Building scholars: A qualitative look at mentoring in a criminology and criminal justice doctoral program

The utility of mentoring has attracted a great deal of scholarly attention, but little of this attention has been specific to criminal justice and criminology. This article reports the findings from a qualitative study of faculty members' and students' perceptions of mentoring, and the foreground dynamics in mentoring in a criminology and criminal justice doctoral program. Topics include who receives mentoring and why, how mentors and protégés find one another, and what types of mentoring activities are viewed as more and less helpful. This analysis suggests that practical considerations such as availability and shared interests are the common thread in most issues related to the quality and quantity of mentoring. Implications for mentoring practices, including the benefits of work-based fellowships and students' control in the mentoring process are also discussed.