This course introduces the study of societal responses to crime and provides an explanation of why criminal justice should be thought of as a system. Specific topics include the study of the people and organizations that make up the criminal justice system including actors such as the police, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, and corrections officials. Major branches and functions of the criminal justice system including law enforcement and order maintenance, courts and sentencing, and corrections and reentry are covered. Required Course – B.S.

Course Learning Goals:

1. Explain the structure and functioning of the basic components of the criminal justice system including the police, courts, corrections, and the juvenile justice system.
2. Articulate how the criminal justice system is a dynamic and interdisciplinary system made up of many different people and agencies.
3. Describe the relationships among all parts and players of the criminal justice system as well as their relationships to other social systems and relevant stakeholders.
4. Critically analyze how policies and practices of criminal justice agencies may directly or indirectly affect other criminal justice agencies, social systems, and/or key stakeholders.

Syllabus – Fall 2024

Syllabus – Spring 2025

The course examines the function of police in contemporary society; the problems arising between citizens and police from the enforcement and non-enforcement of laws are covered in this course. The mechanisms by which social changes impact the law enforcement and order maintenance functions of the police, interactions between the public and the police, and how these interactions impact police legitimacy are major topics that will be discussed.

Course Learning Goals:

1. Describe the history of policing in the United States, and analyze how the role of the police has developed and evolved in American society.
2. Critically analyze key components of American policing such as the use of discretion, the development of police subcultures, ethics and policing, and the relationship between policing and technological developments.
3. Articulate the historical roots of policing tactics such as stop and frisk, questioning suspects, the use of force, and search and seizure, and analyze their use in contemporary policing.
4. Analyze the roles and functions of the police in the broader criminal justice system.

Syllabus – Spring 2025

When urban governments and quasi-governmental activities do their jobs well, they can greatly reduce various types of crime. This course relates urban design and management to crime and crime reduction. Specific topics include public violence, abandonment, littering, public drunkenness, environmental degradation, safe parks, secure streets and campuses, robberies, teen hangouts, outdoor drug markets, and more. The course is presented through the critical lens of problem oriented policing, routine activity analysis, and situational crime prevention to reducing local crime.

Course Learning Goals:

1. Explain what crime prevention is, and be able to identify policy prescriptions aimed at crime prevention.
2. Assess and critique the major theories associated with crime prevention.
3. Articulate how crime prevention strategies are used to prevent various street and retail offenses.
4. Demonstrate an in depth knowledge, and become a critical consumer of the academic and applied evidence-bases that articulate crime prevention strategies.

Syllabus – Fall 2022

This course explores the U.S. Constitution and how it regulates the criminal justice system processes. This course will provide a historical overview of the Constitution, the formation of the legal system and the evolution of the Constitution through its Amendments.

Course Learning Goals:

1. Discuss the historical significance of constitutional interpretation relating to criminal offenses and criminal justice procedures, and the effect societal changes have on constitutional interpretation.
2. Identify, analyze, and interpret the constitutional principles that apply to procedural law and criminal investigations.
3. Identify and understand the Supreme Court cases commonly identified with criminal justice policy as well as demonstrate an understanding of the Court’s rationale behind its decisions.
4. Demonstrate an understanding about the issues and controversies involved with the U.S. Constitution and the Supreme Court’s interpretation of them.

This course examines the theory and practice of major community-based correctional responses (such as probation, parole, and diversion programs) to people convicted of criminal offenses. Discussions centering on why community corrections is an important social movement, and the countermovement to abolish the discretionary parole release function, are offered in this course.

Course Learning Goals:

1. Articulate the historical roots of community corrections within the United States.
2. Develop an in depth knowledge about the functions of the different subsystems of community corrections including probation, parole, diversionary programs, and alternative sanctions.
3. Analyze and critique community corrections practices, and assess the evidence-base from which these practices stem.
4. Analyze the roles and functions of community corrections in the broader criminal justice system.

Syllabus – Spring 2025

This course develops the tools needed for conducting research and writing reports and scholarly papers in criminal justice. Students that take this course will become informed consumers of criminological research, and gain the tools to conduct their own basic research projects. Specific topics include the primacy of design, principles of reliability and validity, sampling theory, survey preparation, and the differences between, and strengths and detriments of, experimental and quasi- experimental designs. Required Course – B.S., B.A. Cannot be used to complete a minor in Criminal Justice (waived if minor declared before spring 2022). 

Course Learning Goals:

1. Describe common methods of social science inquiry.
2. Discuss the linkage between research questions and research design.
3. Explore major debates about research methods, social science, and ethics in research.
4. Critically evaluate social scientific evidence and research.
5. Become better-informed consumers of new reports, political rhetoric, and public discussion about the social world and social scientific research.

Syllabus – Fall 2024

Syllabus – Spring 2025

This course provides a worldwide overview of cultural and legal traditions related to crime. This worldview is used to fuel discussions about different approaches to law enforcement, criminal procedure and criminal law, corrections, and juvenile justice across locations and cultures.

Course Learning Goals:

1. Compare and contrast organizational behavior concepts, management practices, and legal traditions of policing, court, corrections, and juvenile justice systems among different countries around the world.
2. Evaluate the role of organizations across the world in setting criminal justice policies in different nations.
3. Critique components, processes, and mechanisms involved in comparing cross-cultural criminal justice contexts.
4. Discuss current events in justice systems in various countries across the world.

Syllabus – Spring 2025

This course examines ways in which the criminal legal system defines, regulates, polices, and
punishes sexuality, sexual activity, reproduction, and sexual violence. It begins with an
exploration of sexuality, sexually deviant acts, and sex crimes. It will then move on to discuss
historical current laws (and punishments) in place for those who commit sexual violence, current
public opinion towards sex practices, myths about sex offenders, and resources for victims.
Specific topics to be addressed are Megan’s Law offenders, typologies of sex offenders, sex
offender risk assessments, sexual abuse on college campuses, incels, bestiality, and illegal IVF
and surrogacy practices. Further, the course will explore treatments for those convicted of sex
offenses, and the treatment of sex offenders under parole supervision. Discussions on recidivism
and desistance will conclude the course.

Syllabus – Fall 2024

This course provides an in-depth analysis of the relationship between violence and criminal behavior. It assesses the theoretical basis of violence by investigating its anthropological, biological, and sociological explanations and roots. It includes in-depth investigations of how and why violence occurs within the contexts of individuals, groups, and societies.

Course Learning Goals:

1. Discuss methodological issues in measuring violence in society.
2. Compare and contrast different contexts in respect to violence perpetration; such as social class and violence, violence in the family, between- and within-race violence, gender and violence, and the link between mental illness and violence.
3. Identify causes of youth violence and the origins of youth gangs.

Syllabus – Fall 2023

This course covers various topics that are considered to be critical law enforcement problems. Specific areas of inquiry include how to police organized crime, alcohol and drugs, the policing of civil and natural disturbances, and the diffusion and multiplicity of police agencies. Discussion of issues within crime reporting by the police, assessment difficulties, and public reactions to law enforcement and order maintenance strategies used by the police are covered in this course. Administrative problems of staffing, supervision, employee morale and militancy, and public charges are also critically discussed. Writing Intensive Course– B.S., B.A.

Course Learning Goals:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the critical issues in policing including use of force, management and organization, subculture, discretion, accountability, use of new technologies, evaluations of success, legitimacy, ethic, accountability, and professionalism.
2. Identify and explain a variety of contemporary approaches used by the police to control and reduce crimes with evidence-based practices.
3. Describe the role and function of police in a society and the impact of law enforcement on crime and public support.
4. Apply theoretical knowledge of policing strategies to real life scenarios.

Syllabus – Spring 2025

This course explores crime through the critical lens of anthropology by situating criminal acts as consequences of the complexity and nuances of human interactivity and cultural heterogeneity. Crime and punishment in other societies, especially non-Western societies that lack institutional systems of criminal justice, and the social evolution of crime and crime-related institutions throughout the United States of America’s history are particular topics that are discussed in this course. Writing Intensive Course – B.S., B.A.

Course Learning Goals:

1. Analyze various crimes across nations and cultures.
2. Explore and critically analyze scholarly works on crimes across different nations and cultures.
3. Compare and contrast the workings of the criminal justice system in the United States to that in different nations and cultures.
4. Increase understanding and conceptualization of crime as a social phenomenon in the context of culture.

Syllabus – Fall 2024

This course considers how the everyday environment provides opportunities for crime as well as obstacles for carrying it out. Students that take this class will be involved in discussions about important methods for reducing crime by modifying or planning the built environment. Discussions about how environmental design may produce and places that make crime commission more or less opportune are covered in this class. Moreover, the course offers an alternative theory of crime based on the opportunity to carry it out.

Course Learning Goals:

1. Discuss the historical roots of the study between the relationship between ecology and crime.
2. Critically assess theories of environmental criminology.
3. Demonstrate an understanding about analytic strategies and tools that are used to study crime patterns and events as they relate to the convergence of place, space, and time.
4. Assess the role of situational factors and criminal opportunities in explaining crime events, and how these can be used to guide prevention and control strategies.

This course provides a historical and theoretical overview of organized crime, as well as a specific understanding of its variety. It examines the structures of organized crime and the varieties of businesses associated with traditional and nontraditional organized crime groups.

Course Learning Goals:

1. Identify the various classifications of organized crime.
2. Interpret laws relating to organized crime.
3. Explain theories of organized crime causation.
4. Discuss the historical perspectives of organized crime, its origins, growth, and persistence.
5. Assess and critique policy strategies for organized crime prevention and enforcement.
6. Evaluate the economic and social impacts of organized crime.

This course introduces analyzing and mapping crime and other public safety data using open-sourced and web-based applications, as well as ArcGIS geographic information system (GIS) software. It provides opportunities to make and analyze maps and to develop a solid base upon which to build further expertise in crime mapping and GIS.

Course Learning Goals:

1. Develop the theoretical and practical skills necessary for studying crime in a geographic context.
2. Explore data sources for understanding the geography of crime.
3. Use computer-mapping software as a tool for examining crime in a variety of geographic settings.
4. Describe how crime mapping is being used in criminal justice agencies.

This course examines the development of anti-social and criminal of behavior from childhood through old age, including patterns of onset, persistence, intermittence, and desistance. What is known about why and how people start and stop committing crime at various ages, and the different types of crimes that are typically committed by people at different ages are specific topics covered in this course.

Course Learning Goals:

1. Develop an understanding of the life course perspective of studying crime.
2. Evaluate and critique the basic theories, concepts, and research methods used by life course criminologists.
3. Identify and interpret patterns of criminal onset, persistence, intermittence, and desistance within the lens of life course criminology.

Syllabus – Spring 2025

This course provides a critical and interdisciplinary examination of the current functioning of the American criminal justice system, focusing specifically on the procedures used by various criminal justice actors that can lead to errors in case processing and unjust outcomes. Students that take this course will examine policies and practices of the United States’ criminal justice system (e.g., police procedure, prosecution, jury selection, scientific evidence, appellate court procedures, etc.) that unintentionally contribute to the wrongful apprehension, prosecution, conviction, incarceration, and even execution of the innocent. Moreover, we explore the collateral consequences of punishing “false positives,” including implications for undermining the legitimacy of the criminal justice system and allowing impunity for culpable offenders who remain at-large.

Course Learning Goals:

1. Describe and explain the mechanisms, dynamics, and situational and social context of wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice in the United States.
2. Examine and critique policies and practices that contribute to miscarriages of justice.
3. Analyze how the media influences and shapes public discourses about the criminal justice system in regards to miscarriages of justice.
4. Examine theories that articulate how wrongful convictions occur, sources of error, and proposed remedies for what can be done to minimize and/or prevent future errors.

Syllabus – Fall 2024

Syllabus – Spring 2025

Spring 2024 – Youth Gangs: Syllabus

Fall 2022 – Introduction to Financial Crime: Syllabus

Fall 2022 – Drug Trafficking: Syllabus

Fall 2022 – Punishment and Society: Syllabus

Fall 2022 – Topics in Criminal Justice: Syllabus

This course surveys philosophies and strategies regarding structures of justice. The class begins with a review of retributive and distributive justice and how the two are related. This leads to a broader discussion of “what justice means,” both historically and in contemporary thinking. The course will explore an array of ideas about justice in social relations and in response to the law.  Required Course

Course Learning Goals:

1. Identify and explain fundamental elements of traditional Western moral philosophy.
2. Think critically about ethical and moral issues relevant to racism in Western societies.
3. Apply critical ethical thought to aspects of daily life affected by culture, power, and privilege.

Syllabus – Fall 2022

This course examines ways in which legal codes and the criminal justice system define, regulate, police and punish sexuality and sexual activity, reproduction, and sexual violence, both historically and in the present. It examines the criminalization and punishment of sexuality and sexual activity and related topics (e.g., nudity, erotica). It examines sex offending and victimization, and the criminal justice response to these.

Course Learning Goals:

1. Think critically about the historical and sociocultural construction of sexuality, reproduction, and sexual violence
2. Distinguish between research, news, opinion, and stereotypes about sexuality, reproduction, and sexual violence
3. Develop analytic connections between theories and empirical examples  
4. Analyze, interpret, and critique the major theoretical perspectives of sexuality, reproduction, and sexual violence
5. Analyze policies and practices of the police, courts, and corrections systems as they define, regulate and police sexual activity, reproduction, and sexual violence.

Fall 2022 – Conservation Criminology and Environmental Justice: Syllabus

The senior thesis must be a substantive piece of scholarship involving primary or secondary research, which serves to synthesize knowledge acquired in the Justice Studies major over the course of the student’s undergraduate career. A senior thesis project should be an original work that ideally contributes to the discipline of justice studies. Required Course

Course Learning Goals:

1. Analyze research findings, including data, the construction of arguments, and use of evidence.
2. Develop conclusions and an argument based on researched results.
3. Present findings in a well-written academic paper (including notes, bibliography, and paper format) and professional presentation.