CJ - Criminal Justice

This course provides a foundation for understanding the American criminal justice system. Students will learn about crime in the United States and the role of law enforcement, court, and correctional systems. Upon successful course completion, students will be able to identify key issues, elements, and challenges for the criminal justice system.

This course provides a foundation for understanding substantive criminal law. Topics explored include the general elements of criminal offenses, the parties to crimes, affirmative defenses, and the legal elements of inchoate offenses. Students will learn the legal elements of the following offenses: homicide; crimes against persons; crimes against property and habitation; crimes against public order, safety, and morality; and finally, crimes against the administration of justice. Upon successful course completion, students will be able to apply substantive criminal law concepts to factual scenarios in order to determine applicable criminal charges and defenses.

This course examines one of the three major components of the criminal justice system: the role and responsibilities of police officers. Students will learn the function of police agencies within the United States. Upon successful completion of this course, students will effectively be able to identify ranking structures within agencies; differentiate between Police Departments, Sheriff's Offices and State Highway Patrol/State Police Models, basic patrol procedures, police communications, legal constraints that impact police operations, crime scene management, and interviewing techniques.

This course examines the sociological and psychological explanations of drug-using behavior, the relationship between drug abuse and crime, and methods for the criminal justice practitioner to interact with a drug using offender. Students will learn of the various foundations of the drug-crime relationship, as well as how to assess and intervene with the drug addicted offender. Upon successful completion of this course, students will have a firm understanding of the drug-crime relationship; will be able to recognize when an offender is under the influence of illegal drugs; and will understand suggested approaches to handle such offenders.

The course will address the procedural rules and laws governing police interaction with a suspect or a citizen. Students will learn the rights and limitations on government action contained in the 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, and 14th Amendments. Upon successful course completion students will be able to apply the exclusionary rule; understand the warrant requirements of the 4th Amendment, as well as judicially recognized exceptions to that requirement; understand the limitations on police powers; and describe the structure and jurisdiction of the federal and state court systems.

This course provides an overview of ethical issues relevant to the criminal justice field. Students will learn basic ethical analysis. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to understand and apply ethical rules and concepts to scenarios involving police and correctional misconduct, and will have developed an understanding of the ethics of punishment.

This course will address the history and practices of the American corrections system. Students will learn the historical background of the American corrections system, the policies and laws that guide this system as well as processes and reforms implemented to address issues within the system. The course specifically identifies and discusses current problems faced by modern institutional corrections and the methodologies utilized to solve these problems. Upon successful course completion students should be able to explain the policies, processes, functions and historical context of the correctional system.

This course will address the components of conducting efficient and effective criminal investigations. Students will learn the steps to navigate a criminal investigation. Upon successful course completion students will be able to ensure proper evidentiary procedures, investigative documentation, use of investigative tools and effective legal coordination, concluding in a successful resolution.

This course examines the juvenile justice system in America. Students will learn about the history of the juvenile court system in America, the differences between juvenile courts and adult courts, legal rights afforded to juveniles, theoretical explanations of juvenile delinquency, risk factors that contribute to delinquency, and preventative factors that reduce juvenile delinquency. Upon successful course completion, students will be able to recognize the differences between juvenile and adult courts, describe legal rights afforded to juveniles and compare and contrast risk factors contributing to delinquency and preventative factors which reduce juvenile delinquency.

This course will examine philosophies of law and justice across the world. Students will learn the sociological, cultural and political underpinnings of criminal justice systems and will examine how cultural differences affect the way that governments control populations. Upon successful course completion, students will be able to contrast crime prevention strategy, law enforcement and judicial structures, and correctional methods across a selection of countries outside of the United States.

This course provides an overview of crime scene management techniques used by local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.  Students will explore the various roles performed within a crime scene investigative team, examine forensic documentation techniques, analyze direct and circumstantial evidence collection methods, as well as assess procedures for packaging and preserving collected evidence.  Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to differentiate between the various types of crime scene documentation techniques, apply appropriate search patterns, complete a crime scene sketch, and describe the necessary steps to ensure proper chain of custody.

This course will introduce students to various aspects of cybercrime investigation. Students will learn the typologies of cybercrime, legal issues impacting digital evidence, the role of terrorism in cybercrime, cybercrime investigation procedures and forensic tools. Upon successful course completion, students will be able to provide examples of cybercrimes in which networks or devices were the object of the crime or are used as a tool to commit an offense, perform a cybersecurity vulnerability assessment and utilize forensic software.

This course will explore concepts that relate to international, state-sponsored/sub-national, and domestic terrorism within the United States of America and abroad. Students will learn about incidents associated with the history of terrorism. Additionally, students will investigate specific motives, and how those motives relate to the behaviors of terrorist groups. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to interpret the past, present, and survey likely future trends of terrorism on a domestic and international scale.

This course examples the nature, extent and causes of crime. Students will learn basic assumptions of current criminological theories, patterns of criminal behavior and typologies of criminal activity. Upon successful course completion, student will be able to evaluate the causes and social impact of crime.

This course provides a comprehensive overview of the intelligence community and the role that intelligence plays in Homeland Security. Students will be introduced to counterintelligence, intelligence analysis for criminal investigations, military intelligence and National Security response strategies based on threat analysis.

This course will examine demographic trends and the impact on law enforcement to further explore multicultural communication strategies for law enforcement. Students will be introduced to the analysis of population changes, cultural overviews of emerging populations in the United States, and multicultural written, electronic, and verbal communication procedures and styles. Upon successful course completion, students will assess incidents or scenarios and respond according to multicultural written, electronic and verbal communication procedures.

This course will provide students with skills related to geospatial technology and the impact this technology has had on the law enforcement, private security, military and public communities. Upon successful course completion, students will be able to demonstrate knowledge of the geospatial industry, examine the types of geospatial technology and examine the legal issues surrounding the use of geospatial or geotechnologies.

In this course, students will gain valuable field experience by working in the field with a public or private law enforcement, legal, or correctional agency. Students will be supervised by an agency representative and the course managed by a Criminal Justice faculty member.

This course will address the pursuit of meaningful field experiences in federal, state, local or private criminal justice organizations and facilities. Students will learn about the arrest, investigative, pretrial, trial, corrections, community corrections and private industry’s role in the criminal justice system. Upon successful course completion, students will have gained applied knowledge in the criminal justice field.

This course will address the pursuit of meaningful field experiences in federal, state, local or private criminal justice organizations and facilities. Students will learn about the arrest, investigative, pretrial, trial, corrections, community corrections and private industry’s role in the criminal justice system. Upon successful course completion, students will have gained applied knowledge in the criminal justice field.

This course will provide students with skills related to the examination of crime data and the impact of technical tools such as geo-technology on the greater law enforcement and intelligence communities and prosecution. This field aids in the facilitation of informed decision making for both crime prevention and crime response. Upon successful course completion, students will be able to demonstrate knowledge of the crime analysis and intelligence analysis communities, perform analytical techniques, identify spatial characteristics and describe report applications.

This course involves the study of victims of crime. Students will learn the psychological and emotional detriments associated with being victimized and the classification of the types of victims. Criminological theory will be applied to address the reasons that certain victims are more attractive to offenders than others, and to examine a victim’s reaction to crime. Upon successful course completion, students will be able to ascertain between the challenges and complexities associated to the assessment, needs, and intricacies of working with victims of various types of crime.

This course will address the legal and technical aspects of seizing and analyzing electronic evidence, including laptops, desktops and mobile devices.  Students will learn the fundamentals of handling evidence, creating forensic images and analyzing electronic evidence using forensic software packages.  Upon successful course completion students will be able to apply the principles of computer forensics to legally seize electronic evidence, perform analysis using forensic software and report findings in analysis reports.

This course will provide students with skills related to the examination of mobile devices and the impact of mobile technology on the greater law enforcement community and prosecution of crimes.  There will be an emphasis on field based learning.  Upon successful course completion, students will be able to demonstrate knowledge of legal issues surrounding the search and seizure of mobile devices; investigate the types of evidence that could potentially be recovered from these devices; and examine mobile device forensic tools, techniques and best practices.

This course will explore two contemporary topics in Criminal Justice: human trafficking and domestic violence. Students will learn the various forms of human trafficking and domestic violence, and evaluate the law enforcement response to each. Upon successful course completion, students will be able to evaluate victim characteristics and needs and develop an education tool.

This course will explore the impact that changes in the composition of communities across the country have had on the criminal justice system, specifically, law enforcement. Students will learn incident response approaches for individuals with autism, Alzheimer’s disease, delirium, developmental disabilities; as well as mental illness. Upon successful course completion, students will be able to apply appropriate verbal and non-verbal cues for responses to incidents involving an autistic child or adult, propose strategies to mitigate incidents with Alzheimer’s diagnosed community members and assess scenarios involving individuals with mental illness for potential responses.

This course introduces concepts related to organized crime groups within the United States and abroad. Students will learn the history and operational strategies of organized crime groups. Upon successful course completion, students will understand the philosophies, recruitment, and funding techniques for organized crime groups, as well as law enforcement strategies for curtailing organized crime activities.

This course provides an overview of criminal justice documentation for various professions within the field. Students will learn field oriented methods of drafting written correspondence and required industry reports. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to effectively analyze, identify, and record necessary information for Incident-based reports, Use of Force reports, search warrants, arrest warrants, and juvenile court reports.

This course provides students with an overview of law enforcement management systems. Students will be introduced to the theory and practice behind law enforcement management and the importance of maintaining morale within an agency. Upon successful completion of this course, students will have a framework for understanding the social systems and behavior stratification of modern law enforcement agencies and the tools used to engage their communities.

 

This comprehensive course is designed to provide students with a thorough understanding of the principles and practices related to evidence handling and documentation within the criminal justice system. Students will gain the knowledge and skills necessary to properly collect, preserve, and document various types of evidence, ensuring compliance with legal standards, ethical guidelines, and courtroom admissibility.

This course offers a comprehensive introduction to the field of private security, examining its historical development, current practices, and the evolving role it plays in modern society. Students will explore the distinctions between private security and law enforcement, delve into the various industries within the private security sector, and understand the technologies that enhance security measures. Additionally, the course will cover the evaluation of critical infrastructure and strategies for crisis planning and prevention.

This course will explore the practical and theoretical aspects of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) in the analysis of crime. Students will learn theories related to environment criminology and spatial criminology as well as GIS applications to crime analysis from offense clustering to offender and victim geographic analysis. Upon successful course completion, students will be able to apply GIS concepts to criminal justice issues and crime analysis.

This course will integrate previous investigative knowledge and skills to fraud examination. Students will learn the fraud theory approach; explore forms of asset misappropriation, corruption and techniques used to investigate fraud. Upon successful course completion, students will be able to apply the fraud theory approach, create policies to mitigate asset misappropriation schemes, prepare a fraud risk assessment and demonstrate verbal and non-verbal cues of deception.

This course will provide students with an opportunity to apply the criminal justice concepts and theories that contribute to the overall discipline. The capstone course is designed to examine the objectives of the Criminal Justice program and will involve a project designed to address the student’s concentration. Upon successful course completion, students will be able to demonstrate analysis and evaluation of issues facing the criminal justice system and homeland security agencies based on a problem solving model.

This course will provide an overview of domestic terrorism within the United States. Students will learn the history and motives of domestic terrorism/terrorist groups as well as techniques to combat domestic terrorism.  Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to recognize the various definitions of domestic terrorism, analyze the connection between transnational terrorism and domestic terrorism, and interpret factors in the development of domestic terrorism. Students will also be able to contrast the roles in which women play in these terrorist groups as well as analyze law enforcement’s data gathering capabilities used in combating domestic terrorism.

This course will examine the role of crisis response from the perspective of both the private sector and that of public safety.  Students will learn about the phenomenon of crisis, various intervention methodologies, as well as differing legal and ethical issues relating to the varying stages of crisis.  Additionally, students will be exposed to the phases of a critical incident from the perspective of public safety.  Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to recognize the importance of crisis intervention as well as identify the various stages of critical incident management, all while taking into consideration both legal and ethical constraints of the overall response.

This course provides an overview of the role of criminal justice agencies in emergency preparation and response. Students will learn to identify, analyze and respond to “all hazard” threats as well as to recognize interagency management infrastructures. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to describe threats resulting from terrorist acts, natural and manmade disasters (technological disasters, Industrial disasters, and civil unrest).

This course provides an overview of departmental protocols for release of information to media outlets, the public, and other government agencies. The course also outlines issues involving dissemination of information and addresses state and federal freedom of information and privacy protection laws. The course will also explore how media influence, including social media, the internet, and “fake news,” shapes how the public perceives the criminal justice system. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be proficient in writing press releases and speaking professionally to media outlets.

This course will introduce students to probation, parole, and associated community-based practices.  Students will explore the origins, practices, and outcomes of these alternatives to incarceration.  Students will explore the requirements to become a probation officer and the stressors related to the job. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to identify and assess the risks/needs of individuals and the evidence-based practices involved in their supervision.

This course will guide students through public and private rehabilitation and human service agencies. The student will learn about the inner workings of these programs, analyze techniques in case identification and the referral process, and determine how effective case management can influence public safety. Upon successful course completion, students will be able to evaluate program effectiveness based on the success rate of individuals referred to these programs.

This course will provide an overview of the history and origins of Homeland Security. Students will learn about post 9/11 threats as well as relevant laws and regulations, challenges, and security pertaining to the border, immigration, transportation and public health from the perspective of Homeland Security. Upon successful course completion, students will be able to describe the impact on homeland security of executive branch policies and judicial decisions

In this course, students will gain valuable field experience by working in the field with a public or private law enforcement, legal, or correctional agency. In this course, students are expected to apply intermediate and advanced knowledge and technical skills to the performance of their assigned duties. Students will be supervised by an agency representative and the course managed by a Criminal Justice faculty member.