Criminology – cja323 (3 credits)



Criminology, Social Policy, and Future Directions

  • Discuss the rise of the victim's movement and related programs.
  • Identify specific historical crime-fighting measures adopted by the federal government, including relevant legislation.
  • Discuss public policy in the area of crime prevention and control.
  • Identify specific strategies used in the battle against crime.
  • Describe future crimes and the role of the criminological futurist in social policy development.

What Is Criminology?

  • Explain the purpose of criminology and the functions of criminologists.
  • Define crime and deviance and explain the relationship between deviance and criminality.
  • Examine how crime control social policy is related to public perceptions of crime.

Social Structure , Social Process, and Social Development Theories

  • Identify the central tenets of social structure and social process theories.
  • Discuss the core principles of social process theories.
  • Describe the essential beliefs of social development theories, including life course theories.
  • Explore the policy implications of social structure, social process, and social development theories.

Conflict Theories

  • Identify the central tenets of conflict theory.
  • Differentiate between the various forms of conflict theory.
  • Analyze the policy implications of conflict theories.

Types of Crime

  • Describe the characteristics of personal and property crimes in the United States.
  • Differentiate between white-collar, corporate, and organized crime and explain the development of those concepts.
  • Explore the history of drug abuse in America and the extent of current illegal drug use.
  • Examine strategies that have been proposed for dealing with the drug problem.

The High-Tech Offender

  • Recognize how technology and criminality are interrelated.
  • Identify the types of computer crimes and the laws against them.
  • Describe some techniques used in computer crime-fighting.

Research Methods, Theory Development, and Patterns of Crime

  • Examine the economic and social dimensions of crime.
  • Discuss the history of statistical data collection about crime and the analysis of such data.
  • Describe and explain the major contemporary sources of crime data and their limitations.

Classical and Neoclassical Thought

  • Identify the major principles of the classical school of criminological thought.
  • Differentiate between classical and neoclassical criminology.
  • Describe the policy implications of the classical school.

Biological Roots of Criminal Behavior

  • Identify the fundamental assumptions of crime causation made by biological theorists.
  • Explain constitutional factors of crime causation.
  • Discuss the policy implications of biological theories.

Psychological and Psychiatric Foundations of Criminal Behavior

  • Identify the central principles of psychological criminology.
  • Describe the various psychological and psychiatric theories about crime.
  • Explore the impact of psychological and psychiatric theories on the law and social policy.

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