Course Descriptions

CJS/GEO 545 Geographic Information Systems for Crime Analysis and Mapping (3)
Geographic Information Systems for Criminal Justice - collect, organize, analyze, and display spatial data used in criminal justice and emergency management.

CJS 551 Comparative Justice Systems (3)
A survey of the major legal traditions in world, as well as an examination of rule of law, civil rights,policing, and punishment; corrections in specific jurisdictions for the purpose of understanding how law and justice systems develop, how systems interact and converge, and how peoples from around the world approach justice. Comparisons between the United States and other nations/systems will occur with the intention of better understanding, critically assessing, and improving systems in the United States.

CJS 611 Criminal Justice Theory (3)
This course provides an overview of the research on criminal justice theory and decision making in theAmerican criminal justice system. In particular, the course examines theories that attempt to explain formal and informal actions taken by criminal justice actors, and investigates the empirical evidence on the correlates of criminal justice actor decisions.

CJS 612 Criminal Justice Practice (3)
Focuses on the current state of criminal justice policy, program assessment and evaluation, the impact of public policy, and the necessity for future domestic criminal justice policy. Provides an overview of current policy within police, courts, and community and institutional based agencies.

CJS/STA 615 Statistics for Criminal Justice (3) This course provides an expedited instruction of statistical analyses used in the social sciences.Additionally, students will learn statistical analytic techniques applicable in a wide variety of criminal justice agency settings.

CJS 631 Law, Liberty, and Criminal Justice (3)
An in depth examination of the major constitutional rights that impact criminal law, including the First,Fourth, Fifth, Six, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments. Evaluate the law in its historical, political, and
social context. Special attention will be given to technology and privacy and other contemporary issues.

CJS 632 Legal Aspects of Justice Administration (3)
This course provides a thorough examination of selected legal issues that arise in the administration of police organizations and corrections programs. Drawing from several scholarly literatures, CJS 632 exposes students to techniques of legal research, writing and analysis; it also equips students with extensive knowledge of the case and statutory law that governs police supervisors and corrections administrators in their day-to-day work. Major topics include tort liability of police and corrections personnel, federal civil rights law and litigation, the legal duty to train and supervise, legal restrictions on the use of force, procedural due process, collective bargaining law, constitutional rights of officers and public access to information.

CJS 641 Crime and Place (3)
This online course provides the theoretical framework, research findings, and policy implications relating to the occurrence of crime across time and space. Topics include measures of crime, social disorganization theory, rational choice theories of crime, the role of communities, crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED), situational crime prevention, crime analysis, crime mapping,and directions for future research. The course will culminate in the completion of a policy white paper.

CJS 670 Special Topics in Justice (3)
An examination of a contemporary problem/issue in criminal justice through some combination of research, readings, discussion, and experiential learning. Topics will vary according to need and interest.
This class may be repeated for credit provided different topics are studied.

CJS 685 Advanced Research Methods (3)
This course provides the methodological framework upon which criminal justice research is constructed,including how to conduct basic social science research and to be informed consumers of research.Topics include the role of research in criminal justice, ethics, measurement and concepts, sampling,research designs, survey research, qualitative research, the use of secondary data, evaluation and policy analysis, and data analysis and report writing.

CJS 691 Project (3)
Directed research and writing of professional report on a subject to be determined in consultation with student's faculty supervisor and defended before a faculty committee. Open to criminal justice graduate
students who have completed at least 15 hours of coursework and have the permission of the instructor.

GEO 541 Geographic Information Systems (3)
Introduction to the conceptual, operational and institutional issues associated with the use of currentGeographic Information Systems technology. Demonstrates the application of widely available commercial GIS products to geographic problem-solving.

STA/ ISA 635 Introduction to Predictive Analytics (3)
Introduction to foundational statistical methods and techniques relevant to predictive statistical modeling. Topics include simple and multiple linear regression models, logistic regression models, nonlinear regression, and classification and regression trees. Widely used statistical software packages will be introduced and used extensively in the course.