(Cross-listed with SOC 151)
This course is an exploration of how social conflict and social organization affect human and societal well-being. Topics: mental health, personal safety, economic well-being, and intergroup relations in an industrial society and a developing nation.

This course is a survey of the discipline, including its use of social sciences and law in understanding the phenomena of crime and justice and how the two relate. Explores criminal justice theory and processes, as well as the roles of ideology, politics, and mass media in shaping crime policy. Seeks to foster deeper perspectives on how justice--for individuals as well as for society--relates to intensely human experiences like freedom and suffering.

This course is an exploration of how social conflict and social organization
affect human and societal well-being. Topics: mental health, personal
safety, economic well-being, and intergroup relations in an industrial
society and a developing nation.

This course explores major theories of deviance as they apply to behavior viewed as criminal or delinquent. Draws on a variety of academic perspectives to help understand and explain varied manifestations of crime and criminal behavior. Focus is on classical, positivist, and critical approaches, as well as the social policy implications of various theoretical frames of reference.

This course analyzes the law as a social process in historical and comparative perspectives, in particular historical legal traditions such as the British common law, the Napoleonic code, and some other legal systems.

This course provides a journey into the legal principles that underlie substantive criminal law in the United States, including limits on the power of government to define crimes. Consideration of general principles of criminal liability and criminal defenses and legal requirements for specific crimes, including homicide. Appellate court decisions are a major part of the expedition to facilitate understanding of how criminal law is applied in par- ticular fact situations, how it evolves, and how it is influenced by sociopolitical factors.

The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program is an opportunity for a small group of students from La Salle University ("outside students") and a group of people currently incarcerated ("inside students") to exchange ideas and perceptions about crime and justice, corrections, and imprisonment. It is a chance for all participants to gain a deeper understanding of the criminal justice system through the marriage of theoretical knowledge and practical experience. The course is structured around several key questions: What are prisons for? Why do people commit crime? What does the criminal legal system do well and what does in not do well? Whate are the needs of victims? What are some of the myths and realities of prison life? What are the unintended consequences of mass incarceration? What happens if we abolish prisons?

This elective course involves a study of why youth become delinquent and the social responses to such behavior, both historically and currently. Includes consideration of definitions, measurement, and theories of delinquency. Also examines the role of socio-demographic factors and juvenile court processing and juvenile corrections. Implications for policy and practice are emphasized.

This course offers an analysis of police roles, including evolution, public perceptions, administration, culture, and police deviance. Social and political contexts are emphasized through incorporation of social science research related to policing and organizations. Encourages integration of concepts of police on a micro level (the police occupation) with a macro level (the context in which social action occurs), facilitating understanding of the complex relationships between a society and its police.

This course addresses the state and federal criminal courts in the United States. Consideration of social science and legal scholarship with regard to major court actors (especially judges, prosecutors, and defenders) and processes (including bail, plea bargaining, and trials). Also examines non-traditional approaches, such as treatment courts. An important theme is the degree to which the courts effectuate the noble goal of "justice."

This course examines the philosophy and history underlying attempts to deal with persons who commit crime. Emphasizes social science scholarship in corrections, including implications related to social justice. Topics include: philosophies of punishment, prisons, jails, probation, parole, intermediate punishments, capital punishment, and transformative approaches. The social worlds of prisoners are a major focus of the course. Attendance at multiple sessions at one or more corrections sites may be required.

Gender and the Law examines how Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act led to decades of litigation "because of sex," starting with the first key cases in the early 1970s and tracing many precedent setting cases through the present day. These cases will have three broad themes: sex stereotyping, sexual harassment/retaliation and motherhood/pregnancy. The cases center on the workplace and were ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. A sociological lens will be used to put these cases in context of U.S. culture.

This course provides exposure to the legal rules that are supposed to be followed by law enforcement actors when they investigate crime (conduct searches, make arrests, interrogate suspects). Also, the social contexts of those rules are examined, including issues such as breadth of police powers, individual privacy, unequal enforcement, and political influences. State and federal appellate court decisions are the major means through which legal principles are examined.

This course first explores and critically assesses the main explanations proposed for the rise and perpetuation of mass incarceration in the United States, including an increasingly punitive and retributive shift, the war on drugs, white supremacy and racial control, and privatization/profit motives. The course then examines the main consequences of mass incarceration for individuals, families, neighborhoods, and broader society. Understanding the causes and consequences of mass incarceration, the course concludes with an evaluation of various alternatives and reforms to mass incarceration.

This course offers a study of social harms perpetrated by persons of power and influence. Theoretical approaches for understanding elite deviance and legal issues in definition, investigation, prosecution, and sentencing will be considered. Specific crimes of the powerful will be explored, including through case studies.

Restorative justice is a strategy that seeks to repair the harms done to those affected by a crime or conflict, including harmed parties (aka "victims"), responsible parties (aka "offenders"), and other community members. The course begins with a critical examination of how restorative theory and practice address the limitations of conventional justice system processing in the United States. The use of restorative justice in various contexts, including the criminal justice system as well as within correctional and educational settings, is also explored. Restorative justice's role in advancing racial, social, and gendered justice is evaluated, including an examination of how restorative models fit within other reform and abolitionist strategies.

This course provides a study of traditional "street" violence as well as "intimate" violence. A variety of theoretical approaches to understanding violence are explored. A parallel theme is the role of the mass media in shaping how we think about violence.

(Cross-listed with SOC 355)
This course is designed to provide students with an in-depth understanding of a variety of issues related to drug use, abuse, addiction, drug-related crime and drug control. The course begins with an examination of the effects of drugs on individuals and society, including prevalence rates, theories of addiction and the harms and benefits of use and abuse. The next unit assesses the relationship between criminal activity and drug use, abuse and criminalization. The final unit critically evaluates various drug control strategies, including supply reduction, demand reduction and possible alternatives.

This course will provide an overview of crime theories that emphasize the spatial variation of crime and techniques used in the study of crime and justice. Students will explore why crime occurs where it does as well briefly explore techniques that can be used to map crime (using ArcGIS, a popular mapping system used by local and federal law enforcement agencies in the United States). No prior crime mapping/ArcGIS experience is necessary. Special attention will be given to urban crime patterns, specifically the spatial variation of crime in and around Philadelphia.

This is a course that addresses intensively a particular area of criminal justice. Topics vary from semester to semester.

This course focuses on an intensive analysis of contemporary theories of deviant behavior. Theories examined through seminar discussions of primary materials and critiqued by consideration of research findings. Social policy implications discussed and specific criminal justice programs considered in the light of these theories.

This course is a study of the gendered nature of criminal justice theory, policy, and practice. Among the major themes are: gender differences in criminal behavior, criminal victimization, and criminal processing. Includes consideration of the contributions of feminist criminologies.

This course provides the student with an opportunity to do research with a faculty member. The student and the faculty member agree on the research project before the student registers for the course.

This course is a continuation of the 444 research course. It provides the student with an opportunity to continue to conduct research with a faculty member.

This is a course that addresses intensively a particular area of criminal justice. Topics vary from semester to semester.

This course examines the methodology of social research is performed, including through study- ing examples of criminal justice research. Focus is on becoming a more informed consumer of research information. Topics include: research ethics, sampling, field research, experimental designs, survey research, research using available data, and evaluative research.

This elective course requires 15 hours per week (for three credits) of a supervised internship in an approved criminal justice setting. Students may take an internship in place of a criminal justice elective, after completion of the sophomore year. The department recommends doing two internships (during different semesters) during the last two years of your college career. To receive 3 credits, the internship must be approved in advance by the internship director for the department. The department recommends that you take 4 regular classes and the internship (done during that same semester) will count as your 5th class. Your grade is determined from a midterm question and answer, a final paper and your on-site supervisor's evaluation of your internship performance.

This elective course requires 15 hours per week (for three credits) of a supervised internship in an approved criminal justice setting. Students may take an internship in place of a criminal justice elective, after completion of the sophomore year. The department recommends doing two internships (during different semesters) during the last two years of your college career. To receive 3 credits, the internship must be approved in advance by the internship director for the department. The department recommends that you take 4 regular classes and the internship (done during that same semester) will count as your 5th class. Your grade is determined from a midterm question and answer, a final paper and your on-site supervisor's evaluation of your internship performance.

Each student works on a particular research project in conjunction with a faculty member. Includes preparation of literature review, collection and analysis of data, and preparation of findings in a paper of publishable quality. Faculty authorization required for registration.

This course is an exploration of the interaction between ethics and
criminal justice practice, including application of ethical theory to criminal
justice issues. Focus is primarily on normative ethics (both deontological
and teleological views), including major theorists. The course
helps to integrate knowledge gained from previous courses through the
overarching theme of the pursuit of justice as an ethical ideal.