Courses
CRIM-100 Intro to Crim & Crim Jus (3)
This course will introduce students to the university-level disciplines that examine crime and its processing as empirical, social, economic, and legal phenomena. The course will begin by having the student examine what we know about the nature and extent of crime. Factors associated with criminal behavior will be detailed, as will trends in its occurrence over time. Why and how we define crime legally also will be discussed, along with theoretical schools of thought relating to its explanation. The course, then, will focus on the process and system developed in this country to deal with crime, offenders, and victims. Students will learn why criminal justice is considered a system and what themes characterize each part of it, from policing and the courts through punishment and release. The law surrounding our justice process will be a primary focus of this examination.Credit for CRIM 100 may not be earned if you have already earned credit for CRIM 115.
Attributes: YLIBCRIM-201 Criminological Theory (3)
This course examines the nature, function, and causes of crime in society. The course traces the development of criminology from the Enlightenment through the present, situating key criminological theories and research in their historical context. Furthermore, the course attempts to bridge criminological theory and contemporary crime and criminal justice issues including drug enforcement and mass incarceration. While drawing critical attention to prevailing criminological wisdom, the course also attempts to broaden students’ understanding of criminality through highlighting often neglected or overrepresented crimes including those committed by and against minorities, and by the government and corporate executives.
Attributes: YLIB
Pre-requisites: CRIM-100 D-CRIM-212 Race, Class, and Crime (3)
The disproportionate representation of non-whites and lower class individuals in the criminal justice system is an issue that has evoked much controversy in society and even greater debate in the scholarship. This course critically examines the role that these extra-legal variables have on crime and criminal justice processing, from investigation and arrest to incarceration and post-release supervision. In doing so, the student will be exposed to the theoretical explanations that have been advanced to account for racial and class disparities, along with the research used to support or disavow each.
Attributes: YLIB
Pre-requisites: -CRIM-230 Prison Nation (3)
A study of the formal reaction of society to persons convicted of criminal acts. Includes an analysis of the history of the various reactions to offenders along with a study of the management and operation of confinement facilities, probation, parole, and new initiative in social policy.
Attributes: AMSS YLIB
Pre-requisites: -CRIM-235 Contemporary Policing (3)
This course examines the law enforcement profession within the context of the criminal justice system and larger society. How the role and practice of policing has changed over time will be a primary focus, as will the gatekeeper function law enforcement plays in the criminal justice system and contemporary issues related to police and citizen encounters. The legal mandates under which law enforcement operates also will be examined, along with management strategies and concerns. Classic and current research literature will provide the basis for lectures and coursework.
Attributes: YLIB
Pre-requisites: -CRIM-236 Criminal Law in Action (3)
This course will examine the criminal justice system in action, following the decision-making involved in investigating, adjudicating, and disposing of a criminal offense and an alleged offender. The legal requirements underlying each step in the process will be detailed, as will other factors influencing the actors responsible for decision-making regarding a case. As such, the student will see how/when an individual becomes a suspect, a suspect becomes a detainee, a detainee becomes a defendant, and a defendant becomes convicted or released. Responsible actors and the nature of their decision-making in the traditional three parts of criminal justice administration (law enforcement, prosecution, punishment) will be highlighted.
Attributes: NLIB
Pre-requisites: -CRIM-243 Youth Crime and Justice (3)
One of the most powerful correlates of crime and victimization is age. Both crime and the likelihood of becoming a victim are more common among young people than those who are older. At the same time, however, it is only a small percentage of those young people who continue to commit crime, or advance in doing so, as they grow older. This is often overlooked or distorted in the media with each generation of youth depicted as being far more violent than their predecessors. This class will critically examine both the scholarship and data relating to the association between age and crime, with special emphasis placed on distinguishing between typical juvenile offenders and those who persist. The class also will review and develop policy initiatives based on this review.
Attributes: YLIB
Pre-requisites: -CRIM-308 Women and Crime (3)
This course sociologically examines the invisible, forgotten, and often unheard side of crime and criminal justice: women. The role of women as offenders, victims, and workers in the criminal justice system is considered. Primary emphasis is placed on women’s unique pathways into crime, as related to their social and economic marginalization in society. Violence against women is explored both historically and sociologically to provide an understanding of its criminalization and changes in the system’s response to it. The focus throughout the course is societal perception of gender and how this has an overriding influence on the treatment accorded women within the criminal justice system. Formerly SOCI 308.
Attributes: PLAW WGST YLIB
Pre-requisites: -
Restrictions: Including: -Major: Criminology & Crim Justice, Criminology; Excluding: -Class: Freshman, SophomoreCRIM-312 Comp Criminal Justice (3)
This upper-level criminology course will introduce the student to a variety of social science perspectives in examining the nature and meaning of punishment in society. It will begin with the several philosophical perspectives that have been developed to “justify” the need/place of punishment in dealing with the criminal offender, including the teleological, retributivist, and teleological retributivist. It then will explore the meaning and place of the modern prison in historical context, noting the relevance of slavery, in particular, in accounting for and shaping the form and substance of the penitentiary in the American criminal justice system. A third perspective, that of culture, will be used to examine the development of punishment in the United States and elsewhere. And, finally, the sociological perspective, as developed by Durkheim, Rusche and Kircheimer, Foucault, and Weber, as interpreted by Garland, will be explored to understand punishment as a social institution that both influences and reflects larger societal needs and purposes.
Formerly titled: Punishment Perspectives
Attributes: YLIB
Pre-requisites: -
Restrictions: Including: -Major: Criminology & Crim Justice, Criminology; Excluding: -Class: Freshman, SophomoreCRIM-323 US Criminal Justice Policy (3)
US Criminal Justice Policy examines the forces behind the development and change of policies relating to the criminal justice system, including ideological, political, and economic. Formerly numbered CRIM 322.
Attributes: YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Major: Criminology & Crim Justice, Criminology; Excluding: -Class: Freshman, SophomoreCRIM-330 Special Topics-CRIM (3)
This course offers an opportunity to explore an issue or topic not generally covered to any great extent in existing courses. Examples might include, but are not limited to, topics on immigration law, correctional law, gangs in America, gun control, the new organized crime, drugs and crime, or white collar/enterprise crime.
Spring 2023 Section 01 Topic: Victimology
This course will examine innovative programs in policing, the courts and corrections that address issues of crime in the United States.
Spring 2023 Section 02 Topic: Crime, Media, & Politics
Crime and justice are popular and controversial subjects, appearing regularly in political debates and campaigns, news reports, as well as films, television shows, and music. In this course, students will discuss and critique contemporary portrayals of crime and justice in these arenas, reacting to current events as they occur in the worlds of politics, major events and incidents receiving news coverage, and recent films, television shows, and music. To set up these discussions, students will develop critical toolkits for assessing these images of crime and justice by reading and discussing theories, research and critiques. Additionally, students will read and discuss historical portrayals of crime and justice with the goal of identifying both parallels and differences between these and current events.
Attributes: YLIB
Pre-requisites: -
Restrictions: Including: -Major: Criminology & Crim Justice, Criminology; Excluding: -Class: Freshman, SophomoreCRIM-335 Crime Films (3)
This course examines the reciprocal relationship between the popular media and the reality of crime, law, and justice in American society. The student studies the ways in which print and electronic media have shaped perceptions and policy with respect to crime and crime control in this country over time. All aspects of crime are studied, from the law that defines it to the offenders that commit it, as well as the professionals and the system that respond to it. Perceptions are contrasted with reality and instances where the media has been used to direct public opinion and influence change are highlighted.Formerly offered as SOCI 335.
Attributes: AMSS YLIB
Pre-requisites: -
Restrictions: Including: -Major: Criminology & Crim Justice, Criminology; Excluding: -Class: Freshman, SophomoreCRIM-342 Convict Criminology (3)
This course introduces the student to a relatively new and for some controversial approach to understanding crime and its control in American society – convict criminology. Developed in the late 1990s by critical criminologists, many of whom were ex-convicts, the approach advocates a paradigmatic shift in the field of criminology and corrections to incorporate the voices and perspectives of those most familiar with the machinery of US criminal justice, convicts and ex-offenders.
Attributes: YLIB
Pre-requisites: -
Restrictions: Including: -Major: Criminology & Crim Justice, Criminology; Excluding: -Class: Freshman, SophomoreCRIM-343 Juvenile Justice (3)
A consistent, highly debated topic in the field of criminology is what to do with young people who break the law. Depending on socio-historical context, the argument seems to alternate between those who believe that the legal status of these youth should be one of immaturity, thus, negating responsibility and presupposing redemption, and others who assert that in today’s post-modern society, youth are far more sophisticated and should be held accountable and punished like adults for their behavior choices. This class will explore in a socio-historical fashion the development of a separate juvenile justice system in this country and trace the bases for the many administrative, legal, and programmatic changes it has undergone and may experience in the future.
Attributes: YLIB
Pre-requisites: -
Restrictions: Including: -Major: Criminology & Crim Justice, CriminologyCRIM-362 Police and the Law (3)
In this course, the student will examine the role of police in society from a legalistic perspective. The class will begin with an historical look at the emergence of a professionalized police force in the United States and then proceed to focus on the current legal parameters of modern policing. It will conclude by addressing the possible future of these parameters, as well as the many debates concerning that future and the role of police in a highly technological and diverse global society.
Attributes: YLIB
Pre-requisites: -
Restrictions: Including: -Major: Criminology & Crim Justice, CriminologyCRIM-490 Internship (1 TO 6)
The Criminology Internship involves the placement of the student in a field related to the administration of criminal justice where under supervision the student will gain first-hand experience about the profession, its workers and clients. Graded S/U. Permission of the department chair is required to register.
Attributes: YLIB
Pre-requisites: -
Restrictions: Including: -Major: Criminology & Crim Justice; Excluding: -Major: Criminology & Crim Justice, Criminology & Crim JusticeCRIM-496 Independent Study (1 TO 6)
The Criminology Independent Study will entail the student working one-on-one with Criminology faculty to explore an area of special interest in criminal justice not available through standard course offerings. Completion of the Independent Study/Tutorial Authorization form is required. Permission of the department chair is required to register.
Attributes: YLIB
Pre-requisites: -
Restrictions: Including: -Major: Criminology & Crim Justice; Excluding: -Major: Criminology & Crim Justice, Criminology & Crim JusticeCRIM-1299 Research-based Writing (3)
Students study and practice skills relates to academic and professional research through the development of independent inquiry-based projects. In their projects, students assert, support, and integrate their own positions into scholarly conversation based in research. Students develop competency in the location, evaluation, analysis and documentation of sources that represent a range of different perspectives on important issues.
Attributes: RW YLIB ZRES
Restrictions: Including: -Class: Freshman, Sophomore -Attribute: New Core 20-21