CRIM A101 Introduction to Law Enforcement 3 crs.
This course is an introduction to the philosophical and historical background of law enforcement. The principles of organization and administration for functions and activities; planning and research; public relations; personnel and training; inspection and control; direction; and policy formation will be discussed.
CRIM A105 Introduction to Criminal Justice Systems 3 crs.
This course introduces the student to how the justice system works in America. It begins with a discussion of the underlying rationale for punishment of crime and then addresses all components of the criminal justice system including law enforcement, the judiciary, and corrections. Topics discussed include police, role of the attorney, bail, criminal trial, sentencing, corrections, and post-conviction remedies.
CRIM A110 Criminology: Fundamentals 3 crs.
This course is a survey of basic topics and problems related to the discipline of criminology, such as the nature of crime in America and other countries crime statistics, and selected criminological theories. It serves as an introduction to the systematic study of crime, criminals, criminal behavior, and the criminal justice system.
CRIM A120 Introduction to Homeland Security 3 crs.
The organization and operation of United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is examined in detail covering major topics related to homeland security including a history and organization of DHS, a review of key legislation, laws, and directives, introduction to basic concepts of infrastructure protection, risk management, threat assessment and prioritization, jurisdiction and coordination between agencies (public and private agency interface, military and emergency agencies), and issues in communication and technical areas such as interconnectivity and interoperability.
CRIM A205 Police Supervision 3 crs.
This course examines supervisory methods and problems within the law enforcement organization and the implication of principles of human relations to effective performance, policy and procedure, field supervision, instruction and planning, supervisory reporting, and performance evaluation.
CRIM A210 Police Administration 3 crs.
This course examines individual and group studies in the dynamics of law enforcement and administration, policy formation and decision making in management from a human relations and organizational point of view. New paradigms of police organization and management are reviewed.
CRIM A213 Police Community Relations 3 crs.
This course examines factors contributing to friction or cooperation between law enforcement personnel and the community, with emphasis on ethnic and minority groups, political pressures, and cultural problems. Community organization and social responsibility of law enforcement is also discussed.
CRIM A218 Criminal Procedure 3 crs.
This course is a study of the formal process whereby the government seeks to convict and punish a person for a criminal offense. Special emphasis will be placed on appellate review, the law of search and seizure, interrogations, confessions, the use of informers and entrapment, pretrial procedures, and various doctrines applying the fourteenth amendment.
CRIM A250 Juvenile Delinquency 3 crs.
This course explores the nature and causes of juvenile crime and delinquency in America and other cultures. An in-depth analysis of crime measurement, causes, controls, and treatment are examined. Other topics include juvenile law, corrections, family therapy, gangs, schools, and the influence of the mass media on juvenile crime and delinquency.
CRIM A255 Juvenile Justice Process 3 crs.
This course examines of the major decisions made about juveniles from initial contact by the police through termination of legal control over their conduct. Constitutional limitations on the power of the juvenile justice process as a result of recent Supreme Court decisions, case law developments, and statutory changes will be reviewed.
CRIM A260 Statistics in Criminal Justice 3 crs.
This course examines descriptive, inferential and multivariate statistics employed in criminology and criminal justice research about the nature of crimes, criminals, and the criminal justice system. Statistical packages such as SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) are employed in the course to aid students in the calculation and interpretation of key statistical techniques commonly employed in the field.
Corequiste course: CRIM A262
CRIM A262 Statistics in Criminal Justice Lab 1 crs.
This lab is a co-requisite for CRIM A260 Statistics in Criminal Justice and provides an opportunity to apply the skills learned in the class. The lab focuses on the identification of statistical techniques in the criminological and criminal justice literature, explanation for the use of specific techniques and interpretation of quantitative results.
Corequisite course: CRIM A260
CRIM A270 Murder, Mayhem, and the Media 3 crs.
The course explores the relationship of the mass media to our perception of crime, criminals, and the criminal justice system. The mass media generate a "social construction of reality" that influences public opinion, public policies, and general social attitudes toward violence. The print and electronic media, including the internet, are examined as purveyors of social perceptions of criminals, victims, law enforcers, lawyers, judges, prisoners, and the like.
CRIM A275 Deviant Behavior 3 crs.
This course critically examines of the nature and extent of deviant behavior in complex, industrial societies. Particular attention will be given to the causes and consequences of deviant behavior and to the social relations and processes associated with the more common forms of deviant and criminal expression within America and other societies.
CRIM A280 Domestic Violence 3 crs.
The course examines the dynamics of violent relationships, theories of domestic violence, and reactions to domestic violence by the family, media, community and, more extensively, the criminal justice system. Although the course will be focused on intimate partner violence, special topics will also be covered including elder abuse, sexual assault, same sex partner violence, victimization in minority and immigrant populations, stalking, and lethal intimate partner violence.
CRIM A285 Crisis Intervention 3 crs.
This course is a discussion and analysis of crisis intervention as a therapeutic tool in community mental health. Emphasis will be on suicide, crisis lines, counseling, and managing hostile interactions.
CRIM A288 Crime and Disaster 3 crs.
Disaster events cause sudden disruption to a community. There is growing evidence that people may engage in what we call anti-social behavior. Therefore, we need to consider what we can do to better understand when and where these behaviors may occur, and how we can prevent crime after disaster. We will begin by interrogating what the definition of a disaster event is, as this is not an agree upon concept in the multidisciplinary field. We will also study how the different phases of disaster relate to criminal activity in the disaster context. We will investigate a number of case studies from the perspectives of sociologists, criminologists, and law enforcement officials who have had direct experience researching and working in disaster situations. Then, we will examine specific criminal activity, such as looting, sexual assault, fraud, the illegal drug market, and hate crimes. Finally, we will look at how the criminal justice system responds to crime in the wake of disaster.
CRIM A300 Research Methods– Criminology 3 crs.
This course focuses on research in the fields of criminology and criminal justice and includes developing a theoretical explanation for why problems exist, techniques of literature review, methodological designs, collecting information that will verify or refute the explanation of problems, and then analyzing, presenting and interpreting this information. Specific techniques for data collection, analysis, and presentation will be covered in the course.
Corequisite course: CRIM A302
CRIM A302 Research Methods in Criminology Lab 1 crs.
This lab is a co-requisite for CRIM A300 Research Methods in Criminology and provides an opportunity to apply the knowledge from class. The lab focuses on the description of and explanation for methodological approaches in the criminological and criminal justice literature, as well as on identification of strengths, weaknesses and alternative techniques.
Corequisite course: CRIM A300
CRIM A310 Community Policing 3 crs.
The course examines community-oriented policing, which represents a significant departure from the traditional, centralized model of policing. Topics covered include the growth of networking, online crime reporting, crime mapping, the development of the COMPSTAT process, the development of intranets within police organizations, police web pages, e-commerce transactions, and the opening of doors to new levels of police-citizen communications.
CRIM A313 Criminal Evidence 3 crs.
Rules of evidence are examined including examination of witnesses, impeachment, and circumstantial evidence. Special emphasis will be given to relevancy, hearsay and its exceptions, privileges, presumptions and inferences, burden of proof, judicial notice, and the parole evidence rule.
CRIM A320 Violent Offenders 3 crs.
This course focuses on the violent offender in which physical injury is inflicted against one or more others, including, but not limited to criminal homicide, aggravated assault, forcible rape, armed robbery, or attempts to inflict other physical injuries. Typologies of violent offenders are reviewed examining such factors as motives, facilitation and situational aspects of the crime, selection of victims, criminal careers, and group support for violent behavior. Special types of violent offenders such as mass murderers, serial murderers, child murderers, and domestic murderers are also covered.
CRIM A330 Correctional Institutions 3 crs.
The course examines the theory and practice of correctional institutions and functions; the history of the prison as a total institution; types of correctional facilities; problems of rehabilitation in correctional institutions; crimes in prisons; adjusting to prison life; the inmate culture; and the future of correctional institutions. The course includes tours of local and state correctional institutions.
CRIM A331 Probation and Parole 3 crs.
This class focuses on probation and parole, which is part of the criminal justice system. Topics include: the history of probation and the courts, sentencing and the presentence investigation, community-based corrections, indeterminate sentences and punishment, rehabilitation, theory and practice, and probation and parole in the twenty-first century.
CRIM A335 Security and Crime Prevention 3 crs.
The course addresses the field of private security and crime prevention in such diverse environments as manufacturing, commerce, finance, healthcare, and government. Private security missions include protection of persons, places, and things; loss prevention; private investigation; security assessment; and those services not provided by the public sector. Issues such as education, training, industry-specific security guidelines, and advances in security technology are also addressed.
CRIM A340 Environmental Criminology 3 crs
This course examines criminological solutions to environmental problems. Issues addressed include the nature of environmental offenders and victims, the political landscape of environmental law, the variety of approaches to achieving environmental justice, crimes against animals, the development of environmental radical groups, and criminal justice solutions to specific environmental problems.
CRIM A345 Seminar Constitutional Law 3 crs.
The course reviews basic constitutional law and in-depth analysis of Supreme Court decisions decided during recent terms of court with a special emphasis on trends in constitutional law and criminal procedure.
CRIM A350 Offenders With Mental Illness 3 crs.
This course examines deinstitutionalization, the effects of this process on people with mental illness, the ways the criminal justice system has met the challenge of offenders with mental illness, and the efficacy of programs and policies meant to reverse the trend of criminalization.
CRIM A355 Police Behavior 3 crs.
This course concerns history of the police; changing roles and public expectation of police officers; stress and the police; family life; and social behavior, police crime and deviance ; multi-cultural competency; and evidence based practices.
CRIM A365 Program Planning and Evaluation in Criminal Justice 3 crs.
The course examines evaluation research, also called program or policy evaluation, which evaluates the impact of a social intervention such as a crime prevention and/or control program. Key elements of this type of applied research including methodologies, data collection, and policy implications are reviewed using case studies. Criminal justice evaluations are assessed including the techniques used to measure the effects of the program or policy against the goals it set out to accomplish, which allow policy makers to engage in subsequent decision-making and make improvements or adjustments.
CRIM A375 Organized Crime 3 crs.
This course covers the nature of organized crime; its history in America; the new forms it takes; theories explaining emergence, development, and persistence; and the unique problems law enforcement encounter in controlling organized crime. Definitions that capture the nature of organized crime as a unique type of criminal activity are discussed as well as new variations of organized crime such as the Russian Mafia and Trans-National Organized Crime.
CRIM A378 Cybercrime, Technology, and Social Change 3 crs.
This course covers crime, victimization, and criminality associated with the emerging technologies that mediate our social relationships, and the massive legal and societal changes as a result of the increased adoption of technologies by society.
CRIM A380 Ethics and Politics of Criminal Justice 3 crs.
This course provides an overview of ethics and ethical dilemmas that criminal justice practitioners face in the course of their profession. Students are presented with the underlying rationales to understand these situations when they are encountered and the knowledge needed to properly resolve the issue. Ethical challenges are reviewed from both a historical and contemporary perspective, examining how the challenges were originally handled and if the same outcomes would occur today.
CRIM A382 Gangs and Criminal Networks 3 crs.
This course explores the extent of gang proliferation in the U.S. and abroad. Emphasis is on the dynamics of gang membership and the interactive social network relationship between gangs and the rest of society. Many variations of gangs and gang-like groups are discussed as well as individual, community, and criminological approaches for addressing gangs.
CRIM A385 Seminar in Advanced Criminology 3 crs.
Selected topics in the field of criminology are examined in depth through assigned readings and classroom discussion. Subjects covered in past seminars include: (1) new developments in technology and law enforcement; (2) new directions in criminological theory; (3) fear and risk internationally; (4) experimental criminology; (5) disasters and crime facilitation; (6) immigration and crime; (7) crime mapping; (8) crime profiling; and (9) restorative justice.
CRIM A401 Seminar in International Risk Analysis 3 crs.
This course provides students with a hands-on experience in conducting the kind of international risk analysis that is increasingly demanded by both firms in the private sector and traditional risk analysis conducted by federal level and, increasingly, local level law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The course is interactive and involves intense student sharing and participation – including student led discussions.
This course examines criminal law, that class of societal norms defined by the political state as public wrongs and subject to adjudication in criminal courts, under state authority, as felonies or misdemeanors. Subject matter includes sources of criminal law; theories of punishment; corpus delicti and basic elements of crime; specific offenses; principles of liability to punishment; and specific defenses to criminal behavior.
CRIM A410 Women and Crime 3 crs.
The study and practice of crime and criminal justice has historically neglected how women’s experiences as perpetrators and victims differ from males, and how these differences may affect policy and practice. Also neglected women’s experiences as professionals in the system and the acceptance of women as competent and effective, law enforcement officers, prosecutors, defenders, judges, and so on. The rate of female offending is growing more rapidly than certain rates of male offending, and women make up a large percentage of victims of crime, especially violent crime.
CRIM A420 Serial Murder: Myths vs. Realities 3 crs.
The course familiarizes students with the field of serial murder. Despite an almost mythical interest in the phenomenon, relatively few scientific studies have been undertaken on the prevalence, etiology, investigation, and understanding of the crime. Biological, psychological, and sociological explanations of serial murder are examined as well as key investigative techniques including psychological and geographical profiling.
CRIM A425 Seminar on Major Works in Criminology 3 crs.
Students are engaged to think critically and analytically by reading, understanding, and evaluating the original works of criminological scholars and exemplars; students will learn to appreciate the social and political and theoretical contexts that ‘situate’ key ideas that have shaped societies’ understanding of what crime is, the causes of crime, response to crime, and punishment of crime. Class discussions examine the impact of scholarly works on the fields of courts, policing, and corrections.
CRIM A430 Legal Research and Writing 3 crs.
This course bridges the gap between essay style writing taught to undergraduates and the more technical writing of lawyers and other criminal justice professionals. Students are introduced to the fundamentals of legal research and writing to develop the skills necessary to prepare a legal memorandum and other technical tasks in the criminal justice professions. Prerequisite: COMP C119 or equivalent.
The capstone course, taken in the senior year, is designed to offer students the opportunity to complete an original research project in collaboration with or under the supervision of a faculty member, or to complete a substantial writing project designed to prepare the student to enter his/her field of choice. In addition, students perfect their resumes, participate in mock interviewing, and apply for jobs, as part of the requirement. The course is both writing and presentation intensive and is designed to prepare students to enter the job market and/or graduate school.
The Criminology internship is an academic course offered to qualified students who want an experiential learning opportunity. The Internship allows selected students to engage full-time in an approved work environment where they can apply their knowledge of criminology/criminal justice to the actual daily activities of a professional criminal justice agency.
CRIM T121 First-Year Seminar 3 crs.
Foundation Courses: First Year Seminar
All first-year students take a 3-credit First-Year Seminar during their first semester as one of the core course in the Loyola Core. First-Year Seminars at Loyola are small, discussion-based seminars that introduce new college students to academic inquiry at the university level by investigating a relevant topic. Specially-trained faculty lead these seminars in a way that instills in students the academic skills necessary to become successful Loyola students. A list of upcoming First-Year Seminars can be found on the First-Year Experience homepage.
CRIM X320 Violence and Human Rights 3 crs.
Knowledge-Values Courses: Social Science
This course provides a broad, interdisciplinary understanding of the complexities, controversies, and issues surrounding two major social problems facing humanity: violence and human rights violations. Resting on the premise that the concepts of violence and human rights are not unrelated, this course not only examines the relationship between violence and human rights, but also engenders the idea that greater commitment to human rights is the most effective antidote to violence.