Criminal Justice Courses & Descriptions

Professor WELCH, Section 01, Crime in Film:  Scholarly interest in criminal justice and criminology has taken a cultural turn over the past several decades, producing an array of innovative approaches, viewpoints, and sites of analysis. Among them is film. Indeed, images and messages infused in cinema have given moviegoers a rich vocabulary about lawbreaking and punishment. So much so that crime discourse often enters into a realm of imagination that transcends the empirical world. The course maps out significant ways in which crime is depicted in film and how it shapes our perceptions and emotions. In keeping with a cultural sociology of crime, lectures, discussion and writing assignments are geared toward critique and theoretical interpretation.

Professor TRIGG, Section 02, Law Enforcement & the Community: Gangs, Drugs, Violence, & Technology: This course will look at the relationship between police officers and the communities they serve with an emphasis on ethical standards, human relations, civil rights and community service.  There will be a focus on how gangs, drugs, violence and technology have changed policing in our communities.  This course will also concentrate on how the attitudes and actions of the police and the public help to define and build relationships.

Professor SHERIDAN, Section 80, Criminological Controversies Past & Present: Criminological controversies are widespread, at times pervasive, and often confusing because of input from criminologists (the theoretical perspectives and empirical and qualitative), criminological practitioners (which includes law enforcement and corrections to dispute the operational necessities), politicians, and the media (who generally promote the most extreme, extraordinary and the unusual without recognizing the presence of the ordinary and common.  Defining crime is no longer the province of legal wrangling, but includes input from the sources named above to also attempt to determine the nature of crime and its prevention. Among the questions this course seeks to address is the “what”, “Why”, “How”, and the “consequences” of what becomes criminalized and its impact on society.  The challenge for this course is to understand the effort to control deviant/criminal behavior, and the effort to delineate what is fair and whether the moral high ground is attained.

Spring 2018 WELCH
Spring 2018 TRIGG
Spring 2018 SHERIDAN (Brookdale)

01:202:201

**Can not receive credit for this class if student completed 01:202:422.

Professor WINSTEAD:  This course is intended to familiarize you with the strategies involved in crisis intervention work and the wide range of issues addressed.  The strategies of crisis intervention will be discussed in their own right and within the context of such areas as: Suicide and Personal Loss/Bereavement as well as other crises of lethality; Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and the catastrophic events that are related, including a focus on children and PTSD, and Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence (including both adult and child victims and the perpetrators of these crimes), as well as the current issue of school-based violence and recent information pertaining to disaster events.

01:202:201
01:920:222

**Can not receive credit for this class if student completed 01:202:405.

Professor DESIRE: Forensic DNA profiling is the newest of the scientific disciplines used in criminal justice. This course is designed to teach the workings of this division and how law enforcement, prosecutors, defense attorneys and correctional officers can make better use of this gold standard of forensic identification. Students will cover the history of DNA profiling, how it came to be used in police investigations. Constitutional law will be a main point of proper use, pertaining to legal search and seizures. Proper investigations will be design by the students to collect, compare and use the results. Exploration into the ever expanding use of DNA technology in homeland security, fighting terrorism and identifying victims will be covered. Determine the public fear of government in the context of what is real versus fiction. This is important to learn how to bring a case to court and make use of their expert witnesses while keeping the pulse of the jury. An in depth study of crime labs on the local, state and federal level which is to include how they are run, funding and success. Special attention will be paid to the current challenges most crime labs face, backlogs. Through the semester ethics in criminal justice will be taught through example with attention towards actual violations, what caused them and how we can correct.