By Jonathan Morales

2021年10月29日

A new program at 萨克拉门托 State will provide students interested in criminal justice and law enforcement careers with the language and cultural skills to better serve California’s growing Spanish-speaking population.

拟议的刑事司法西班牙语证书课程在本学期开始了四门课程中的第一门，有八名刑事司法专业的学生入学。 Housed in the 世界语言文学系, the program eventually will be composed of two lower-division and two upper-division courses, plus an internship.

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María Mayberry, a professor of Spanish and coordinator of the proposed certificate program, expects full approval during the 2023-24 academic year. 该项目是与博彩平台圣贝纳迪诺分校合作开展的，由美国教育部拨款34万美元资助。

最新的人口普查数据突显了萨克拉门托县拉丁裔社区的增长，从2010年的21.6%增长到今天的23%。 Of the county’s roughly 166,000 new residents, 41% are Latinx.

“The need to serve this community is magnified by this increase in the population in 萨克拉门托,” Mayberry said. “It shows the need for Spanish-speaking criminal justice professionals who can serve the Hispanic/Latino population."

Students will need to come into the program with some background in Spanish – either three years in high school or the consent of a 囊状态 faculty member. 这些课程将侧重于发展西班牙语和刑事司法背景下的文化技能。 That means learning vocabulary and grammar – such as the Spanish words for handgun, testimony, or witness – as well as skills for interviewing a witness or suspect, reading suspects their Miranda rights, or explaining in Spanish the reason for a police encounter.

Cultural topics include understanding the role of family and religion in Latinx cultures and the importance of distinguishing between the informal tú and formal 您 forms of address when speaking to someone from the Latinx community.

“When you relate to the person you’re speaking to, in their language and with understanding of their culture ... you are going to establish rapport, and you are going to get more cooperation.” - María Mayberry, professor of Spanish and coordinator of the proposed program

梅伯里说，这些技能对于在执法部门和说西班牙语的人之间建立信任至关重要。

“When you relate to the person you’re speaking to, in their language and with understanding of their culture, the communication is going to be enhanced. You are going to establish rapport, and you are going to get more cooperation,” she said.

“The more they see that either you speak the language or are making an effort to speak the language and understand their culture, the more confidence they are going to have in you.”

一年后，学生将在刑事司法部门实习，在那里他们可以与说西班牙语的人互动。 梅伯里说，她和她在博彩平台圣贝纳迪诺分校的同事正在合作，让学生们可以选择在巴塞罗那完成实习。

艾娃·伊索拉（Ava Isola）是刑事司法专业的大二学生，她在高中时学习法语，直到最近才开始把西班牙语作为一种爱好来学习。 她希望最终能为联邦调查局工作，或者成为一名警察或缓刑官，当她得知这个新项目时，她正在考虑增加一门西班牙语辅修课程。

伊索拉说，她很欣赏小班教学的环境，这让学生有更多的机会与梅伯里和他们的同学练习对话技巧。

她说，在执法环境中，沟通不端可能是一个问题，但拥有双语刑事司法专业人员可以帮助弥合分歧。

“When you have a better connection with the people in your community, you can end up gaining trust and confidence from the people in those communities,” Isola said. “Learning Spanish, especially in California where there’s such a large population of Spanish speakers, helps with building trust and confidence.”

Upon approval, the Spanish-language certificate program will be the Department of World Language and Literature’s second certificate program. The Department launched the HEALS医疗保健西班牙语证书课程 in 2015.