Criminal Justice Leadership (GC)

This course provides an overview of descriptive and inferential statistical methods as applied in criminal justice research. Students will learn about common sources of criminal justice system data and will learn about a variety of techniques used to understand outcomes and relationships within criminal justice system processes. Students will learn how to apply statistical techniques and use their understanding of these techniques to make meaning and draw conclusions about the extent & nature of offending, disparities in criminal justice system processes and the effectiveness of criminal justice system intervention. Students will use computer software to organize and analyze data.

Prerequisites:

none

This course provides students with an overview of quantitative methods in investigating crime patterns and crime prevention. Measurement, conceptualization and operationalization will be reviewed, and students will apply their understanding of theory to analyze valid measures of concepts. Students will apply sources of official criminal statistics and alternative data sources for the purposes of description, evaluation, and explanation, and will articulate their limitations. While quasi-experimental research designs will be emphasized, students will learn about several common research designs. Validity, and the limitations of research designs and methods with respect to inferences about causality and generalizability are central to the course.

Prerequisites:

none

Students will learn about the theories of organizational behavior and administration as applied to the management of criminal justice organizations. The course will focus on current management trends and issues and how these challenges are addressed by those in organizational leadership positions. This will involve case studies of successes and failures in real world situations. Students will be required to critically examine these cases and analyze why failures occurred and why success was achieved in other situations.

Prerequisites:

none

Crime and the fear of crime rank as one of the most important issues in society today. As a result, public policymakers and administrators in the criminal justice system are responding to the issue of crime by fundamentally reviewing all facets of conventional criminal justice infrastructure such as approaches to policing, adjudication, sentencing, imprisonment, and community corrections.

Prerequisites:

none

Planning provides leaders and managers with a process for making organizational decisions and directing an organization's actions. Budgeting presents information on funding and accountability. Planning and budgeting are integral responsibilities for any criminal justice manager.

Prerequisites:

none

Students will examine current issues and problems facing criminal justice organizations related to the development, implementation, and evaluation of public policy. This includes a study of the development of policies regulating police, courts, and corrections. The course will provide an analysis of contemporary issues confronting criminal justice personnel to include, issues surrounding the use of discretion in the field, the use of force, and changes in the delivery of services.

Prerequisites:

none

Students will examine leadership skills in criminal justice organizations. Topics that will be explored include organizational communication, conflict resolution, decision-making, problem solving, and their relationship to organizational culture and effective leadership practices. Students will examine the role of leadership in building relationships with employees and the challenge of power dynamics in those relationships. Practical problem solving and decision-making skills will be practiced.

Prerequisites:

none

This course will focus on communication and leadership during crisis situations in a criminal justice agency. The crisis situations will include internal, as well as external crises, and will address internal and external communications and leadership. This course will focus on interagency cooperation, planning, communication, public policy, and leadership.

Prerequisites:

none

Emergency management has been spotlighted in the public after several natural and man-made disasters, however, the principles and responsibilities of emergency management may not be clear. This course will help define the role of criminal justice professionals and leadership in delivering more immediate and detailed coordinated emergency services, while navigating public opinion and politics.

Prerequisites:

none

An advanced, in-depth study of a particular topical area or controversial issue designed to examine the history, development, current practices, critical issues, and/or the future of the subject matter for our criminal justice system. Both practical and theoretical approaches to the current research of the topical area or contentious issue may be investigated. Topics will vary.

Prerequisites:

none