Criminal Justice Graduate Courses
CRJ 501
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON CRIME AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE
3, 3/0
Patterns and trends in crime and victimization in the United States; the complex relationships between theoretical explanations of criminal behavior and criminal justice policies and priorities; theoretical and empirical foundations of criminal behavior and crime control; development of writing and conceptual skills.
CRJ 504
RESEARCH METHODS IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE
3, 3/0
Prerequisite: Graduate status or instructor permission.
Nature of research in criminal justice: theory, experimental and quasi-experimental design,sampling, measurement, data analysis, and ethics.
CRJ 508: HISTORY OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE
3, 3/0
Prerequisite: Graduate status or instructor permission.
Societal responses to crime and disorder in the United States from the colonial period through the twentieth century; social forces that influenced the development of criminal law and its institutions of social control; readings in traditional and revisionist scholarship on social disorder, law, crime, police, courts, prisons, and juvenile justice.
CRJ 590: INDEPENDENT STUDY
3, 3/0
CRJ 601: CORRECTIONAL STRATEGIES
3, 3/0
Prerequisite: Graduate status.
Historical, philosophical, theoretical, and legal dimensions of correctional practices in the United States; contemporary correctional strategies and services, including institutional and community-based programs, within the context of contemporary correctional policy.
CRJ 602: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AND THE MANAGEMENT PROCESS IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE
3, 3/0
Prerequisite: Undergraduate advanced administration in criminal justice or equivalent.
Managerial environment of criminal justice organizations; analysis and application of administrative science to improving crime control agency management.
CRJ 603: ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE
3, 3/0
Prerequisite: Graduate status.
Intensive and integrative analysis of the administration of criminal justice. Uses a pluralistic model of public crime control policy making to examine existing and possible future efforts and effects on the American criminal justice and criminal-legal system and its agencies and operations. Extensive exposure to the criminal justice system, supporting social science, and legal literature in the field.
CRJ 604: CRIMINAL COURTS
3, 3/0
Theory of courts and the legal, social, and political processes that significantly affect the operation of the criminal courts, the administration of justice, and judicial decision making; the interrelationship among the social and political forces that influence court decisions and justice.
CRJ 605
LAW AND SOCIAL CONTROL
3, 3/0
Prerequisite: Graduate status or instructor permission.
Nature of social control as it is vested in the objectives, procedures, and authority of law and social institutions; social and legal implications of social control and the limits of criminal law as a means of social control.
CRJ 606
LAW ENFORCEMENT ISSUES
3, 3/0
Prerequisite: Graduate status or instructor permission.
Selected issues relating to the role and operations of law enforcement in a time of complex social change. Topics vary as developing issues and problems affect the police.
CRJ 608
SPECIAL TOPICS IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE
3, 3/0
Prerequisite: Graduate status.
Intensive analysis of a special topic(s) not covered in the existing curriculum, to be determined by relevancy and currency of the topic(s), student interests, and the availability of resources and expertise to teach the specific subject matter. May be taken twice (up to 6 credits).
CRJ 620
WHITE-COLLAR CRIME
3, 3/0
Prerequisite: Graduate status.
Theoretical and empirical literature on upper-world crime and its impact on society; the relationship between and effectiveness of criminal, civil, and regulatory processes; characteristics of offenders.
CRJ 622
JUVENILE JUSTICE
3, 3/0
Prerequisite: Graduate status.
Historical, philosophical, theoretical, and legal foundations of juvenile justice systems in states across the country; the relationship between juvenile delinquency and youth crime; various state juvenile justice strategies; empirical studies of interventions to combat drug behavior; gangs and criminal violence; the effectiveness of the complex decisions made by the juvenile justice system in addressing delinquency and youth crime.
CRJ 624
COMPUTER APPLICATION
3, 3/0
Prerequisite: Graduate status or instructor permission.
Various computer applications of basic statistical methods as they apply to criminal justice; a combination of lectures on both descriptive and inferential statistics and hands-on experience in the computer lab, designed to increase analytical ability through quantitative training exercises.
CRJ 625
RACE AND ETHNICITY IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE
3, 3/0
Prerequisite: CRJ 501.
Manifestations of racial and ethnic stratification in American society and their effects on crime and the administration of criminal justice in the United States; history of racial stratification in the United States; effects of racial stratification on the criminality of minority groups; differential enforcement of the law against members of minority groups at different phases of the criminal justice process.
CRJ 626
GENDER ISSUES IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE
3, 3/0
Prerequisite: CRJ 501.
Gender differences and their effects on criminal behavior, law, and the criminal justice process; crimes of which women are disproportionately victims; the extent, types, distinguishing characteristics, and theories of female criminality; criminal justice policies and practices that result in the differential treatment of female victims, offenders, and practitioners.
CRJ 628
ORGANIZED CRIME
3, 3/0
Prerequisite: Graduate status.
History, structure, operation, and theories of organized crime, and the problems of control that law enforcement faces; interaction between criminals, victims, community, law enforcement, and the laws within the pluralistic political context.
CRJ 630
CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE
3, 3/0
Prerequisite: Admission to the criminal justice master’s degree program or instructor permission.
Legal reasoning, writing briefs, and legal research; identifying and analyzing selected Supreme Court cases, with an emphasis on the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution; examining former ideologies for comparison with current trends, issues, and ideologies, emphasizing the comprehension of legal thought and how it changes. Uses the casebook method of study.
CRJ 635
CRIMINAL JUSTICE ETHICS
3, 3/0
Prerequisite: Graduate status.
Ethics as a component of criminal justice: overview of basic ethical concepts and theories; macro-level ethical issues and problems in the criminal justice process; specific ethical problems of the various components of the criminal justice process.
CRJ 690
MASTER’S PROJECT
3, 0/0
Research or investigation of a particular problem, planned and carried out by the student with consultation and guidance from the instructor.
CRJ 710
RESEARCH PROJECT
3, 3/0
Prerequisites: Graduate status, instructor permission, and department approval.
Participation in an ongoing research project by invitation of a criminal justice faculty member. May be taken only once.