Tarleton Criminal Justice • Global Experiential Learning
Study Abroad in Taipei, Taiwan
Crime, Justice, Democracy & Culture in East Asia
Spend two weeks in Taiwan examining criminal justice, policing, courts, democratic institutions, social control, technology, and culture through site visits, professional engagement, academic discussion, and immersion in one of East Asia’s most dynamic democracies.
Program Overview Why Taiwan? Field Learning Academic Credit Taipei & Culture Faculty Director Global Education
Taiwan as Your Comparative Justice Laboratory
This study abroad program examines criminal justice institutions and nonprofit organizations from a global and comparative perspective. Students move beyond classroom descriptions of another country’s justice system and experience institutions, neighborhoods, public spaces, and cultural settings directly.
Site visits and immersion help students understand how formal social control—including policing, courts, prosecution, and other government institutions—and informal social control operate within an East Asian democracy.
The academic experience intentionally combines micro and macro perspectives. Students consider interactions between individuals and criminal justice professionals while also examining broader political institutions, social norms, historical forces, technology, and culture.
2
Weeks of Immersive Learning
Open to Other Majors
Students outside Criminal Justice are encouraged to explore the program with their academic advisor.
14
Days in Taiwan
3
Credit Hours
3
Degree-Level Course Options
ALL
Majors Welcome
Why Study Criminal Justice in Taiwan?
Taiwan offers a distinctive setting for studying comparative criminal justice because its modern institutions exist at the intersection of Chinese cultural traditions, rapid economic and technological development, and democratic government.
Taiwan moved from authoritarian rule toward democratic government beginning in the late twentieth century. Peaceful elections have produced multiple transfers of political power, creating an especially valuable environment for examining police legitimacy, public trust, democratic accountability, and the role of justice institutions during political change.
Students can consider how policing and other forms of social control function within a society whose historical and cultural development is closely connected to the broader Chinese world while its contemporary political institutions operate democratically.
Taiwan is also globally significant in advanced technology and semiconductor manufacturing. This provides an additional context for discussing cybercrime, information technology, global economic security, and the relationship between technology and contemporary criminal justice.
Learning in the Field
The program emphasizes access to institutions and organizations rather than conventional tourism. Students learn by entering professional environments, hearing directly from practitioners, and connecting each visit to comparative criminal justice concepts.
Policing & Investigation
- Police departments
- Investigative agencies
- Police education and training
- Practitioner discussions
Courts & Justice
- Courthouse visits
- Prosecutor offices
- Justice-system operations
- Comparative legal perspectives
Democracy & Human Rights
- Human rights sites
- Democracy museums
- Historical institutions
- Political transition discussions
Community & Social Control
- Nonprofit organizations
- Community institutions
- Informal social control
- Cultural observation
Program activities may vary by year. Specific agency and organizational visits depend on local availability, institutional access, and the final academic itinerary.
What Will You Study?
- Compare criminal justice processes and institutions in the United States and Taiwan.
- Examine police organizations, investigations, courts, prosecution, corrections, and juvenile justice from a comparative perspective.
- Analyze how democratic institutions affect policing and formal social control.
- Explore public trust, police legitimacy, and citizen-state relationships.
- Distinguish between formal and informal mechanisms of social control.
- Connect individual-level experiences with broader political, historical, cultural, and social forces.
- Develop intercultural communication and comparative analytical skills.
- Consider the role of technology, cybercrime, and information systems in contemporary criminal justice.
Earn Academic Credit in Taiwan
The program offers three credit-hour options for undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students. Students from other majors are welcome; degree applicability should be confirmed with the student’s academic advisor before registration.
Undergraduate
CRIJ 4387
Study Abroad
Three undergraduate credit hours. Criminal Justice students should confirm how the course applies to their degree plan; students from other majors should consult their academic advisor regarding elective or degree applicability.
Master’s
CRIJ 5382
Study Abroad
Three graduate credit hours emphasizing comparative criminal justice institutions and the relationship among culture, democracy, crime, policing, and justice.
Doctoral
CRIJ 6350
Comparative Criminal Justice Systems
Three doctoral credit hours that may be applied as an elective within the Criminal Justice Ph.D. program, subject to individual degree-plan requirements.
Students from other majors: Participation is not limited to Criminal Justice majors. Students in other programs should consult their academic advisor to determine whether the course may count toward electives, major requirements, graduate credit, or another component of their degree.
Taipei: History, Culture & Contemporary Life
Taipei is Taiwan’s capital and largest center of government, finance, education, transportation, media, and cultural life. For students, the city offers an unusually rich environment in which traditional Chinese cultural influences coexist with modern democratic institutions and a highly developed urban economy.
The city’s streets, temples, museums, public transportation, markets, universities, government institutions, and neighborhoods allow students to observe how history and contemporary life operate side by side.
Mandarin Chinese is the principal language of daily life, while English is also encountered in universities, transportation systems, tourism, business, and many urban settings. Students therefore experience cultural immersion while remaining in an international city accustomed to global visitors.
A Different Kind of Global Classroom
- Explore an East Asian democratic society.
- Observe how traditional culture and modern institutions coexist.
- Experience one of Asia’s major urban centers.
- Compare American assumptions about policing and social control with Taiwanese practices.
- Develop confidence navigating a different cultural and linguistic environment.
What 2 Weeks Abroad Can Add to Your Education
Comparative Insight
Seeing another justice system firsthand makes it easier to identify assumptions embedded in your own.
Professional Exposure
Interact with justice professionals, researchers, nonprofit organizations, and institutional representatives.
Intercultural Skills
Practice communication, adaptability, observation, and problem solving in an unfamiliar cultural environment.
Global Perspective
Connect criminal justice with democracy, global politics, technology, culture, and international social change.
Meet the Faculty Director
Dr. Shun-Yung Kevin Wang
Associate Professor • Faculty Director, Taiwan Study Abroad
Dr. Wang brings especially relevant academic and cultural expertise to the Taiwan program. His research areas include comparative justice, policing, police-citizen relations, cybercrime, information technology in criminal justice, and juvenile justice.
He previously worked as a research assistant at National Taiwan University in Taipei and has conducted extensive scholarship on Taiwanese policing, public trust, procedural justice, cybercrime, and comparative criminal justice. He also received a U.S. Fulbright Scholar Award and has delivered numerous invited lectures at universities and criminal justice institutions in Taiwan.
Email: kwang@tarleton.edu
Phone: 817-484-4426
Office: Building 1, Fort Worth
Tarleton Global Initiatives and Services
Tarleton’s Office of Global Initiatives and Services helps students prepare for education abroad and navigate the university study abroad process.
Students should begin planning early and review requirements related to program applications, passports, finances, scholarships, accessibility, pre-departure preparation, university requirements, and international travel.
Office of Global Initiatives and Services
Barry B. Thompson Student Center
Room 15
Phone: 254-968-9656
Email: studyabroad@tarleton.edu
Interested in Studying Criminal Justice in Taiwan?
Contact Dr. Kevin Wang for academic questions and future program information, and connect with Global Initiatives and Services for the university study abroad process.
See Criminal Justice From the Other Side of the Pacific
Experience policing, justice, democracy, technology, and culture in Taiwan—and return to Tarleton with a comparative perspective that cannot be gained from a textbook alone.