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Criminal Justice (CRJ)

CRJ 151  Social Problems and Social Policy  

(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.

Number of Credits: 3  
When Offered: Spring  
How Offered: Face to Face  
CRJ 161  Introduction to Criminal Justice  

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.

Number of Credits: 3  
When Offered: Fall, Spring  
ILO Met: Inst. Learning Objective 4  
CRJ 201  Social Problems & Policy  

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.

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 231  Love, Marriage, & Parenting  

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 237  City:Conflict/Change  

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 261  Criminology  

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.

Number of Credits: 3  
When Offered: Spring  
How Offered: Face to Face  
CRJ 265  Sociology of Law  

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.

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 270  Special Topics  

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 271  Special Topics  

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 272  Special Topics  

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 273  Special Topics  

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 274  Special Topics  

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 275  Special Topics  

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 276  Special Topics  

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 277  Special Topics  

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 278  Special Topics  

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 280  Criminal Law  

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.

Number of Credits: 3  
How Offered: Face to Face  
CRJ 320  Delinquency and Juvenile Justice  

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.

Number of Credits: 3  
How Offered: Face to Face  
CRJ 324  Policing: Theory & Dynamics  

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.

Number of Credits: 3  
When Offered: Fall  
How Offered: Face to Face  
CRJ 325  Criminal Courts  

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."

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 326  Institutional and Community Corrections  

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.

Number of Credits: 3  
How Offered: Face to Face  
CRJ 329  Gender and the Law  

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.

Number of Credits: 3  
When Offered: Fall, Summer, Spring  
How Offered: Face to Face, Hybrid, Online  
CRJ 330  Constitutional Procedures in Policing  

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.

Number of Credits: 3  
How Offered: Face to Face  
CRJ 335  Mass Incarceration: Causes, Consequences, and Alternatives  

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.

Number of Credits: 3  
When Offered: Fall, Summer, Spring  
How Offered: Face to Face, Online  
CRJ 340  Crimes of The Powerful  

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.

Number of Credits: 3  
When Offered: Fall  
CRJ 345  Restorative Justice  

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.

Number of Credits: 3  
When Offered: Fall, Summer, Spring  
How Offered: Face to Face, Online  
CRJ 350  Violence in Society  

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.

Number of Credits: 3  
How Offered: Face to Face  
CRJ 355  Drugs, Crime, and Justice  

(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.

Number of Credits: 3  
How Offered: Face to Face  
CRJ 358  Crime Mapping  

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.

Number of Credits: 3  
How Offered: Face to Face  
CRJ 370  Special Topics in Criminal Justice  

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

Number of Credits: 3-4  
CRJ 371  Special Topics  

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 372  Special Topics  

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 373  Special Topics  

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 374  Special Topics  

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 375  Special Topics  

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 376  Special Topics  

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 377  Special Topics  

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 378  Special Topics  

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 379  Special Topics  

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 385  Theories of Deviance  

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.

Number of Credits: 3  
How Offered: Face to Face  
CRJ 387  Gender, Crime, And Justice  

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.

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 395  Ethical Issues-Policing & CRJ  

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 444  Research in CRJ I  

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.

Number of Credits: 1-3  
CRJ 445  Research in CRJ II  

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.

Number of Credits: 1-3  
CRJ 450  Co-op Education  

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 451  Co-op Education II  

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 470  Special Topics in Criminal Justice  

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

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 472  Special Topics  

Number of Credits: 3  
CRJ 480  Research Methods  

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.

Number of Credits: 3  
When Offered: Fall  
How Offered: Face to Face  
Prerequisites: CRJ 161, 261, and junior or senior status  
CRJ 481  Criminal Justice Internship  

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.

Number of Credits: 3  
Prerequisites: Rising junior or senior status and minimum overall GPA of 2.7  
CRJ 482  Criminal Justice Internship  

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.

Number of Credits: 3  
Prerequisites: Rising junior or senior status and minimum overall GPA of 2.7  
CRJ 483  Criminal Justice Research  

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.

Number of Credits: 3  
When Offered: Fall  
How Offered: Face to Face  
Prerequisites: CRJ 161, 261, 480, senior status, and minimum overall G.P.A. of 3.0  
CRJ 486  Crim Justice Internship  

Number of Credits: 6  
CRJ 495  Senior Seminar: Ethical Issues in Criminal Justice  

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.

Number of Credits: 3  
When Offered: Spring  
How Offered: Face to Face  
Prerequisites: CRJ 161 and 261; at least one of the following: CRJ 324, 325, and 326; and senior status.