COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Criminal Justice Core Courses

CRIJ 1301 Introduction to Criminal Justice: This course provides an overview of the history and philosophy of criminal justice and ethical considerations; defines crime and its nature and impact; provides an overview of the criminal justice system, law enforcement, the court system, prosecution and defense, the trial process, and corrections.

CRIJ 1306 Court Systems and Practices: Presents the judiciary in the criminal justice system, including the right to counsel, pretrial release, grand juries, the adjudication process, types and rules of evidence, and sentencing.

CRIJ 1310 Fundamentals of Criminal Law: This course focuses on the nature of criminal law and its philosophical and historical development; major definitions, concepts and classifications of crime; elements of crimes and penalties, using Texas statutes as illustrations; and the concept of criminal responsibility.

CRIJ 2313 Correctional Systems and Practice: This course introduces the student to the field of corrections and its role in the criminal justice process. Major topics include: organization of correctional systems; correctional role; institutional operations; alternatives to institutionalization; treatment and rehabilitation, and current and future issues.

CRIJ 2328 Police Systems and Practices: This course focuses on the policing profession. Major topics include: the organization of law enforcement systems; the role of police in society; police discretion and ethics; police and community interaction; and current and future issues.

CRIJ 3302 Research Methods in Criminal Justice: This course provides an overview of quantitative and qualitative research methods commonly used in criminal justice studies. Measurement issues related to validity, reliability, objectivity, and methods of data collection are discussed in detail.

CRIJ 3303 Nature of Crime: This course is an advanced level criminological theory course. The course examines criminological theory that seeks to explain why some individuals offend and others do not, why some nations, states, cities, and neighborhoods have higher crime rates than others, and how situational factors contribute to criminal behavior. The course also provides an examination of victim and criminal typologies.

CRIJ 3362 Statistics in Criminal Justice: This course covers the basics of descriptive and inferential statistics. It emphasizes the use of data analysis employing SPSS and the understanding of the proper application of statistics in criminal justice research.

CRIJ 4370 Senior Seminar in Criminal Justice Policy Issues: This course is a capstone course for criminal justice students nearing the completion of the baccalaureate degree. This course is designed to explore current criminal justice policy issues from individual student interest and integrate material learned in the criminal justice curriculum, transcending the parochial view of the crime phenomenon from an agency perspective (police, courts, juvenile justice, and corrections). This course allows the student to explore topical criminal justice policy issues that impact each agency, from the micro to the macro perspectives, and to assess the intended and unintended consequences of criminal justice policies throughout the system and society.

Correctional Administration Concentration Courses

CRIJ 1313 Juvenile Justice System: Provides an overview of the juvenile justice system in the United States, including theories of juvenile delinquency, justice system policy toward juvenile offenders, the structure of juvenile courts, juvenile detention, and juvenile rehabilitation efforts, emphasis will be placed on understanding and applying the Texas Family Code, Title III to juveniles processed through Texas juvenile courts.

CRIJ 3331 Legal Aspects of Corrections: This course focuses on legal problems and principles from conviction to release of the offender, including consideration of convictions, imprisonment, sentencing, conditional release, post conviction procedures, prisoners' rights, probationers' rights, and validity of conviction.

CRIJ 3345 Correctional Administration: This course focuses on fundamental concepts of management, organization, and administration as specifically applicable to correctional institutions, field services, and community-based corrections.

CRIJ 4341 Correctional Casework and Counseling: This course examines the role and techniques of casework in corrections with emphasis on integrating casework and counseling responsibilities and procedures. The course includes examining of therapy techniques and processes in various correctional settings and studying of service delivery programs tailored to the specific needs of correctional clients.

CRIJ 4320 Criminal Justice Organization and Management: This course focuses on fundamental concepts of management, organization, and administration as specifically applicable to corrections and law enforcement. The course also focuses attention on societal trends that impact criminal justice administration.

CRIJ 4343 Seminar of Issues in Corrections: This course analyses and discusses contemporary correctional systems, including discussion of recent research concerning correctional institutions and various corrections field services. Emphasis is given to administrative and treatment concerns in corrections.

CRIJ 4301 Practicum-Field Experiences: This course teaches job interview techniques and resume writing and requires placement in a criminal justice (or related) agency for on-the-job training for a minimum of 120 hours. Students are evaluated by agency critiques, daily logs, and a weekly meeting with the intern coordinator.

Police Administration Concentration Courses

CRIJ 3315 Legal Aspects of Evidence: This course critically examines the legal controls placed on police officers, with special attention to current court decisions related to such issues as arrest, search and seizure, confessions, wiretapping and eavesdropping, right to counsel, and self-incrimination. The course also focuses on issues relating to elements of proof for major criminal offenses. In addition, the course presents an understanding of the concepts of reasonable suspicion and probable cause which direct and control police responses to crime situations.

CRIJ 4312 Principles of Law Enforcement Supervision: This course examines the principles involved in law enforcement supervision. Major topics of discussion include: principles of leadership; psychology involved in handling grievances and in building morale; duties and responsibilities of command level personnel; law enforcement budgeting procedures; supervisory problems and responsibilities relating to discipline; and internal affairs investigations.

CRIJ 4313 Seminar of Issues in Law Enforcement: This course analyses and discusses contemporary issues in policing and places particular emphasis on current developments, service delivery, and the changing police role. The course also stresses the importance of integration of established scientific knowledge with practical police experiences in various areas of policing.

Forensic Investigation

CRIJU 2315 Forensic Investigation I: A course in criminal investigation processes, methods, tools, and techniques, forensic applications, investigative case management, role of the crime lab, and case documentation. Students engage in semester-long simulation in preparation of comprehensive, legally sufficient investigative felony case folders from crime scene response to the eventual prosecutor’s presentation to a grand jury.

CRIJU 2416 Forensic Investigation II: A course involving the field collection of evidence and the preservation of crime scene evidence, with emphasis on fingerprints, photography, and other skills and competencies expected on an apprentice identification officer and crime scene investigator. Course competencies and tasks correspond to the IAI body of knowledge for the certified crime scene investigator. This course was previously listed as 2316.

CRIJU 2325 Medical-Legal Forensic Investigation: An interdisciplinary course in concepts in forensic investigative/evidentiary aspects of traumatic wounds and injuries, death, sexual assault, intimate partner violence, child and elder abuse. This course has utility to law enforcement, protective services and health care professionals.

CRIJU 2320 Evidence for Forensic Investigation: This is a course in gathering evidence, fashioning evidentiary arguments and preparing evidence for trial, with emphasis on the practical applications of the rules of evidence with specific forensic science cases and situations presented.

CRIJU 2230 Seminar in Forensic Investigation: A survey of forensic science careers, specializations, qualifications, professional literature, ethics, behavioral science aspects of forensic investigation, certifications with special emphasis on legal and procedural legal aspects for actual testimony on court. This course was previously listed as 2330.

MAJOR Electives (list only includes courses recently offered)

CRIJ 1307 Crime in America: Introduces American crime problems in historical perspective, social and public policy factors affecting crime, the impact of crime, crime trends, social characteristics of specific crimes, and prevention of crime.

CRIJ 3325 Violent Crime and Offenders: Genesis of violence and its expression in criminal and noncriminal forms; theories of violence; subculture of violence; victim-offender interactions; distribution of violent crimes; gender, class, race, and crime; proactive and reactive measures to control violent crimes. This course may focus predominately on one or a few types of violent crime in detail.

CRIJ 4321 White Collar and Organized Crime.

CRIJ 4363 Gangs and Gang Behavior: This course introduces the student to scholarship on street and prison gangs; it explores gang structure, organization, and characteristics. Official responses to gang problems is also analyzed.