Criminal Justice Undergraduate Courses
CRJ 101
INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINAL JUSTICE
3, 3/0; SSIF
An introductory analysis of the agencies and processes of the criminal justice system, including an examination of patterns of crime and victimization; underlying ideologies; procedures, functions and structure; fundamental legal concepts; interaction between various social groups and the criminal justice system; and organization, discretion and decision-making of police, criminal courts, and correctional services.
CRJ 201
CRIMINAL LAW
3, 3/0
Prerequisite: CRJ 101.
Substantive criminal law is studied through the analysis of judicial opinions and text material. The elements of crime, such as intent, actus reus, and concurrence, are covered in depth and examined within the statutory definition of several different offenses. These elements also are studied within the context of defenses, such as justifications, among others.
CRJ 202
THE POLICE PROCESS
3, 3/0
Comprehensive introduction to the basic elements of policing in the United States; designed to acquaint students with the most current knowledge about police organizations, police officers, police work, and police problems.
CRJ 204
THE CORRECTIONAL PROCESS
3, 3/0
The correctional process from sentencing to parole. Examines legal and administrative processes used in establishing postconviction remedies, criminal sanctions, and social controls on adult offenders. Emphasis on understanding the structure and function of the American correctional system and the processes in establishing correctional custody and treatment.
CRJ 250
INTRODUCTION TO INTELLIGENCE ANALYSIS
3, 3/0
This survey course introduces students to the discipline of intelligence in the areas of national security, business, and law enforcement. Provides students with an understanding of how intelligence systems function, how they are used by policy makers, and how they are managed and controlled. Covers such intelligence topics as history, ethics, psychology, and analytical techniques.
CRJ 301
POLICE ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT
3, 3/0
Prerequisites: CRJ 101 or permission of instructor, upper-division status.
Analysis of administrative theory and practice in police systems, with emphasis on organization and function, and on issues unique to those systems.
CRJ 302
CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND THE COMMUNITY
3, 3/0
Patterns of crime in the community and the community’s response. Differences between urban and suburban areas, as well as age, gender, and race. Practices and effects of diversion, community-based corrections, victim-witness programs, crime watch, court watch, restitution, mediation, and dispute-resolution programs.
CRJ 303
CRIMINAL JUSTICE THEORY AND IDEOLOGY
3, 3/0; OCIF
Prerequisites: CRJ 101, CWP 102.
Examination of the social, political, cultural, and economic forces that shape the historical and contemporary theories and ideologies of crime, and their interactive influences with criminal justice policies and practices.
CRJ 305
THE JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM
3, 3/0
Prerequisites: CRJ 101, upper-division status.
The structure and function of the juvenile justice system. Statutes and court decisions used to determine jurisdiction over youth. Critical decision-making stages of the juvenile court process. Review of the research concerning the relative effectiveness of treatment and social control programs for youth. Emphasis on the historical, cultural, social, and legal influences governing the processes, priorities, and practices of juvenile justice.
CRJ 306
PROBATION, PAROLE, AND COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS
3, 3/0
Prerequisites: CRJ 101, upper-division status.
Review of probation, parole, and community corrections; their histories and organizational structures; the nature and effects of the process by which offenders are handled, as well as the dynamics and trends toward change in the field of probation, parole, and community based corrections.
CRJ 307
COMPARATIVE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
3, 3/0
Prerequisite: CRJ 101.
The major contemporary criminal justice systems and their operations under various cultural contexts. The social, economic, political, and ideological forces that have impacted present-day systems. Methodological issues of comparative research.
CRJ 308
CRIME PREVENTION
3, 3/0
Prerequisite: CRJ 101.
The nature and effects of three levels of efforts at crime prevention: those administered by the formal justice system to prevent offenders from repeating offenses, those designed to deal with people identified as likely to commit crime, and those designed to modify the physical and social environments that foster crime.
CRJ 315
RESEARCH METHODS IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE
3, 3/0
Prerequisites: CRJ 101, ECO 305 or equivalent statistics course, upper-division status.
Introduction to the research process as practiced in criminal justice: definition of problem, delineating theory, various methods of data collection, examination of validity and reliability. Research devices used in everyday criminal justice. Students participate in some aspect of research.
CRJ 317
CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE
3, 3/0
Prerequisites: CRJ 101, upper-division status.
Constitutional issues in criminal justice through a review of U.S. Supreme Court decisions regarding law enforcement, prosecution, defense, judicial process, corrections, and community supervision; additional constitutional issues related to the administration of justice.
CRJ 320
CRIMINAL COURTS
3, 3/0
Prerequisite: CRJ 101.
The trial criminal courts, with emphasis on courts for adult offenders. Legal, social, and political processes that affect the dynamics of the criminal trial process. Problems, possible reforms, and decision making of the participants. Interrelationships that affect and influence court decisions and justice.
CRJ 355
CRIME ANALYSIS
3, 3/0
Prerequisite: Junior level status or instructor permission. Crime analysis terminology, techniques, and methodologies. The role and responsibilities of a crime analyst, including the need for analysts to utilize cross-jurisdictional data and provide objective results to policymakers and law enforcement decision-makers.
CRJ 402
ADVANCED ADMINISTRATION IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE
3, 3/0
Prerequisites: CRJ 101; upper-division status; completion of introductory course in public administration, business management, or criminal justice administration.
Advanced course in management concepts and issues applicable to the administration of criminal justice agencies. Emphasis on a systems model of organizational analysis. External environment of crime control policy and its impact upon agency operations. Internal agency management. The responsibilities and functions of crime control agency managers.
CRJ 404
WHITE-COLLAR AND CORPORATE CRIME
3, 3/0
Prerequisites: CRJ 101, CRJ 303, upper-division status.
Physical and financial harm caused by wayward corporations, corporate officials, employees, and other white-collar offenders. Emphasis on ethical and legal decision making and regulatory monitoring, and control of white-collar and corporate activity.
CRJ 406
CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND PROGRAMS
3, 3/0
Prerequisites: CRJ 101, CRJ 204, upper-division status or permission of instructor.
Comprehensive survey of adult institutional corrections systems, their programs and services, and the policies and procedures governing the operational, legal, and structural context of correctional environments. Emphasis on the research literature focused on the impacts and outcomes of various correctional intervention strategies.
CRJ 408
PROSEMINAR IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE
3, 3/0
Investigation, examination, and discussion of topics of current interest in criminal justice. Techniques and analysis of criminal justice research.
CRJ 409
ADVANCED ISSUES IN LAW ENFORCEMENT
3, 3/0
Prerequisites: CRJ 101, CRJ 202, upper-division status or permission of instructor.
Advanced course on contemporary issues in law enforcement. Provides insight and depth into a broad range of topics and exposes students to experts and specialists from various relevant disciplines.
CRJ 410
ORGANIZED CRIME
3, 3/0
Prerequisites: CRJ 101, CRJ 303, upper-division status.
Views on organized crime, the controversy surrounding the phenomenon, and efforts at control. Definition of organized crime, its developmental history, and models that define the structure of organized crime in the United States. Theories that explain the existence of organized crime, activities that constitute the “business of organized crime, the relationship between organized crime and official corruption, techniques used to combat organized crime, and policy implications inherent in responses to organized crime.
CRJ 420
ADVANCED ISSUES IN PUNISHMENT AND CORRECTIONS
3, 3/0
Prerequisites: CRJ 101,CRJ 204, upper-division status.
Critical analysis of contemporary policies, practices, and issues arising from the control and punishment of criminal offenders. Emphasis on the complexity of recent issues, such as disparity in criminal sentencing, use of the death penalty, institutional overcrowding, treatment of institutionalized people, and community supervision of nonincarcerated offenders. Focus of analysis will vary with interests of faculty and students.
CRJ 425
RACE, ETHNICITY, AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE
3, 3/0; DIIF
Prerequisites: CRJ 101, upper-division status.
Examines the current state of race relations in society and the criminal justice system, and the historical experiences of different racial and ethnic groups in the United States, and their relation to law and the criminal justice system as victims, offenders, and officials in criminal justice institutions.
CRJ 430
GENDER AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE
3, 3/0; DIIF
Prerequisites: CRJ 101, upper-division status.
The mutual effects between gender and aspects of criminal justice, including victimization, criminality, law, and the criminal justice process. Includes perspectives on the historical subordination of women, and how law and the criminal justice system can be used to ameliorate that subordination.
CRJ 440
DRUGS, CRIME, AND DRUG POLICY
3, 3/0
Prerequisites: CRJ 101, CWP 102.
Examines the nature and impact of drug abuse in America and the relationship to criminal behavior. Also examines the historical and ideological foundations of national drug-control policy, as well as contemporary control and intervention strategies.
CRJ 450
TERRORISM AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE
3, 3/0
The phenomenon of terrorism from a criminal justice perspective. The history of the phenomenon and contemporary terrorism in both its domestic and international manifestations; theories about terrorism; analytic methods for investigating and combating it, whether perpetrated by state or non-state actors.
CRJ 455
ADVANCED INTELLIGENCE ANALYSIS
3, 3/0
Prerequisite: CRJ 250.
Advanced-level continuation of CRJ 250. Introduces a variety of analytical techniques; provides advanced knowledge, understanding, and application of these techniques; promotes critical thinking and report-writing skills.
CRJ 470
ADVANCED SEMINAR IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE
3, 3/0; OCIF
Prerequisites: CWP 102, CRJ 101, CRJ 303, CRJ 315, upper-division status, at least 24 credit hours of criminal justice coursework.
Integration of knowledge acquired throughout the criminal justice curriculum into a holistic conception of criminal justice theory, practice, research, and planning. Emphasis on developing advanced scholarship, conceptualization, and critical thinking through writing within the discipline.
CRJ/PSC 485
MOOT COURT
3, 3/0; OCIF
Prerequisites: Junior/Senior level or permission of instructor.
Simulation of a trial court or appellate court proceeding involving teams of students as prosecutors and defense attorneys. Includes preparing case strategy, analyzing evidence and legal precedent, preparing a written brief, and presenting an oral argument. Final project is a “trial” or “appellate court” presentation to a jury or panel of judges.
CRJ 488
INTERNSHIP IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE
3, 3/0
Prerequisites: Senior-level standing, 3.0 GPA, permission of instructor.
A comprehensive, supervised field experience in criminal justice and related social service agencies. Requires a minimum of 10 hours of work in the agency during a 14-week period (140 total hours) and a weekly academic seminar on campus. The purpose of the internship is to integrate knowledge learned in the academic environment with the experience of day-to-day work in a professional environment.
CRJ 495
SPECIAL PROJECT
CRJ 499
INDEPENDENT STUDY