Criminal Justice

The purpose of this course is to introduce the criminal justice system, including the structure, process, and function of the police, courts, and corrections systems. Current topics in these areas are explored throughout the course.  For CJ majors only.

The purpose of this course is to provide an introduction to APA writing its style and formatting. The course will meet once a week in conjunction with the student’s enrolled CJ201—Introduction to Criminal Justice Course and all meetings will serve to guide students in effectively developing an APA style paper. Special focus will be on ethical writing practices; effective use of library resources; mechanics, tone and perspective in APA writing; and the format of an APA student research paper. Students will use essay and paper topics from CJ101 (co-requisite) as the foundation for practical application of learned skills in this course.

An introductory study of the criminal justice system including the structure, process, and function of the police, the court system, and its subsystems, the processing of offenders, and punishment alternatives. This course is for Non- CJ majors.

This course will introduce the students to the field of private security and how it relates to the public criminal justice system. Included in the course will be the history of private security in the United States and how it grew into an international business. Post 9/11 security changes at the local, state, national and international levels of society will be explored and examples of successful and failed models will be discussed.

The history, purpose, and theory of criminal law. An examination of the classification of crimes and the nature of criminal liability.

In this course, students learn the history and philosophy of the American Constitutional Order largely through the study of Supreme Court cases, which have had a major impact on civil rights and liberties.

This course is an examination of law and policy in a criminal justice context with emphasis on law enforcement agencies and procedures.

The course is an introduction to the field of corrections. The main focus of the course will be on correctional systems, inmates, issues of institutionalization, inmate characteristics, and current issues in corrections.

An exploration of the American Court System as it relates to social control by the Criminal Justice System. Court History, members, institutions, and their relationships will be studied. The Court systems of federal, state, county, and local governments will be compared and the members of each component will be studied. Court system structures of other political systems will be compared to the current system in the United States.

An introduction to ethics in the field of Criminal Justice. The main focus of the course will be on morality and ethics and the importance of ethics for criminal justice professionals. The Nuremberg Trials are used as a case study to reinforce the ethics lessons taught in the textbook.

This course is designed to study the goals and procedures of a criminal investigation from the time an investigator is summoned, all the way to case presentation in court. Several crimes and their subsequent investigations will be studied, with emphasis placed upon considerations that are uniquely indigenous to specific crimes and their investigations. Legal decisions and scientific discoveries are also explored to show how courts, science, and education have influenced the practice of investigations.

Theoretical text with practical course and applications.  This course is the study of practical, hands-on instruction in methodology and policies for the identification, interpretation, collection, packaging, preservation, and chain of custody of crime scenes and evidence taken from crime scenes. It is intended to compliment the theoretical and foundational knowledge of investigations garnered from previous courses.

A comprehensive treatment of the juvenile justice system which examines juvenile delinquency from several perspectives. The course will explore the current public and political climate surrounding delinquency and youth crime with an emphasis on gangs and the policies initiated to deal with them. It will also examine the debate on the media’s role in generating juvenile violence. Where appropriate, examples from South Carolina will be used.

Criminology is an important social and behavioral science devoted to the study of crime as a social phenomenon. Criminology fosters debate, contributes ideas, and suggests solutions to difficult problems arising out of crime and the behavior of criminals. It provides the theoretical basis for much of Criminal Justice. The purpose of this course is to discuss these problems, their origins, and their possible solutions.

This course concentrates on those legal procedures which ensure a defendant’s Constitutional rights. Important court cases are introduced.

An introductory course that examines the role of probation and parole as a component of the criminal justice system. The course will cover the introductory philosophy of pretrial and prerelease programs and revocation procedures.

The focus of this course is management techniques within criminal justice agencies. Court administrative techniques, police executive-leadership issues, correctional administration theories, and liability cases will be covered extensively. This is an introductory course for entry and mid-level management positions.

Students will explore Social Control Theories and how they relate to deviance in our society. Explanations of deviance and how behaviors are defined as deviance will be explored and studied. Students will see the relationships between behaviors that have been deviant and are now acceptable, and the paths that are taken to address these behaviors in public policy and law.

This course explores the history of philosophy of American Constitutional Order, largely through the study of Supreme Court cases.  The Bill of Rights and other Constitutional Amendments are reviewed and analyzed.  The application of Constitutional Law is demonstrated in policy analysis. 

A review of relevant themes and issues evolving and current in the discipline. Students are expected to familiarize themselves with the topics and be prepared to discuss the readings in class. Extensive out of class research and writing is expected of each student during the class.

Note: May be repeated, with different topics, three times by student.

This course will better enable the student to effectively understand and evaluate the relationship between criminal justice and the media, including consideration of the impact of the media on attitudes and perceptions of crime and criminals, the relationship of the media and crime control, and the impact of the media on the operations of the agencies in the criminal justice system, and the benefits and impediments that media presents with regard to due process.  Students will be expected to familiarize themselves with topics and be prepared to engage in in-depth discussions on the readings and material in class at a level consistent with that of a senior level criminal justice student.  Extensive out of class research and writing is expected of each student during the course. 

This course will study serial killers and their victims.  Facts and myths about these murderers will be explored, as well as typologies of these persons.  Criminal justice theory is examined as a social construction for serial killers.  Gender differences between mail and female murderers will be noted.

This course will focus on important and emerging crime related issues and problems that ordinarily receive insufficient attention by policy makers, government officials, media sources and sometimes leaders within the criminal justice system.  This course is designed to provoke thought and challenge perspectives by helping students become more sophisticated consumers of crime and justice knowledge.  More specifically, this course will look at various crime prevention strategies, policies and criminal justice practices that may impact our overall pursuit of a safer society.

This course will better enable the student to effectively understand and evaluate the characteristics and distribution of murder, including historical and cross-cultural comparisons.  They will be able to recognize the social psychological, structural, cultural, and situational explanations of causes and consequences of juvenile, gang, domestic, mass, serial, and sexual murder.  Students will be expected to familiarize themselves with the topics and be prepared to engage in in-depth discussions on the readings and material in class at a level consistent with that of a senior level criminal justice student.  Extensive out of class research and writing is expected of each student during the course. 

This course is designed to explore all issues concerning the Death Penalty in America.  It is intended to offer students an objective view of both sides of the controversy.

This course covers terrorists' activities aimed at achieving radical changes around the world with violence.  Topics include the identifications of terrorist groups who are willing to kill innocent people by the use of explosives, weapons, and other violent means, and the action by governments to counter terrorism.

The criminal justice student is placed in an approved agency or setting appropriate to his or her skills and career goals. The student is supervised in the field by a site supervisor as well as by the faculty internship director. The student is responsible for performing the tasks assigned by the site supervisor as well as for written assignments from the internship director. (No more than 6 SH may be applied for Criminal Justice coursework). A student is expected to complete 125 hours or 250 hours for 3 semester hours or 6 semester hours of credit, respectively.

An overview of research methods employed in criminal justice. The course examines theoretical principles on which scientific research is based in addition to the application of principles and methods in criminological research. Students will learn the historical development of social research as well as techniques and problems encountered in criminal justice research methods. The course will highlight the importance of program evaluation and sound research methodology. Students will also be exposed to the research process through practical exercises designed around the student's particular career interest.

This course will serve as the student’s culmination of their research process begun in CJ497—Research Methods in Criminal Justice. The student will ensure the previously submitted work from the prerequisite course is properly prepared for review by the Limestone University Institutional Review Board (IRB), submit said work for approval, and facilitate the proposed research design. In this course, students will focus on effective completion of the IRB process, effective facilitation of a research design, proper analysis and discussion of data and findings, and presenting/publishing research and relative findings. The course will culminate in the student presenting their work and findings at the Limestone University Research Symposium. Students wishing to do so will also be encouraged to formally present their works and findings at academic conferences attended by faculty and/or formally publish their work.