Undergraduate Course Descriptions
131. The Criminal Justice System (Required)
305. Municipal Police Operations
308. Civil Disorder and Police Response
315. Criminal Justice Research
322. Criminal Law and Courts
323. Criminal Procedure
325. Issues in Criminal Justice
337. Criminal Motivation
340. Communication in Conflict Situations
350. Philosophical Foundations of Criminal Justice
351. Organized Crime
352. Gang Activity and Control
353. White Collar Crime
354 Chicago Justice: The Criminal Justice System in Cook County
355. The Criminal Justice System - Senior Capstone Course
360. Drug Abuse Control
365. Guns and Crime
370. Women in the Criminal Justice System
371. Victims and the Criminal Justice System
372. Crime, Race and Violence (AASP 372, PLSC 372)
373. Domestic Violence
380. Introduction to Forensic Sciences
390. Field Practicum (Internship)
395. Special Topics
396. Independent Study
397. Honors Reading Tutorial I
398. Honors Reading Tutorial II
131. The Criminal Justice System (Required)
This course provides a broad overview of the nature and purposes of government, law, and justice, including their proper relationship; it examines social control in society, especially law as a type of formal control. It reviews in some detail the processes, procedures, and personnel involved in the criminal justice system. Topical areas include the nature of crime and criminal responsibility; the criminal justice system from apprehension through correction and parole or other release; the adversary system; the roles of the various professionals involved; and the interrelationships among law enforcement, judicial, correctional, and rehabilitative components.
300. Principles of Criminal Behavior
As an introduction to criminology, this course explores basic questions concerning human nature, human behavior, crime, and criminality; the controversies concerning determinism and free will, personal and social responsibility, crime as deviant or normal behavior. Starting with the early attempts to explain crime in classical and positivist schools of thought, various approaches to criminology are traced and compared, then evaluated in the light of contemporary knowledge. Types of crime and criminal careers, recidivism, trends in crime, and likely future developments in crime control are also considered.
301. Principles of Delinquent Behavior
Major aspects of juvenile delinquency; theories of causation and prevention; the components of the juvenile justice system; emerging legal and philosophical issues, and the future implications for juveniles and the juvenile justice system. Analysis of family, school, community, gender and other conditions as they affect delinquent behavior.
302. The Juvenile Justice System
This course provides the student of juvenile delinquency with an understanding of the justice-system mechanism (agencies) employed to deal with delinquent and status offenders. Starting with an analysis of the reasons for and history of the development of the Juvenile Court, the course examines how police, courts, corrections and alternative methods are used by society to cope with juvenile delinquency and quasi-delinquency (status offenders, neglect and dependency).
305. Municipal Police Operations
A study of the nature and purpose of policing in American society with a particular emphasis on municipal police operations. Topical areas include: identification of the urban police function, contemporary American police systems, principles of police systems, principles of police organization and administration, basic operational methodology, impact of unionization on the police function and efforts to professionalize.
308. Civil Disorder and Police Response
In recent decades, various citizens, groups, and/or participants in social movements have exercised their constitutional rights to assemble, protest, and seek redress of Grievances. Ethnic minorities and college students have vigorously protested in city streets and on college campuses. Police authorities have the twin professional tasks of protecting the rights of protesters and assuring, the peace and safety of all citizens. Emotional tension and/or overt provocation in such confrontations have, at times, led to violence, killings, and/or widespread rioting. Later, special commissions have been appointed to investigate the socio-historical causes, precipitating and escalating factors, as well as police responses in these tragic encounters. This course examines in some depth a broad sampling of these events.
309. Private Security Administration
The course provides a general introduction to the fundamental concepts, characteristics, and operational techniques of Private Security, its relationship to professional law enforcement, as well as to Protective Security Law. Particular emphasis is placed upon the concept of risk analysis and security techniques as then, relate to specific institutions and operations. 310. Contemporary Police Issues This course covers contemporary issues in policing, concerning recruitment and trainina, education and retention, innovations in policing strategies, professionalism and ethics.
315. Criminal Justice Research
An introduction to the logic and basic concepts of social research, with special emphasis on the criminal justice subsystems. The links of scientific method, research design, and theory are explored. Conceptual issues such as causality, experimentation, reactive research, and sampling are treated and demonstrated in the context of their uses in criminal justice. Understanding of basic statistical techniques (e.g., descriptive and comparative statistics, measures of association) is stressed more than computational competence.
316. Criminal Justice Statistics
This course is designed to promote understanding of statistical analysis used in the study of delinquency, crime and the criminal justice system. Topics include: uninvariate statistics, bivariate linear regression, correlation, selected multivariate techniques, statistical inference and tests of significance. The appropriate use of these statistics in the analysis of crime and criminal justice system performance will be stressed.
322. Criminal Law and Courts
This course provides an overview of the structure, administration, and personnel of federal, state, and local criminal courts; an introduction to the law of crimes and defenses, and pretrial and trial procedures.
This course provides an in-depth, sophisticated coverage of criminal procedures from formal charging through the appeals of outcomes. The course focuses on the major substantive, evidentiary and procedural laws surrounding detention, trial, sentencing and post-conviction matters (i.e., appeals, outcomes, litigation on the treatment of prisoners). An in-depth coverage of criminal procedures surrounding investigations, stops, searches and seizures, arrests, interrogations, and procedural remedies.
325. Issues in Criminal Justice
The study in depth of various critical issues in criminal justice at the present time. Areas of study include: race, crime and justice; criminal justice, the consumer’s perspective; capital punishment; America's prisons; dissent — the dynamics of democracy.
335. Institutional Corrections
This course provides an in-depth examination of the history, process performance and present day problems of correctional institutions (prisons, jails, and detention centers) in the United States, including society’s struggle to deal effectively yet humanely with the serious criminal offender and the balance between security, punishment and rehabilitation. The course examines the underlying assumptions that have guided American correctional practice through the years as well as those that inform its present functioning in the belief that Corrections is really a history of ideas about human behavior translated into steel and concrete, sometimes with tragic results.
337. Criminal Motivation
This seminar in criminal motivation examines some current typologies (profiles) used to understand crime and criminals. This course is highly analytical in its approach. Depth of analysis is sought in the course discussions and in the term papers. Beginning with an analysis of causation, motives and typologies, we will move through a series of types of crime. We acknowledge that competing views may be found in criminosynthetic theory and in biopsychosocial approaches. Discussion of cases to illustrate the various typologies will comprise the final segment of the course and enable the student to synthesize materials learned in the earlier part of the course.
338. Community-Based Corrections
Contrary to public perception, the vast majority of sentenced offenders in this nation serve their sentences in the community on probation, and an increasing number of prison inmates are released back into the community under parole supervision. This course examines the history, purpose and functioning of adult and juvenile probation and parole as well as other aspects of community-based supervision, including: pre-trial supervision programs, electronic monitoring, house arrest/home detention, day reporting centers, and other programs that provide both supervision and treatment of offenders in the community. The ultimate goals of such programs are to promote rehabilitation, avoid the costly use of incarceration for non-serious offenders while also providing a high level of public safety and offender accountability.
340. Communication in Conflict Situations
The role of communication in conflict and conflict resolution. Methods of analyzing the nature of conflict in various circumstances and the application of appropriate communication strategies such as exploration, etc., which may lead to the resolution of conflict. Simulations and field aspects of the course be geared to meet the special needs of preparing professionals for the areas of law practice, law, enforcement, corrections, probation and parole, community agencies, public services, and other areas where conflict may exist.
350. Philosophical Foundations of Criminal Justice
The conflict between the utilitarian rationale of punishment and deterrence and the deontological rationale of punishment as retribution; classical and recent arguments for and against civil disobedience; the problem of terrorism. revolutionary ethics, and the political prisoner; the alternatives of repression and anarchy; nonpenal forms of coercion in our political legal system; morality and judicial reasoning.
351. Organized Crime
This course offers an introduction to the concepts of organized crime. Its development in America, with particular emphasis on its growth in Illinois, are studied. The industries of organized crime, both its criminal enterprises and its involvement in business and labor, are examined. Techniques employed by organized crime to accomplish goals are addressed. Serious discussion is devoted to the problems confronting law enforcement due to the existence of organized crime as well as the federal, state, and local Government strategies used to counteract it.
352. Gang Activity and Control
The course examines the historical development of urban street gangs with b a view toward understanding their structure, characteristics, purpose and activities. The course also reviews and evaluates prevention and control strategies and programs both in Chicago and other parts of the nation.
353. White Collar Crime
An overview of the serious problem of corruption in some of our major social institutions, especially business and government. Socio-historical treatment of the origins, development, and ramifications of white collar crime as concept and social problem. Consideration is given to whether white collar crime is a form of social deviance or social conformity; similarities and differences in comparison with Aconventional@ and violent forms of criminal behavior are examined. Public responses as reflected by peer or in-group loyalties and variations in sentences upon conviction for white collar versus other crimes are discussed, as well as some possible controls, remedies and solutions for the future.
354 Chicago Justice: The Criminal Justice System in Cook County
This course provides a practical understanding of the organization and functions of the criminal and juvenile justice systems in Cook County — the largest jurisdiction of its kind in the U.S. Starting with a general historical and philosophical framework for the system of justice, specific attention is directed to the law enforcement, prosecution, judicial and correctional agencies with jurisdiction in Cook County. Students are provided with first-hand observation and experience of the system-in-process.
355. The Criminal Justice System - Senior Capstone Course (Prerequisites: Senior Standing and Completion of Nine CRMJ Courses.)
This is the capstone course for graduating Criminal Justice majors. While the course reviews the essential elements of criminal justice discussed in previous courses, its major focus is upon an integration of knowledge so that students understand the principles and theory which guide criminal justice practice in the United States. Students study and report on criminal justice issues frequently of concern to the general public and learn to place such issues in proper perspective.
360. Drug Abuse Control
A comprehensive overview of the problems posed to the criminal justice system by the abuse of drugs in the United States. Various theories of drug addiction, types of drug classification, responses by medical and legal authorities, and approaches to mitigation or solution of the problem. Against m the background of ethical and constitutional issues, the inherent conflicts of personal responsibility vs. addictive dependence and criminal sanctions vs. treatment proposals are also explored in depth.
365. Guns and Crime
This course provides a comprehensive overview of issues associated with firearms, including their use in the commission and prevention of crime, patterns of ownership and acquisition, and the form and effectiveness of the various attempts to control access to firearms and gun-related violence in the U.S. The purpose of the class is to assist students in applying thought, scientific research, and a full understanding of the laws regulating access to firearms to the oftentimes politically and emotionally charged debate over guns and crime. The course will also examine the path that has been followed in America towards what has been referred to as a “gun culture.”
370. Women in the Criminal Justice System
The course examines four areas relative to women in the criminal justice system: the historical view of female criminality; women as defendants in criminal cases and women in prison; women as victims of domestic violence and sexual assault; and women as professionals in the system (police officers, attorneys, judges, correctional officers).
371. Victims and the Criminal Justice System
The course provides a broad overview of the historical and contemporary role of victims in the criminal justice system. It examines the constitutional, legislative, executive, and judicial remedies designed to ameliorate the effects of crime on victims and the implications of these interventions on law enforcement, judicial, and private sector service organizations. Also offered is a look at "Special Victims" groups and their need for recovery and reconciliation pursuant to their role in the criminal justice system and society at large.
372. Crime, Race and Violence (AASP 372, PLSC 372)
The course examines the intellectual and policy debates on racial differences in crime and violence in the United States and whether racial bias occurs in the administration of “justice.”
373. Domestic Violence
Two theoretical perspectives on domestic violence, family violence and feminist theory are used to examine the prevalence of domestic violence against women and the origins of domestic violence. The course focuses primarily on responses to domestic violence by the police, prosecutors, legislators, community and victims. Though the focus is primarily on men's violence against women, the effects of domestic violence on children and treatment programs for children will be covered.
380. Introduction to Forensic Sciences
This course introduces the basic principles and uses of forensic science. The course presents basic applications of the biological, physical, chemical, medical and behavioral sciences currently practiced and limitations of the modern crime laboratory. The course aids in helping students to develop these essential skills and to provide them with the basic knowledge of science, that they may become productive citizens. This course makes science relevant and pertinent to the interests and goals of those students who desire to learn more about forensic science and other related concepts such as DNA analysis which are often reported in the mass media. The techniques, skills, advances and limitations of the modern crime laboratory are presented. Students are not required to have any prior knowledge or background in the forensic sciences.
390. Field Practicum (Internship)
This is a senior-level course limited to majors whose academic performance is judged adequate for placement. The primary purpose of the course is to enhance the student's development and learning through observational and participatory experience. Placements are typically made with police, prosecutorial, judicial, probation and corrections agencies in Chicago.
395. Special Topics
Specific course titles and content vary from semester to semester. The following titles illustrate the content of Special Topics: Family Law and Social Work; Law and Society; Police Organization and Management; Crime, Race and Violence; Terrorism; Seminar on the Origins of Law Enforcement; Contemporary Issues in Policing; Alcoholism and Drug Dependency; Domestic Violence and Child Abuse. In view of such variation, students may take as many as four courses bearing this number; however, no student may take Special Topics courses more than four times for credit in the major.
396. Independent Study
(Chairperson's prior approval is always required.)
397. Honors Reading Tutorial I
(Chairperson's prior approval is always required.)
This course is open to Criminal Justice majors who participate in either the college Honors Program or the department's Honors Program.
398. Honors Reading Tutorial II
(Chairperson’s prior approval is always required.)
This course is open to Criminal Justice majors who participate in either the college’s Honors Program or the department’s Honors Program.
