Niagara University

CRJ 201 - Introduction to Criminal Justice (SS): An overview of the design and functioning of the criminal justice system in the United States. The nature and extent of crime, criminal procedure, the constitutional basis for due process, principles of the criminal law, and the agencies of criminal justice will be examined. (Major requirement)
Credit Hours: 3
CRJ 202 - Juvenile Justice (also SOC 337): Examines philosophy and administration of the juvenile justice system. Incorporates social science research and case law to understand the system. Focus devoted to: (1) history of juvenile justice, (2) theoretical explanations of juvenile delinquency, (3) family, school, and cultural influences on juvenile behavior, and (4) interventions for juvenile offenders. (Major requirement)
Credit Hours: 3
CRJ 210 - Criminology (SS): Historical and contemporary perspectives on the causes of crime and deviance in society and the treatment of offenders. Major social, psychological, and economic theories will be assessed. Nonbehavioral science perspectives will also be examined. (Major requirement, concentration: criminology)
Credit Hours: 3
CRJ 230 - Law Enforcement (SS): The history and state-of-the-art in evaluating the police role in the community in attempting to balance peace, order and individual rights. Influential theoretical and empirical studies of police discretion,attitudes, and corruption will be examined. Other topics include: the effect of Supreme Court decisions on police practices, evaluating police performance and policewomen. (Major requirement, concentration: law enforcement)
Credit Hours: 3
CRJ 260 - Criminal Procedure: An examination of the constitutional rules and principles that help shape the law of criminal procedure. The issues covered include: pre-trial rights and proceedings, the adversarial system, the right against compelled self-incrimination, and search and seizure. Attention is given to US Supreme Court decisions that interpret and apply federal constitutional provisions to these issues. (Concentration: Law adjudication)
Credit Hours: 3
CRJ 265 - Principles of Justice: Examines criminal punishment as a social and political institution. Critically examines prominent philosophical justifications for criminal punishment, their guiding principles, and their implications for contemporary policy. Explores related principles such as equality, rights, proportionality, and moral desert. (Major requirement, concentration: law adjudication)
Credit Hours: 3
CRJ 270 - Imprisonment and Corrections: Examines the prison within a social, political, and economic context as well as its place within contemporary crime-control debates. Explores the nature of the prison environment, including the prison subculture, violence and its management, correctional officers, and the prospects for reform. Critically evaluates imprisonment’s impact on prisoners and their post-release adjustment, families, and communities. (Major requirement, concentration: penology)
Credit Hours: 3
CRJ 300 - Research Methods (WI): Experimental and quasi-experimental designs in criminological applications. Sampling, reliability, validity, causality, and other topics will be presented and analyzed. The pros and cons of quantitative research design and measurement. (Major requirement)
Credit Hours: 3
CRJ 315 - Organizational Crime (SS): The nature, extent, and impact of illicit behavior on the part of corporations, illicit organizations, government agencies, and employees. The causes, enforcement, prosecution, sentencing, and prevention of organized criminal behavior will be examined. Political, white-collar, organized and corporate crime are assessed. (Concentration: criminology)
Credit Hours: 3
CRJ 320 - Comparative Criminal Justice (SS): An examination of the design, functioning, and legal basis for systems of criminal justice in other countries. An attempt will be made to relate governmental, political, demographic, and economic factors in explaining past and current trends in the adjudication of offenders. Cross-cultural analysis of the causes of crime. (Concentration: criminology)
Credit Hours: 3
CRJ 325 - Drugs and the Criminal Justice System: An examination of the history of drug use and abuse, the nation’s current drug policy, and issues relative to the prevalence of drugs in society, the effects on the body, current law enforcement practices, and the prospects for rehabilitation and prevention of drug abuse. (Concentration: law enforcement)
Credit Hours: 3
CRJ 335 - Private Security (SS): The history and present status of private law enforcement in the United States. Assessment of need for policing in the private sector, and review of the causes and effectiveness of control procedures for employee theft, shoplifting, commercial burglary, and other crimes. The legal powers and restrictions of private law enforcement will be examined. (Concentration: law enforcement)
Credit Hours: 3
CRJ 350 - Criminal Law: An examination of the constitutional rules and principles that help shape the law of substantive criminal law. Some of the issues covered include: sources of criminal law, due process, equal protection, freedom of speech, right to privacy, cruel and unusual punishments, actus rea, mens rea, omissions, causations, attempts, legal and factual impossibility, self defense, battered wife syndrome, necessity defense, and the insanity defense. Attention will be given to US Supreme Court and state court decisions that interpret and apply federal and state constitutional provisions to these issues. (Concentration: law adjudication)
Credit Hours: 3
CRJ 375 - Alternatives to Incarceration (SS): An examination of the history, philosophy and functioning of community-based correctional programs. Each of the various types of programs, including probation and parole, will be discussed and evaluated. The legal rights of ex-offenders. (Concentration: penology)
Credit Hours: 3
CRJ 380 - Sentencing (SS): The historical, philosophical and legal basis for criminal sentencing. Judicial discretion, disparity, indeterminate and determinate sentences, mandatory sentencing, parole procedures, and current legal provisions will be examined. (Concentration: penology)
Credit Hours: 3
CRJ 390 - Field Experience in Criminal Justice: The application of accumulated knowledge in criminology and criminal justice in a field setting. Students will be placed in a criminal justice agency and complete an internship under the supervision of a faculty member. (Concentration: advised elective)
Credit Hours: 3 / Prerequisites: permission of instructor
CRJ 395 - Independent Study: An opportunity for students to design and execute a research or evaluation project in an area of particular interest. Selection of topics, research plan, and methods used are left up to the student under the supervision of a faculty member. (Concentration: advised elective)
Credit Hours: 3 / Prerequisites: permission of instructor

Courses

Criminology & Criminal Justice