This course will provide a review of research on policing and police organizations. Seminar examines research on police strategies and practices designed to address crime. Specifically, students will examine the history of policing, approaches to policing, police culture, police misconduct, use of force, concerns for operational policing, technological advances in policing, and the future of policing. Students will apply research on policing and police organizations to address contemporary police concerns.

This course will focus on the Constitution’s establishment of the three branches of government, the “Bill of Rights”, and the role of the Supreme Court in interpreting the Constitutional provisions to specific cases that come before it. Additionally, the Fourth Amendment will be explored and applied to searches and arrests with a warrant and the probable cause requirement for such. The exclusionary rule and its applications will be explored as well, along with a suspect’s Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination. Moving to the courts, a suspect’s rights to counsel, trial, and due process are explored, along with the processes of pre and post-trial. This course also includes a discussion of freedom of speech, assembly, religion, and the right to bear arms.

This course examines the application of alternative models of strategic planning to the criminal justice system and covers methods of evaluating criminal justice policies and practices. This course will examine research on policing and police organizations. The course will also examine research on police strategies and practices designed to address crime.

Introduces students to issues regarding women and the criminal justice system, focusing on their roles as offenders, victims, and professionals. Specific topics include theories of female criminality, female victimization, prostitution and sex crimes, domestic violence, female drug offending, women and corrections, female delinquency, female employment issues in criminal justice, and the effects of race, class, and gender. Students will apply research from these various areas to make criminal justice policy-related decisions.

Students examine the interrelationships between crime, criminal justice, and mass media, with particular attention to how the media represents, distorts, and/or filters crime and justice issues. Topics will include media portrayal of police, courts, corrections, and how various forms of media shape public perceptions about crime, the criminal justice system, and criminal justice policy.

This course will examine patterns and correlates of delinquency within the context of foundations and contemporary theories of delinquency. Research on decision making by officials in the juvenile justice system also will be reviewed. Students will apply research on juvenile delinquency and juvenile justice to make informed policy decisions.

This course examines the great authority of police, the various and most common ways that police abuse that authority, the consequences of those abuses, and accountability mechanisms that can prevent those abuses from occurring. Students will be encouraged to apply research to make policing policy decisions related to accountability and use of force.

This course will focus on how criminal justice organizations function and are structured. Organizations in general and the theories associated with them will be examined. Effective leadership techniques and how organizations exert power will also be explored. Students will apply research on criminal justice administration and organizational theory to make policy decisions.