Criminal Justice (CRJU)

The study of the scope, nature, social characteristics, and distribution of crime in the United States, and the impact of crime trends. Attention will be paid to both street and white collar crimes, policy responses to various crime events, and the ways in which crime in America compares to that of other western nations.

An analysis of the criminal justice systems police, courts and corrections in selected western nations and a study of the functional relations among these key components of the criminal justice system.

A seminar exploring contemporary trends in policing, law enforcement administration, and criminal justice. Specific attention will be given to emerging issues in: ethics, city policing, community policing, and homeland security. These trends will be critically compared with past trends in criminal justice and law enforcement.

This course concerns itself with procedural and substantive aspects of the juvenile justice system, including such areas as history, philosophy, legal shifts, and the systematic processing of juveniles through diversion programs to incarceration.

This course examines the history of domestic drug policy; the U.S. “war on drugs”; the relationship between drug use and crime; trends in domestic drug use and abuse; criminal justice and comprehensive approaches to controlling the use of illegal drugs; and international drug trafficking.