I appreciate your taking the time to respond to this idea that somehow because you were only a 'minor' in CJ, your opinion is 'not a useful point of reference'.
For reference, I was a philosophy major, and at no point would I have considered myself qualified to opine on the quality of current philosophy. Similarly, a close friend who was a physics major has now completed a postdoc in a subfield and still hesitates to make sweeping statements about the state of "physics."
And lest anyone is left with the wrong impression, criminologists are not running much of anything in the administration of criminal justice in the United States.
Probation over incarceration was a criminological theory made policy. Decriminalization of (x) are criminologists postulating about causal relationships. More importantly, criminologists are heavily consulted by the entertainment industry in terms of form and content.
Regardless, I feel completely comfortable to comment on the state of abysmal reasoning I see in my school. I did it to the PoliSci department for the same reasons. People who cannot define/explain the mathematical and/or computational logic underpinning their methodology have no place in relating conclusions and analysis from said studies. The methodology for encoding of life factors, interactions, and ethno-social details alone should be the biggest red flag. There are so many little biases, arguments from consensus, and cognitively dissonant perspectives that it becomes death by a thousand errors.
I hope these "data thugs" rip sociology to shreds. It is a good thing. These are all my opinions and observations, of course, but I truly believe that all of the social sciences are at an alchemical state; whoever can convince the patrons that they can cull prosperity/equality/justice/peace/wellness from the data gets the support and favor. But it is bullshit. Rather, it isn't science. Not yet. There are too many taboos, too much common knowledge, too much politicking, currently. Sociology needs to be culled in a compassionately dispassionate way by external forces, with the hope of the dross being scraped away so the concrete value, however much or little is there, can be recognized and built upon.