Criminal Justice/Sociology

In the United States an old TV character used to say, “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.” But is the criminal system that clear cut? And does that same attitude exist around the globe? During this course we’ll examine the criminal justice systems from two different countries from start to finish – cops, courts, and corrections and see how they are similar and where the key differences are. This semester we will focus on the systems of the United States and Great Britain.

Every nine seconds a child drops out of school, every 15 seconds a child is arrested, every 5 minutes a child is arrested for a violent crime, and every 23 minutes a child is wounded by gunfire – hard statistics that reflect many kids’ lives. Why are American children committing more crimes and falling victim to more violent episodes than ever before? This course seeks to help students understand the breadth and depth of juvenile delinquency at the beginning of the 21st century. We will examine theories, studies, systems, and societal reactions that shape the way our culture addresses issues of delinquency.

This course examines the principles, theories and practices of forensic science utilized within the law enforcement community and the American legal system. Forensic science is the study and application of science to the process of law and involves the collection, examination, evaluation and interpretation of evidence. Students will gain a basic understanding of the scientific and analytical approach to determining the value of evidence as it relates to the court of law.

This course begins with a survey of the history and application of criminological thought which will provide a foundation for analysis of the assumptions, elements, and policy implications of theories of crime and criminal justice. The first half of this course focuses on theories within two major paradigms in criminological theory: Classical and Positivist Criminology. The second part of the course will turn to several of the more interdisciplinary theoretical approaches currently in use. We explore the perspectives on crime and criminal justice that permeate public discourse on crime and justice and critique the formal criminological theories to which these everyday perspectives are linked. We consider whether existing research provides support for widely accepted theories and we examine the criminal justice policies associated with different criminological theories.

This course is designed to introduce students to the topic of victimology, the scientific study of victims. Although at least one pioneer in the field, Benjamin Mendelsohn, argues that the term "victimology" should encompass a broad spectrum of "victims", this course will focus only on criminal victimization. While traditionally, criminologists and criminal justice professionals have focused on the offendere and the criminal justice system, it is only recently that they have begun to examine the victim, the forgotten member of the criminal process. In this course, we will examine the field of victimology, including its scope and development, review the problems associated with victimization, examiine the relationship between the victim and the offender, the victim and the criminal justice system, and the victim and society. We will also discuss various practical applications and policies that have resulted from society's increasing concern about victims.

This course is an examination of the theories and history shaping the biological, psychological, social and environmental characteristics of murder. Attention will be paid to how these crimes were investigated when they happened and how the change to modern forensic technology would have shaped the investigation much differently had it occurred in the past decade.

This course is an upper level undergraduate course which examines current issues related to ethics in law enforcement, the courts, and corrections. Students will become familiar with practical issues that generate interaction between ethics and criminal justice. Students will then be exposed to various philosophical theories that may provide practical application of theory and learn the significance of these various philosophical applications of theory in the study of contemporary criminal justice issues.