Master of Science in Criminal Justice

This course introduces students to the fundamentals of the criminal justice system, substantive criminal law, and the U.S. Constitution. This course may be waived for students holding undergraduate degrees in criminal justice or having completed certain courses.

This course examines criminal justice policies and theories, and structures of the criminal justice system. Research and materials in this course will also be used to explore criminal justice policies and social justice.

This course explores classical and contemporary literature in criminology and criminal justice. Both theory and empirical research will be used to examine criminal behavior as well as the structure, function, and interaction of the criminal justice system.

This course examines the structure, functions, and operations of the constitution and judicial processes. The impact of historical and contemporary constitutional issues on the criminal justice process will also be examined.

This course introduces the use of research methods in the study of criminal justice. The focus is on the examination of the issues related to collecting, analyzing, and using data. Students will study quantitative and qualitative methods, criminal justice data, ethics, inferences, and social justice.

This course introduces students to the intersection between psychology and the criminal justice system. Students will examine major sub-areas of psychology that comprise the discipline of forensic psychology including criminal psychology, legal psychology, victimology, police psychology, and correctional psychology.

This course examines theoretical and applied criminal justice ethical standards as they relate to criminal justice decision-making. Students will evaluate issues concerning discretion, due process, truthfulness, corruption, and discrimination.

This course provides an international perspective on law enforcement. Students will focus on the phenomena of globalization of criminal activity, major aspects of the legal traditions and criminal justice systems of selected countries, as well as international legal and law enforcement institutions.

This course provides an overview of the principles and concepts of victimology, an analysis of patterns and trends, as well as theoretical reasoning and responses to criminal victimization. Students will examine the consequences suffered by victims as well as the services and resources available to them.

The Capstone: Evaluation and Program Analysis in Criminal Justice course focuses on key concepts, methods, and issues in criminal justice program evaluation and performance measurement research. Program evaluation and performance measurement research methods are evaluated to determine their efficacy and applications. Finally, students will develop a program evaluation proposal on an existing public sector, nonprofit, or private criminal justice program.

This course introduces students to the responsibilities and functions across agencies at various jurisdictional levels that have the charge of homeland security. Students will also focus on the methods and effectiveness of response systems and social justice issues. In addition, students will study practical actions in homeland security and develop skills to evaluate complex policy issues.

This course is designed to provide the student with an understanding of terrorism, both international and domestic. The course will explore the causes and effects of terrorism as they relate to political structures from both religious and historical perspectives; with particular focus on present day impacts.

This course is intended to provide the student with advanced knowledge and understanding of the area of risk assessment and management. The course includes focus on critical infrastructure, threats, sharing information between communities and agencies, the collaboration of resources, and the management of risk. Students will examine the concepts of risk assessment, risk analysis, and the impacts of actual and suspected threats. Students will also study social justice, ethical issues, and legal issues in risk assessment.

This course provides an analysis of the various issues facing criminal justice and correctional organizations in the context of professional practice, including theoretical concepts and research focused on organizational behavior, management and leadership of human resources, and design and structural processes of such organizations. Included topics are fiscal accountability; personnel deployment; implementation of change, motivation and retention of personnel, the hiring, assignment, and promotion of personnel, organizational communication; professional development, emerging technologies, and applicable legal issues as they pertain to agency operations.

This course explores specialized topics in substantive and procedural law with a special emphasis on employment law, and how these legal issues impact ethics and leadership in criminal justice and correctional organizations. This course is well suited for command-level personnel in response to a variety of potential agency and personal liability issues.

This course will introduce students to public program budgeting and finance concepts. Special emphasis is given to methods of financing public programs and the preparation and management of budgets for the programs. This course is intended to provide students with an opportunity to learn and practice the technical aspects of program budgeting and finance in the public safety arena.