utilized according to the topics and settings: receptive, directive, guided discovery, and exploratory instruction. In addition, to stimulate students’ curiosity, various real or hypothetical stories from the best-selling books were introduced, such as Outlier by Malcolm Gladwell, Justice: What’s the right thing to do by Michael Sandel, Naked statistics by Charles Wheelan, and so on. Students seemed more intrigued when learning new concepts from examples in these best-selling books, and they began to explore ideas in those topics more proactively during class discussions. 

In order to provide supplemental course information, I have utilized Blackboard to help students’ learning process. The ‘Announcements’ and ‘Course Email Message’ facilitate seamless communication between students and me; ‘Course Materials’ and quizzes for each chapter help students’ self-study; ‘Discussion’ for special topic aims to help students’ critical thinking; and multi-media supports the course content. I usually open a chapter quiz a week before actually covering the chapter in class, so that the students will check out the chapter before coming to class. This practice has helped facilitating lively class discussions and participations. To encourage students’ discussions and participations in class, large portion of the final grade attributes to participation. 

To help students’ understanding and facilitate their discussions with various topics, I have several multimedia collections as class supplemental materials and am continually looking for new ones. Some of my collections include nine corrections related DVDs for Corrections (CRJU 204), seven policing related DVDs for American Policing (CRJU 253), and five movies for critical thinking in general. Those DVDs show students the field officers’ practices, activities, work environments, issues, and concerns. After watching each DVD, students participate in class discussions to share their thoughts and ideas with each other.

In addition, I am incorporating a teaching skill suggested by Dr. Eric Mazur by utilizing technologies such as SoftChalk and Prezi. In my endeavor to implement the metacognitive teaching which values students’ proactive learning activities, I will continue to motivate my students by mobilizing various types of teaching skills and technologies.

PUBLICATIONS

Kim, J., Lim, H., & Kim, R. (forthcoming in 2020). Effects of normative and instrumental factors on compliance, cooperation, and obedience in South Korea. International Journal of Criminal Justice.

Kim, J., & Lim, H. (2020). A comparative study on the effectiveness of CCP (Community Crime Prevention) and SCP (Situational Crime Prevention). Journal of Korean Criminological Association, 14(1), 57-75.   

Lim, H., & Kim, J. (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on crime: Focused on 112 report data. Korean Security Journal, Special edition, 233-254.

Park, S. & Kim, J., Park, H., Kim, Y., & Cuadrado, M. (2018). Social constructions of racial images in introductory criminal justice and criminology textbooks: A content analysis. Race Ethnicity and Education. DOI: 10.1080/13613324.2018.1538122.  

Kim, J., Vardalis, J., & Lim, H. (2017). The journey to crime: A test of the effects of demographics on crime mobility. Journal of British and American Studies, 40, 169-190.

Kim, Y., Kim, J., Kim, M., & Rodriguez, B. (2017). Which factors are influential in forming students’ perceptions of school resource officers (SRO)? Critical Issues in Justice and Politics, 10(1), 15-26.

Karademir, K., Wiatrowski, M., Kim, J., & Vardalis, J. (2017). Democratic policing and organizational learning in UN Police Mission. Critical Issues in Justice and Politics, 10(1), 81-96.

Rodriguez, B., Kim, J., & Kim, Y. (2017). Evaluation of prison pre-release facilities in Texas: What effect do these programs have on offender success? Critical Issues in Justice and Politics, 10(1), 55-70.

Kim, J., & Lim, H. (2016). Issues in policing: Problematic use of force in the United States. Journal of British and American Studies, 36, 309-335.

Lim, H., Kim, J. & Chun, Y. (2016). Crime prevention effects of closed circuit television during weekday and weekend. Journal of Korean Public Police and Security Studies, 13(1), 189-210.  

Kim, J., & Lim, H. (2016). Organizational stressor associated with six aspects of police officer stress in South Korea. The Journal of Police Science, 16(1), 105-142.

Lim, H., Kim, C., Eck, J., & Kim, J. (2016). The crime-reduction effects of open-street CCTV in South Korea. Security Journal, 29(2), 241-255.

Kim, J., Wells, W., Vardalis, J., Johnson, S., & Lim, H. (2016). Gender difference in police occupational stress: A study of the South Korean National Police Agency. International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, 44, 163-182. 

Kim, J., Lee, H., Wells, W., & Vardalis, J. J. (2015). Organizational correlates of police officers’ attitudes toward use of force: A multilevel model. The Journal of Police Science, 15(3), 263-286.

Lee, H., Lim, H., Moore, D., & Kim, J. (2013). How police organizational structure correlates with frontline officers’ attitudes toward corruption: A multilevel model. Police Practice & Research, 14(5), 386-401.

Wells, W., Katz, C.M., & Kim, J. (2010). Firearm possession among arrestees in Trinidad and Tobago. Injury Prevention, 16(5), 337-342.

BOOK REVIEW

Kim, J. (2014).  Review of Religious Faith in Correctional Context. Review of Religious Research, 57(2), doi: 10.1007/s13644-015-0219-0.

PUBLICATIONS: NON-REFERRED

Kim, J. & Lim, H. (2016). Determinants of citizens’ attitudes toward police activities: Comparison between Korea and the United States. The Collection of Treatises of the Public Security, 33, 107-216.

Kim, J. (2015). A note for police stress study. In Tarleton State University (Ed.), (Vol. 1, pp. 3-5). Stephenville, TX. 

Kim, J. (2005). “The Role of District Police Chief.” Korea National Police Agency Handbook.

Kim, J., & Lee, H. (2000). “The Intelligence.” Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Handbook.

REPORTS

Kim, J. & Lim, H. (2016). Executive summary for determinants of citizens’ attitudes toward police activities: Comparison between Korea and the United States. Report to the Commissioner General of Korea National Police Agency, The Republic of Korea (South Korea).

Wells, W., Katz, C.M., & Kim, J. (2008). Illegal Gun Markets in Trinidad and Tobago. Report to the Minister of National Security, Trinidad and Tobago.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES AND AWARDS

Panel Chair for Comparative/International Criminal Justice, Policing, and Security at Annual Meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. New Orleans, Louisiana, February 2018.

Panel Chair for International Governmental Social Control at Annual Meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. Denver, Colorado, March 2016.

Panel Chair for Police Management and the International Community at Annual Meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. Orlando, Florida, March 2015.

Certificate of Appreciation awarded by the Korean Society of Criminology in America (KOSCA) for the service as Chair of Nomination Committee (Nov 15, 2012 – Nov 21, 2013).

SHSU Scholarship in Criminal Justice, 2008 – 2012, 5 times.

SHSU Graduate Fellowship in Criminal Justice, 2012 – 2013, 2 times.

Study Abroad Full Scholarship for Excellent Republic of Korean Public Officials, 2000-2003.

Commendation awarded by Commissioner General of Korean National Police Agency for Acknowledgment of Meritorious Service, 1999 (No. 10223 and 540), 1998 (No. 8207 and 295), 1996 (No. 7294) and 1993 (No. 9108).

Commendation awarded by Commissioner of Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency for Acknowledgment of Meritorious Service, 1997 (No. 2219).

Commendation awarded by Commissioner of Chungnam Provincial Police Agency for Acknowledgment of Meritorious Service, 1997 (No. 130).

Commendation awarded by Commissioner of Kyunggi Provincial Police Agency for Acknowledgment of Meritorious Service, 1989 (No. 1172).

Commendation awarded by Commissioner of Jeju Provincial Police Agency for Acknowledgment of Meritorious Service, 1989 (No. 185).