This course introduces basic legal principles and techniques of investigation, specifically evidence collection and preservation, and the constitutional requirements for lawful arrest, search, and seizure from investigations. It articulates the necessary legal requirements for the successful admission and use of investigative information.
Courses on topics of interest to criminal justice students offered on the basis of need, interest, or timeliness. Prerequisite: 150. Restricted to students with freshman or sophomore standing. May be repeated for credit. For specific section description, click to the Section Details in VitNet.
Independent reading and/or research under the supervision of a criminal justice faculty member. Refer to the academic policy section for independent study policy. Independent study contract is required. Prerequisite: 150. May be repeated for credit.
This course will introduce the major theoretical approaches to the study of criminology and the sociology of deviance. These perspectives are explored through a discussion of contemporary issues such as trends in offending and victimization, research on violent crime, property crime, public order crime, organized crime, and white-collar and corporate crime. Issues of unequal power, social division, and exclusion are also examined (e.g., age, gender, and social class etc.). (Equivalent to SOCL 351.)
This course is designed to give students an introduction to the field of juvenile justice. It will focus of the relationship between youth as victims and as offenders, the role of the juvenile justice system, delinquents rights, and traditional and alternative ways of dealing with juvenile crime. It will briefly examine the social and etiological features of delinquency. (Equivalent to SOCL 364.) SJE
This course provides a basic overview of the American judicial system including types of law used in our judicial system, the actors in the courts and court procedures. Federal and state courts and the appellate process will be examined. The nature, variety and sources of criminal laws will be considered in relationship to theories of punishment and control including the creation, organization, and content of criminal law. Prerequisite: 150 or SOCL 150 or junior standing.
In this course, students will explore common scholarly ideas and concepts that inform work with communities and how these are applied in a criminal and community justice setting. This unit further explores the methods and principles of community participation, capacity-building, community needs assessment, and resilience. Students will plan and execute a community building project and present on their chosen topic. Students will be expected to identify and analyze micro to meso level community aspects and interests in their own communities.
This course provides an historical and sociological examination of the models, practices and rationalizations for community based punishment and incarceration. It includes an overview of early punishment and modern day incarceration, treatment, reform, and rehabilitation of criminal offenders. The course explores the historical movement towards and away from mass incarceration to the development of probation and parole systems, de-incarceration, community corrections, and the control of criminal offenders within our society.
This course will take an applied approach to explore material directly related to assessing and managing offenders; theories and research on evidence-based practices utilized by practitioners in community justice, corrections, and policing to promote offender change will be explored. Students will have a strong foundation in assessment and management, as well as rehabilitation of offenders of all socioeconomic and demographic backgrounds and orientations. In addition, students will examine successful approaches to working with offenders and victims by using a strength based perspective.
This course will provide students with an overview of the criminal justice system. The structure and function of the police, courts, and corrections, as well as the policies these agencies use to control crime, will be examined. Students will also debate controversial issues related to criminal justice processing and compare the ideal of justice with the reality under this system. This course also introduces basic concepts of capacity building, resiliency, and how the criminal justice system and the community interacts. (Equivalent to SOCL 150.)