This course is designed to provide an overview of the criminal justice process and the criminal justice system in general. Concepts of crime, deviance and justice are discussed and general theories of crime causality are examined. Special emphasis is placed on the components of the criminal justice system: the police, the prosecutorial and defense functions, the judiciary and the field of corrections. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Additional Information: Denver Core Requirement, Social Sciences.

In this course, students will explore, examine, and reflect on their strengths, interests, and personality assessments as they relate to the criminal justice field and professional development. Participants will conduct career-related research and develop individualized action plans designed to bridge the gap between their current skills and experiences and those desired by employers in the criminal justice field. Prereq: UNIV 1110. Restriction: Restricted to Criminal Justice majors. Max hours: 2 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Prereq: UNIV 1110 Restriction: Restricted to Criminal Justice majors

This course examines the nature and causes of crime and policies within and outside the criminal justice system to predict, prevent, and correct criminal, delinquent, and deviant behavior. It involves a critical appraisal of biological, psychological, economic, and sociological theories and frameworks that explain crime, delinquency, and deviance. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course teaches students how to formulate research questions related to criminology and crime and justice. It addresses how to design research in the field, including choosing an appropriate method and sampling strategy and collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and reporting data and findings. Specific substantive elements are included in research design (e.g., various types of probability and non-probability sampling; strengths and weaknesses of surveys, interviews, and other methodological approaches; experimental and non-experimental designs; qualitative techniques; etc.) Other substantive topics are addressed, including research ethics, consuming research, and writing in different settings. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course introduces descriptive and inferential statistics and the use of computer software to analyze criminal justice data. Course content includes hypothesis testing and the basic analysis of continuous and discrete dependent variables related to criminology and criminal justice. Prereq: CRJU 3100. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Pre: CRJU 3100

Employs social science and legal approaches to examine crime committed by corporations as well as by individuals in white-collar occupations. Topics include how such crimes are socially defined, who commits them, which social contexts promote them, who is victimized, and how society and the criminal justice system respond. Cross-listed with CRJU 5574. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course focuses on innovative community-based strategies for dealing with criminal offenders. Correctional alternatives to imprisonment discussed in this course include probation and parole and various community programs, such as day reporting centers, electronic monitoring, half-way houses, and boot camp programs. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course examines various aspects of violence, including distribution over time and space; situations and circumstances associated with violent victimization and offending; and how social institutions, community structure, and cultural factors shape violent events. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course surveys the relationships between mass media, crime, offenders, victims, and criminal justice. It explores how the criminal justice system and its agents, accused and convicted offenders, and victims, are portrayed in the media and the influence of these depictions on society, public policy, and the criminal justice system. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course consists of a historical overview of violence in American society. Course content includes an examination of violent crime rates over time, societal explanations for changes in rates and an examination of the theoretical causes and preventative strategies for acts of violence. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This seminar examines the lives of people who live on the margins of a society that perceives them as outsiders. Ethnographic studies that utilize observation, participant observations, and interviews as their primary research methodology are assigned in order to develop a critical understanding of the social marginalization and cultural aspects of the lives of real human beings living constantly on the edge of the law. Cross-listed with CRJU 5270. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course provides a comprehensive overview of trauma and the relationship of trauma to criminal offending. Topics includes the definition of trauma, the impact of trauma on development, lifelong consequences of chronic exposure to adverse events, and how to integrate knowledge about trauma into organizational policies in correctional settings. The class focuses on understanding the components of a trauma-responsive environment in correctional settings and incorporating trauma recovery principles into practice. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course examines trauma as widely prevalent among those who are served by the criminal justice system and experienced disproportionately among criminal justice professionals. Trauma prevalence, theory, prevention, and interventions through a trauma stewardship lens for victims of multiple forms of trauma, including vicarious traumatization and secondary traumatic stress, will be emphasized through an all-inclusive view across the criminal justice continuum. Cross-listed with CRJU 5285. Max Hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course examines in-depth a comprehensive range of issues surrounding capital punishment. Specifically, it looks at the history of capital punishment, methods of execution, legal issues and case law, deterrence, miscarriages of justice, discrimination in the capital charging and sentencing system, and the role of the death penalty internationally. The coverage of these issues relies on many sources, including scholarly readings, non-fiction books, court cases, websites, videos and documentaries, speeches, and media. Cross-listed with CRJU 5290. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course examines law enforcement's role in contemporary society and the impact of police interaction on other segments of the criminal justice system. Special attention is paid to controversies related to police training and education, career development and community relations. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course focuses on the police and community response to crime. Course content includes an overview of the major concepts and issues involved in what many consider to be a major fundamental shift in the approach and operations of modern policing. The origins, meaning, development and experiences of community policing and various assessments of the advantages and disadvantages of community policing are emphasized. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course looks at various aspects of serial killing, including definitions, statistics, and demographics of serial killers and their victims. It examines factors that are correlated with serial killing, as well as criminal justice responses to serial killers (e.g., investigative techniques, prosecuting and defending accused killers, etc.) It also includes cases of serial killers. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course introduces the history and evolution of cybercrime. It explores different types of cybercrime and the issues they present socially, for national security, and in the context of the criminal justice system. Specifically, with respect to the criminal justice system, the class focuses on how cybercrime is defined in laws, prevented, investigated, prosecuted, and sentenced. It also looks at how cybercrime impacts victims and society as a whole. Ethics and policy implications at each stage of the criminal justice process and outside of the justice system are analyzed. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Typically Offered: Fall.

This course is appropriate for students who have a specific interest in the role of probation and parole as correctional sanctions in community settings. Substantive topics, including the presentence investigation report, privatization, and the roles and responsibilities of probation and parole officers, are discussed. Particular attention is paid to research on the effectiveness of probation and parole, factors that contribute to the successful completion of probation and parole, and the role that the community and citizens play in these community corrections processes. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course analyzes case materials involving pleas, trials, and sentences. Course content includes the dimensions of criminality, the specific elements of major crimes, plea bargaining, the use of confessions, fair trial procedures, and various aspects of criminal sanctions, including cruel and unusual punishments. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course looks at the socially constructed nature of drugs and drug policy. It explores the connection between drugs and crime within the socio-historical context of contemporary U.S. drug policy. Special emphasis is placed on the relationship between drugs and alcohol abuse and criminal offending, including the criminal justice system responses to possessing, distributing, and using illegal substances. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course examines the development, change, and operation of the American juvenile justice system and the social factors that shape the identification and treatment of juvenile offenders. Special emphasis is placed on juvenile law and methods of dealing with youthful offenders. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course looks at deviant and delinquent behavior committed by minors in American society. It explores the social construction of juvenile delinquency and factors and conditions contributing to at-risk and delinquent behavior. Finally, it examines the control and treatment of juvenile offenders prevention programs. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course provides students with an overview of issues related to crime and delinquency prevention, both from criminological and criminal justice points of view. Crime prevention programs that encompass both the individual and community levels are examined. Responses to juvenile offenders-ranging from prevention and diversion to institutional corrections and after care are explored in context of youth policy generally. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Examines the offender who may be mentally disordered. Special attention is paid to the various phases of the criminal justice system where psychiatrists are involved (e.g., diversion, fitness, insanity and sentencing), dangerous sex offender legislation, "not guilty by reason of insanity" and "guilty but mentally ill" statutes, and issues concerning confidentiality, informed consent, and treatment. Cross-listed with CRJU 7575 and 5575. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course will provide an overview of federal wildlife and environmental laws which are designed to protect plants, animals, marine resources, the air we breathe, and the nation’s waterways. For each of the laws covered in this course, investigations including case resolutions will be presented. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Introduces emergency management and homeland security including: management of hazards, emergencies, disasters, and the networks of government and nonprofit organizations providing services. Focuses on principles of emergency management and homeland security at state and local jurisdictional levels. Cross-listed with PUAD 4010, PUAD 5650, and CRJU 5650. Prereq: CRJU 1000. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Pre: CRJU 1000

Introduces the discipline and practice of emergency management. Topics include administrative practice and processes by which public policy shapes governmental responses to hazards, emergencies, and disasters. Cross-listed with CRJU 5655, PUAD 4012, and PUAD 5655. Max Hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Students will learn about federal wildlife laws and an overview of each law will be provided, along with methods and tools used to investigate possible violations of the laws. Prosecuting cases will be covered, and actual cases will be reviewed so students are able to see practical application of the law. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Typically Offered: Summer.

This course provides an overview of intelligence analysis and aims to provide the skills and tools necessary to effectively communicate results to consumers. Students will be familiarized with the analytical, perceptual, and cognitive pitfalls of conducting intelligence analysis and learn a variety of strategies for overcoming these problems, preparing professional intelligence products, and presenting executive-level intelligence briefings. Cross-listed with CRJU 5015. Max Hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course consists of an overview of the field of penology and corrections. Attention is paid to conflicting philosophies of punishment, criminological theory as it applies to the field of corrections, the selectivity of the process through which offenders move prior to their involvement in correctional programs, institutional corrections, alternative correctional placements, and empirical assessments of the short and long-term consequences of one's involvement in correctional programs. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course presents an overview of the role of police in the United States. Attention is placed on the origins of policing, the nature of police organizations and police work, patterns of relations between the police and the public, discretion, and the police role in a sociological context. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course examines the basic functions, structure, and organization of the federal and state court systems, with special attention on the criminal court system. It looks at the courtroom workgroup and agents within it, including the prosecutor, defense attorney, and judge. It focuses on the influence of judicial behavior on the court process by examining judges' policy preferences, legal considerations, group processes within courts, and courts' political and social environments. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Analyzes the policies and practices of agencies involved in the criminal justice process, from the detection of crime and arrest of suspects through prosecution, adjudication, sentencing and imprisonment, to release. The patterns of decisions and practices are reviewed in the context of a systems approach. Cross-listed with CRJU 5100. Max Hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course examines the relationships between race, social class, and crime. Attention is given to theoretical explanations, empirical research, and patterns of criminal behavior. The class focuses on historical frameworks that are relevant to current perspectives on the impact and interactions of race, class, and crime in the field. It examines race, class, and race-by-class disparities and discriminatory practices at different phases of the justice system from detainment through sentencing and appeals. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course is designed to prepare students to identify and critically examine ethical issues in the criminal justice system by applying ethical decision models. It also provides students with the opportunity to analyze how they would resolve these issues according to their own values and beliefs while staying within the boundaries of the law and formal and informal professional ethics. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course analyzes theories and empirical research related to the causes of criminal behavior committed by individuals of lower socio-economic status. Further, it examines the economic and social costs of crimes committed by under-resourced individuals and crime-prevention strategies that are connected to crimes committed by under-resourced individuals. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course examines the criminal justice systems response to intimate partner violence by focusing on the interactions between victims, offenders, and components of the criminal justice system. By exploring the dynamics of intimate partner violence, this course addresses the theories, history, research, legislation, and policy implications related to the criminal justice system's response to intimate partner violence. Cross-listed with CRJU 5150, PUAD 5155. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course explores historical and current practices of the criminal justice system to address sex offenders and offenses. Topics include the history of sexual abuse, etiology of offenders, victims' issues, juvenile sex offenders, risk assessment, and treatment/supervision approaches to sex offenders and offenses. Prereq: CRJU 1000. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Pre: CRJU 1000

This course involves the scientific study of crime victims and focuses on the physical, emotional, and financial harm people suffer at the hands of offenders. Emphasis is placed on victim-offender relationships, interactions between victims and the criminal justice system, and connections between victims and other social groups and institutions. Theories, history, research, legislation, and policy implications related to the social construction of "the victim" are explored. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This class examines criminal homicide from all angles: the offenders, the victims, the police, prosecution, defense, jurors, and judges. It looks at investigative techniques and the latest science involved in criminal investigation, jury selection, and other criminal justice system issues. It focuses on what is arguably the most serious form of homicide, murder, exploring sensational cases that involve delving into the psyche of murderers. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course offers an overview of specialized knowledge, techniques, principles, and technologies of forensic sciences and criminal investigations. Students will explore the fundamentals of proper evidence collection, preservation, and evidence analysis techniques. Students in this course will develop an understanding of the practical application of forensic science to legal issues and disputes. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Crime Scene Investigation is a course that is designed to give the student a working knowledge of how to investigate and collect evidence on a variety of crime scenes. It demonstrates how different types of physical evidence is used to solve crimes, specifically looking at forms of evidence like gun shots, blood spatter, and finger-printing. It also looks at the importance of professional skills, such as academic knowledge, problem-solving, effective communication, and the use of technology. Other issues, such as historical context and ethics, will be discussed. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course analyzes the dynamics of criminality and the social responses to crime across countries. Special emphasis is placed on methods of comparative legal analysis utilized to examine international differences in crime and justice, international cooperation in criminal justice, and crime and development. Prereq: CRJU 1001. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course explores issues surrounding women as offenders and victims. It investigates explanations for women's involvement in illegal activities and looks at gender-based disparities and discrimination in the criminal justice system's treatment of women who are accused and convicted of crimes. The class also examines women's participation in criminal justice professions, including law enforcement, corrections, judicial processes, and law. Cross-listed with CRJU 5553. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Explores the continuum of justice-system errors ranging from persons who are falsely accused (arrested, prosecuted, and tried) to those who are wrongly convicted and imprisoned or sentenced to death row and erroneously executed. Cross-listed with CRJU 5200. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Focuses on prisoner reentry, including strategies to prepare inmates for release, reduce recidivism, and facilitate adjustment in the community while meeting the demands of public safety. Cross-listed with CRJU 5210. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course examines the origins and historical development of prisons and jails in America. Particular attention is given to the impact of reform movements; the rise of centralized correctional systems; and regional and other socially differentiated variations in the practice of punishment. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course will introduce the core principles of evidence based programming and tools of motivational interviewing as it is used currently with the offender population. In addition, students will learn how to utilize these skills working with specific offender populations. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

The course is designed to enhance interest, experience, and knowledge in leadership that promotes professionalism and ethical behavior among criminal justice professionals. Individual and organizational dynamics are explored through a critical perspective, focusing on criminal justice roles and responsibilities. The class teaches effective leadership skills in areas such as team building, strategic planning, and decision-making. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Serves as an introduction to the uses and applications of analysis within law enforcement, including the role of analysis in law enforcement, theories that guide analysis and police practices, commonly used data sources and technology, and techniques for various types of analysis utilized in law enforcement. Cross-listed with CRJU 5331. Max Hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course focuses on substantive criminal law and constitutional rights of the accused in criminal proceedings. Course content includes the legal elements of major crimes. It also addresses legal aspects of investigation, search and seizure, arrest, custodial interrogation, the appointment of counsel, and constitutional rights that apply during trials (e.g., right to confront witnesses, be protected against self-incrimination, be tried by a jury of one's peers, etc.) Rules governing the admissibility of evidence in court are also examined. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course introduces students to the scholarly study of law. Students will become familiar with social scientific perspectives of the law, legal institutions, the legal process, and the impact of law on behavior. Particular emphasis is placed on the interplay between the social construction of crime through law, criminal behavior and individuals targeted in criminal justice processes in America. Additional topics include theories of law and legality, comparative legal systems, police, lawyers, judges, juries, and the use of social science expertise in the justice system. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course involves the study of emerging trends and issues in the administration of the courts, the emerging role of the judiciary in the administration of programs in the public and private sectors, and the implications of court administration on social policy. Course content includes the history of the judicial approaches to the criminal justice administrative process and substantive social policy. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course is an in-depth analysis of homeland security in the U.S. Topics include the initial concepts and strategies of securing land borders, seaports, and airports, the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security, and the functions and operations of the DHS today and in the future. Prereq: Completion of CRJU 1000. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Pre: CRJU 1000

This course traces the origins and historical development of the activities known as "organized crime." These crimes are some of the most dangerous to American society and range from the commonly known offenses of gambling and narcotics to the more subtle and sophisticated, less understood but equally serious, crimes of extortion, commercial bribery, and political corruption. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course focuses on the family as the primary institutional mechanism of social control. Structured around social learning theory, it explores the relationships between exposure to childhood violence and violence later in life, including dating relationships during adolescence and adulthood and violence in marital relationships. The course also looks at the impact of childhood violent victimization on juvenile delinquency, adult criminality, and violent behavior in general. Cross-listed with CRJU 5535. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course provides an introduction to the uses and applications of analysis within law enforcement, including the role of analysis in law enforcement, theories that guide analysis and police practices, commonly used data sources, technology, and a practical introduction to the techniques for various types of analysis utilized in law enforcement. Prereq: CRJU 1000, 3100, and 4043. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Prereq: CRJU 1000, 3100, and 4043.

This highly specialized seminar addresses cutting-edge and emerging developments in the fields of criminology and criminal justice and provides students and faculty with the opportunity to explore significant themes, issues, and problems from a broad interdisciplinary perspective. Topics vary from semester to semester. Prereq: CRJU 1000. Repeatable. Max hours: 18 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Repeatable. Max Credits: 18.

Pre: CRJU 1000

Students work in small groups to complete substantive projects for government agencies and community organizations, led by faculty instructor. Topics addressed will vary depending on the needs of the community partner. Prereq: Completion of CRJU 1000 and CRJU 3100. Restriction: Restricted to SPA students. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Prerequisite: Completion of CRJU 1000 and CRJU 3100. Restriction: Restricted to SPA students.

Environmental Crime and Justice will look at the disproportionate benefits and burdens of environmental “profits” (e.g., open spaces, clean air and water, etc.) and contamination (which results from behaviors that include, but are not limited to crime), as well as the implications of these disparities on certain areas, particularly communities of color and indigenous communities. The role of the government, the private sector, non-profit organizations, and the environmental justice movement in creating, perpetuating, and minimizing environmental crime and its disparities will be examined, with part of the focus being on theories within critical criminology that address issues of environmental crime injustices. The nature of environmental offenders and victims will be explored. Policies and programs that have been organized to address environmental crime and other injustices and their effects (e.g., quality of life, birth defects, childhood asthma, lead poisoning, cancer, etc.) will be reviewed, including responses by the criminal justice system to environmental crime. Students will examine critically the consistencies and inconsistencies in institutionalized mechanisms that are set up, either intentionally or more subtly, to create, reinforce, or minimize environmental crimes and injustices. Cross-listed with CRJU 5710. Max Hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course consists of instructor-guided research in an area of mutual interest to the student and instructor or a student-driven project supervised by the instructor. Students are responsible for selecting their area of inquiry prior to contacting the instructor. Repeatable. Max Hours: 6 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Repeatable. Max Credits: 6.

Internships involve a career-related supervised experiential course in a criminal justice or related agency. Permission to enroll must be preceded by an application for an internship. Prereq: Permission of instructor and advisor is required for undergraduate students. Repeatable. Max Hours: 9 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Repeatable. Max Credits: 9.

Synthesizes competencies gained throughout the course of study into a client-based research project. Students conduct independent research, complete a final project demonstrating their qualifications and expertise. Restriction: Restricted to undergraduate students in the School of Public Affairs. Max hours: 10 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Repeatable. Max Credits: 10.

Restriction: Restricted to undergraduate students in the School of Public Affairs.

Additional Information: Report as Full Time.

This course is reserved for CU Denver faculty-led study abroad experiences. The course topic will vary based on the location and course content. Students register through the Office of Global Education. Cross-listed with CRJU 5995. Repeatable. Max hours: 9 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Repeatable. Max Credits: 9.

Typically Offered: Fall.