Drive difference-making reform with a master’s in criminal justice

This course examines various statistical techniques and research design methods applied to crime, criminal justice, and agency administration issues. This course will prepare students to be intelligent consumers of reported research, to interpret statistical analysis, to report criminal justice agency performance results, and to identify and use various criminal justice statistical data sources in print and electronic form.

Within the scope of the foundations of justice and administration and social, financial, legal and political opportunities and challenges, students will apply strategic decision making strategies to analyze the communicative structures, practices, and performance of organizations in the administration of justice. Specific goals, challenges, and leadership theories will be holistically summarized and synthesized to develop solutions within the courts, law enforcement, and corrections, in both not-for-profit and for-profit organizations. Applied perspectives in ethical leadership functions that respond to organizational problems and objectives through best-practices will also be addressed. As future leaders, students will, moreover, demonstrate fluency in employee rights and issues and apply budgeting strategies to maximize agency goals. Additional outcomes will address program planning, implementation, and evaluation, as well as appraisal of new technological advancements utilizing articulated and relevant criteria.

As a student in this course, you will analyze complex and multi-systemic adult and juvenile systems of justice and social control mechanisms on both a micro and macro level. Attention will be given to innovative initiatives and best-practices from across the nation with a view toward positive social change. Technology for effective cross-system collaboration will also be addressed, as will the role of constitutional protections and constraints on arrest, prosecution, conviction, and incarceration.

Students will evaluate contemporary criminology theories and apply them to formulate prevention, treatment, and crime control models, within a framework of cultural diversity. Crime data relationships and patterns will also be integrated with biological, psychological, and sociological theories of criminal behavior in a critical evaluation of contemporary criminological theories. Policy formation and implementation will also be addressed.

Students learn to think strategically about leading organizations operating in a public environment where collaboration is required to achieve organizational goals. The course focuses on using strategic and network management concepts and tools to improve organizational performance and advance the public interest. The importance of strategically managing organizational communication is also examined. Finally, students develop skills for effectively communicating strategic planning methods, approaches, and decisions with colleagues, elected officials, the media, and the public.

Students use the public administration concepts and tools learned in prior courses to analyze an important administrative or policy implementation problem and propose a course of action for effectively addressing it. The course emphasizes applying relevant concepts and tools to analyze the problem and then synthesizing the conclusions to create a written analysis and proposal for addressing the problem.

Students evaluate contemporary prison and punishment models and theories of punishment. Students compare and contrast prison systems and develop solutions to penology challenges, such as overcrowding and the detrimental impacts of prison life. Finally, students analyze penal administration and accountability.

Students learn how criminal justice policy issues are framed, identify participants in the policy process, and discover how policy is made. Evaluating the impact of cultural and global criminal justice trends and challenges, students will assess various crime control models and develop proposals to address accreditation, white collar crime, public health and transnational challenges.

This course is a seminar/survey course on victimization in the United States. Emphasis is placed upon the impact of victimization upon the victims and society. In addition, the response of the criminal justice system and of society to these victimizations will be explored. Theories of crime prevention and victimization will be discussed throughout the semester to encourage students to analytically consider the factors which cause victimization, and which factors can possibly prevent victimizations from occurring.

This course introduces students to funding sources and grant writing. Students will be expected to locate funding options and write a grant application.