Graduate Course Descriptions

CJ 600 Criminal Justice System and the Urban Community (3)

• This course offers an overview of the processes and components of the criminal justice system as it operates within the context of the contemporary urban community. Typically urban phenomena, such as overburdened court calendars, crowded and explosive jail conditions, pervasive citizen fear of crime, minority relations and crime, understaffed police departments, and other issues are surveyed.

CJ 601 Grant Proposal Writing (3)

• This elective graduate course prepares students to: 1) identify government agencies and private organizations funding research, technical assistance, training, and other programs or projects; 2) write grant proposals; 3) properly manage the grant after it is awarded; 4) write interim and final reports to the funding agency; and 5) use the success of the completed grant to obtain additional grants.

CJ 602 Crime in a Global Context (3)

• Crime in a global context is examined through an investigation of transnational and international crimes. Crimes studied include inter alia, the illegal trafficking of drugs, arms, humans and endangered species. In addition, crimes such as genocide, espionage and human rights violations are examined. Mechanisms for dealing with such crimes, including international proceedings, conventions and treaties are discussed, as are relevant current issues.

CJ 605 Criminal Justice Research (3)

• Intended for students with no previous training in social science research methods, this course introduces the logic and skills of social scientific research and the effective use of criminal justice information sources. The student is provided with research methodology as a means of conducting graduate level criminal justice research. Emphasis is on: problems, hypotheses, operational definitions, models of research design, data gathering strategies, levels of measurement, data processing and analysis, research proposal writing, and evaluation research. Group projects on criminal justice-related data are required.

CJ 610 The Criminal Justice Professional (3)

• This course explores the nature of criminal justice as an emerging profession and of the many roles of the criminal justice professional-manager, educator, communicator, and change agent. Ethical problems and influences are examined. The potential of an educated criminal justice professional to impact crime and to affect change is examined.

CJ 611 Graduate Seminar in Criminal Justice (3)

• This advanced seminar focuses on selected issues and problems confronting the various components of the criminal justice system. Topics covered within this course (or sections thereof) may change each term.

CJ 615 Theory and Practice of Police Administration (3)

• This course offers an examination of the conceptual foundations and historical antecedents of contemporary law enforcement theory and practice. The writing of prominent figures in the development of American police administration is surveyed and analyzed.

CJ 616 Elite Deviance (3)

• This course provides students a critical overview of issues and problems in the analysis and control of white-collar crime. The course covers a broad range of topics including the costs of white-collar crime, corporate crime, occupational crime, governmental crime, state-corporate crime, and enterprise-crime. The course also details the theoretical explanations of white-collar crime, assesses its costs, and proposes ways of responding to it.

CJ 620 Operational Strategies in Police Administration (3)

• This course critically explores the operational methods employed in American police agencies. Problems addressed include allocation and distribution of resources, patrol alternatives, and management of criminal investigations.

CJ 625 Contemporary Corrections (3)

• This course provides a broad analysis of the major structures and scope of the American corrections system. The various elements of corrections, including: probation, parole, jails, prisons, community corrections and other alternatives to incarceration are discussed in relation to both adults and juveniles. Selected current reforms, issues, and problems are discussed along with cross-cultural references.

CJ 630 The Judicial System (3)

• This course explores critical issues facing the courts on the federal, state, and local levels. Contemporary problems encountered in the administration of the courts are surveyed to help assess current operational methods.

CJ 635 Seminar on Community Corrections (3)

• This seminar studies contemporary theories and practices of supervising non-institutionalized offenders. Issues to be surveyed include alternative strategies, case load management, prediction of success, and interagency cooperation.

CJ 640 The Juvenile Justice System (3)

• This course offers a critical evaluation of the juvenile justice system, the goals and processes within the system and how they operate in the management, control, and treatment of children adjudicated as juveniles. The nature and extent of juvenile offenses, theories of causation, current trends and issues, and selected cross-cultural systems are discussed.

CJ 645 The Nature of Crime (3)

• This course studies the scope, distribution, and pattern of crime, including an examination of various measures of criminal activity. Biological, political, cultural, psychological, and sociological theories of crime causation are evaluated.

CJ 650 Legal Issues in Criminal Justice (3)

• This course provides the student with current and critical information regarding legal issues in criminal justice with a focus on constitutional criminal procedure. The course explores accepted issues and draws them into new perspectives by taking into account new appellate cases, new events, and new debates over important legal controversies in the criminal justice world.

CJ 655 Police Role in Crime Prevention (3)

• Viewing the police as a major agency of social control, this course examines the role played by law enforcement agencies in the prevention and repression of crime. Emphasis is on the police officer as crime prevention practitioner and specialist. Advanced methods and techniques of community organization and prevention programming are presented.

CJ 657 Qualitative Research Methods (3)

• This course will instruct students on qualitative methods for the purpose of program and policy evaluation. Interpretive policy analysis will be used to examine program or policy effectiveness. Qualitative research methodologies to be examined include case study, content analysis, ethnomethodology, focus groups, interviewing, and action research.

CJ 660 Critical Issues in Law Enforcement (3)

• This course surveys the major current issues in the field of law enforcement. Specific topics to be discussed vary each semester according to current problems and concerns facing the police profession. Among subjects to be discussed are: management issues and strategies, discretion, professionalism, ethics, and police-community relations.

CJ 670 Supervised Profesional Placement (3)

• Under faculty and practitioner supervision, this offering integrates the concepts of the classroom with the pragmatic realities of a work setting. Placement is by mutual agreement of the student, supervising faculty member, and cooperating agency and requires a culminating project.

CJ 671 Master's Project (3)

• Students will choose an area of specialized study as the culminating task toward the completion of their master's degree in criminal justice. The project may either be a research paper or an evaluative paper and students will design and undertake the project under the supervision of an instructor. (Prerequisites: Completion of 24 credits, including CJ 605)

CJ 680 Criminal Justice Management (3)

• This seminar studies the problems facing criminal justice managers from a systems theory perspective. Using a socio-technical model, the focus is on improved management techniques. Criminal justice organizations are analyzed according to purpose, structure, relationships, rewards, technology and leadership.

CJ 685 Planning in the Criminal Justice System (3)

• This course offers a critical analysis of the planning process in criminal justice. Change strategies, rational planning, efficient budgeting, needs assessment, and evaluation are stressed.

CJ 690 Workshop in Criminal Justice Administration and Decision Making (3)

• This seminar deals with the problems facing criminal justice administrators. The focus is on improving management through technical assistance and effective decision-making. Group projects are required and are judged by practitioner experts.