Course Listing

27:202:511 Theories of Crime and Criminality (3)   Wide survey of criminological theories using original sources. Theories that derive from biological, psychological, sociological, geographic, economic, and political perspectives included. Development of criminological theory reviewed; fundamental distinctions between classical and positivist theories and between theories of crime and criminality discussed. Relationship between theory and policy considered along with the prospects for developing a true general theory.
Required Course - Ph.D.

27:202:512 Measurement and Correlates of Crime (3) Review and critique of major sources of data for measurement of crime and victimization: official records, surveys of crime victimization in households and individuals, and self-report methods. Data collection procedures and sources for each data source analyzed; sources of measurement error identified. Analyze procedures for aggregating and reporting data and for measuring crime rates. Review patterns and trends over time in specific forms of crime; identify geographic and demographic correlates according to each data source. Factors influencing disparities and convergence between data sets analyzed. Crime rates compared for U.S. and international data, as well as for specific regions within the United States.

27:202:514 Drugs, Alcohol, and Crime (3) Seminar. Review of contemporary knowledge on the many drug-crime relationships. Review of articles that represent dominant views and consideration of alternative perspectives and criticism of empirical research and theory. Survey of the literature examines theory, research, intervention strategies, and crime control policies. Both adolescent and adult behaviors, and also the varieties of licit and illicit drugs associated with crime and delinquency, considered.

27:202:517 Violent Crime (3) Investigates and analyzes aggression and violence as forms of individual, group, and societal behavior. Includes an assessment of anthropological, biological, philosophical, political, and sociological theories. Combines student presentations and projects with lectures and tutorials.  

27:202:518 Advanced Criminological Theory (3) Contemporary criminological theories analyzed and evaluated. Assessments of theoretical advances, including theory integration and general theories of crime.

27:202:520 The Criminal Justice System (3) Foundation and overview of the criminal justice system and process. Focuses on critical decisions with emphasis on contemporary issues, controversies, and trends.

27:202:521 Law in the Criminal Justice System (3) Overview of criminal law and procedure. Introduces statutory and case law reasoning as well as empirical information, using the area of criminal law dealing with the insanity defense, the definitional elements of common law crimes, and the aims of criminal law and procedure.  Required Course - Ph.D.

27:202:525 Justice, Law, and Policy (3) Multidisciplinary overview of key institutions, processes, and policy issues regarding crime and justice. Includes readings and discussion on: traditional criminal justice institutions and processes; the role of private sector and community organizations in crime control; law and justice policy in a federal system; crime prevention and institutional responses to crime; and emerging cross-national issues in crime, law, and policy.
Required Course - M.A.

27:202:528 Problem Analysis (3) This course will focus on defining and analyzing problems commonly faced in justice and related agencies.  Examples may be drawn from: inmate classification systems; institution population models and prediction; crime analysis; case tracking and analysis for community corrections; and the application of bail classification matrices. Topics will include: problem statement and formulation; fundamentals of statistics and data analysis; and documentation and principles of measurement. Required Course - M.A.

27:202:529 Planning and Evaluation (3) Focuses on program planning and evaluation, the kinds of things executives, managers, and planning and oversight agencies do. Additional topics on statistics and other forms of analysis will be covered. The course will examine traditional evaluation designs and case studies, generally through an action research framework. Topics will include: logic modeling; evaluating/assessing policies and programs; probability and nonprobability sampling; and overview of data collection techniques. Prerequisite: 27:202:528. Required Course - M.A.

27:202:531 Probation, Parole, and Intermediate Sanctions (3) Analysis of the theories and practices of probation, parole, and intermediate sanctions. Emphasis on understanding--as human-service organizations--the functions of probation, parole, and intermediate sanctions. Special attention given to policy developments in the field.  

27:202:532 Adult Incarceration (3) Traces the historical development of institutions for confinement and analyzes present trends in correctional practice. Reviews characteristics of various correctional policies and analyzes prison life. Special emphasis on current trends and controversies.

27:202:533 Policing (3) Examines the police role and law enforcement policy, police organization, personnel issues, management, and operations, as well as coordination and consolidation of police service, police integrity, and community relations.

27:202:534 Prosecution and the Courts (3) Reviews functions and practices of prosecutors, with special reference to an analysis of the interrelationships among charging, conviction, and sentencing, and in relation to the functions of police and probation staff. Provides an overview of court goals, functions, and potential for system reform.

27:202:535 Juvenile Justice (3) Focuses on history and philosophy of juvenile justice, landmark court cases, police handling of juveniles, the juvenile court, and juvenile corrections and rehabilitation.

27:202:536 Comparative Criminal Justice Systems (3) Examines world crime and criminal justice surveys of the United Nations; analyzes the relationship between crime rates and differential criminal justice systems, as well as socioeconomic development indicators. In-depth analysis of different worldwide approaches to law enforcement, criminal procedure and criminal law, and juvenile justice and corrections.

27:202:541 Foundations of Scholarship (3) Develops rudimentary tools needed for conducting research and for writing reports and scholarly papers in the field of criminal justice. Explores approaches to writing a research paper, report writing, forms of documentation, library resources, data sources, presentation techniques, legal research, and computer usage.
Required Course - M.A.

27:202:543 Intermediate Statistics (3) Provides students with sufficient theoretical background and practical experience to enable them to analyze multivariate interval and ratio-level data. Corequisite: 27:202:640.

27:202:553 Master's Project Seminar (3) Continuation of 27:202:528 and 529. This is the capstone class for all master's students. This seminar-style class will examine how research informs policy. Students will produce a comprehensive research paper.  Prerequisites: 27:202:525, 528, 529, 541.  Corequisite: This class must be taken in conjunction with the fieldwork class. Required Course - M.A.

27:202:555 J.D./M.A. Degree Essay (6) The 6-credit paper is the heart of the joint-degree program. Intended to ensure that the cross-fertilization of disciplines is successful.

27:202:556 Fieldwork in Criminal Justice (3) Firsthand experience in the day-to-day operation of a criminal justice program under the guidance and supervision of a faculty member and a practitioner in the field-placement area.  Prerequisites: 12 credits of coursework completed prior to enrollment. Interested students should meet with their advisers for further information.  Required Course - M.A.

27:202:610 Crime Control Theory and Research (3)   Seminar. Analyze theory and research on crime control, including theories of deterrence and social control, their applications in crime control strategies, and the impacts of crime control strategies based on general and specific deterrence, as well as incapacitation strategies. Review and critique research on the effects of criminal and civil legal sanctions and problems in implementing effective sanctions. Methodological issues in the research on crime control assessed. Research on applications of crime control theory to specific crime problems reviewed.

27:202:612 White-Collar Crime (3) Surveys the history and scope of the study of white-collar crime. Discusses issues of definition, examines empirical evidence, and reviews the contributions of white-collar crime studies.

27:202:614 Communities and Crime (3) Surveys and analyzes literature on the demography and ecology of crime. Includes reviews of research and theory that address the influences of economics, demography, social organization, and political economy on crimes within cities and neighborhoods. Combines student presentations of published articles with lectures, tutorials, and student projects.

27:202:616 Environmental Crime Prevention (3) Theoretical background to opportunity-reducing crime prevention through situational prevention (including key concepts of rational choice and displacement) and its relationship to crime prevention through environmental design, defensible space, and problem-oriented policing. Case studies illustrate the practical and policy difficulties of situational prevention.

27:202:619 Organized Crime (3) Defines organized crime and its history and examines criminological theories to explain it. Also covers nontraditional or so-called emergent organized crime groups, such as urban street gangs, motorcycle gangs, and prison gangs. Examines various investigation, prosecution, and sentencing policies, and considers the policy implications for the future.

27:202:621 Sentencing (3) Examines the objectives of sentencing convicted adult offenders. Discusses criticisms of the traditional rehabilitation-oriented view of sentencing and considers alternative sentencing theories, including incapacitative, deterrence, and "just desserts" models. Techniques for limiting sentencing discretion, including mandatory minimum sentences, presumptive sentences, and sentencing guidelines also discussed as well as noncustodial penalties.  

27:202:624 Criminal Procedure and the Constitution (3) Advanced seminar. Examines institutions, phases, and procedural rules of the criminal justice process. Emphasizes critical evaluation of assumptions, realities, purpose, and effects.

27:202:625 Law and Society (3) The sociology of law; some emphasis also on jurisprudential thought and the political analysis of legal institutions. Explores the sources of law and functions and dysfunctions of law in action. Reviews institutional roles of courts, legislatures, and administrative agencies. Includes topics of particular current interest, such as alternative dispute resolution, how the law can help or impede social change, whether Americans have become too litigious, or race and gender issues in achieving justice.

27:202:631 Politics in Criminal Justice (3) Deals with crime as a political issue and examines how conflicting political philosophies influence criminal justice policy.

27:202:640 Advanced Research Methods (3) Analyzes research strategies and methods for research in criminal justice and criminology. Includes analysis of links between theories and methods. Provides detailed review of quantitative and qualitative methods, including research design, sampling, measurement, data collection, and ethical concerns.
Prerequisite: Basic knowledge of research design in the social sciences. Corequisite: 27:202:543. Required Course - Ph.D.

27:202:645 Advanced Scholarship (3) Preparation of a paper for submission to a peer-reviewed journal. All aspects of paper presentation addressed, and the differences between a paper for publication in a journal and other forms of professional writing (such as proposal and report writing) explored. May include synthesis of literature to prepare core area plan. Prerequisite: 27:202:541 or enrollment in the doctoral program.

27:202:648 Qualitative Research Methods (3) Ethnographic and qualitative field methods and their applications to problems of crime and criminal justice. Includes definition of appropriate research problems; data collection, interviewing, and participant observation; ethical issues of protecting human subjects; coding and analysis of qualitative data; inductive theory construction; presentation of findings; and coordinating qualitative with quantitative methods. Requires collection and analysis of some original data. Also includes microcomputer-based qualitative data analysis techniques. Prerequisite: 27:202:640.

27:202:650 Independent Study (3) Study under the supervision and guidance of a faculty member. Prerequisites: 12 credits of coursework completed prior to enrollment.  Interested students should meet with their advisers for further information.

27:202:651 Teaching Practicum in Criminal Justice (3) Under faculty supervision, doctoral students assigned to instruct undergraduate criminal justice courses within county, private, and state colleges, and in divisions of the university. Placements made by the supervising faculty member and the cooperating institution. Instructional placements not guaranteed. In addition, special topic courses including race and crime, victimology, and crime in time and space are offered.

26:202:701,702,703,704 Dissertation Research in Criminal Justice (3,3,3,BA) Required of all students involved in preparation, data collection, and writing of Ph.D. doctoral dissertation.
    

27:202:800 Matriculation Continued (M.A.) (E1)

26:202:800 Matriculation Continued (Ph.D.) (E-BA)

27:202:877 Teaching Assistantship (E3 or E6)
Students who hold teaching assistantships are required to enroll in this course for 3 or 6 E credits per semester.