Corrections (BS)

Examines the making of criminal law, the evolution of policing, the adjudication of persons accused of criminal law violations, and the punishment of adult offenders.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-09

Diverse Cultures: Purple

Addresses the justifications and the historical development of punishment, the legal and policy issues concerning capital punishment, and the use of incarceration as a response to crime.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-08

A critical consideration of definitions of juvenile delinquency, emphasis on micro and macro level of struggle in which delinquent behavior takes place, critique of current theories on delinquency, and the juvenile justice response to delinquency from a criminal justice lens.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-09

Diverse Cultures: Purple

Become informed enough to play your part in governing the United States. Start by learning about the Constitution, our rights and freedoms, how the national government works and the opportunities and challenges of citizen influence. Political Science methods, and the challenges of citizenship are emphasized.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-09

Overview of the structure and processes of social life; impact of social forces on individuals and groups; interdependence of society and the individual; social significance of social class, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality; emphasis on critical analysis of social inequalities and injustice.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-08

Diverse Cultures: Purple

This course provides education in self-awareness and skills that are essential for living and working in a democratic and socially just society. The course addresses issues of oppression and social justice related to race/ethnicity, gender, age, class, religion, disability, physical appearance, sexual orientation, and nationality. The course addresses groups that have historically been excluded from western power and decision-making. Participants will examine mainstream and alternative viewpoints for values, validity, and outcomes using investigative and critical thinking skills.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-07

Diverse Cultures: Gold

Students will participate in field trips, activities, and guest discussions that will enable them to interact with people ethnically (race, religion, lifestyle, etc.) different from the students, to understand their perspectives and to appreciate their unique experiences and/or contributions to the U.S. pluralistic society. Students are expected to learn actively in and outside the classroom by experiencing events or people from diverse cultural groups.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-07

Diverse Cultures: Gold

An introduction to the study of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities and identities, including challenges to homophobia and heterosexism. We will explore social and historical constructions of LGBT identities as they vary across ethnic, class, and gender lines.Fall, Spring

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-07

Diverse Cultures: Gold

An introduction to the study of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities and identities, including challenges to homophobia and heterosexism. We will explore social and historical constructions of LGBT identities as they vary across ethnic, class, and gender lines.Fall, Spring

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-07

Diverse Cultures: Gold

This course provides an historical and interdisciplinary approach to the study of the Islamic world. The course examines Islam and Islamic cultures within a global context, from its beginnings through the contemporary period.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-07, GE-08

Diverse Cultures: Gold

This class traces the evolving history of race from its creation in early modern Europe to political uses of this history in the twenty-first century United States. Students will learn about whiteness and blackness as social constructions that implicated the trans-Atlantic slave trade, patterns of imperialism, systems of oppression, and notions of beauty in western society. Students will also be involved in historical commemoration and/or racial justice projects involving communities of color in Minnesota to reflect on how the historical context informs these activities and how history continues to be used politically.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-09, GE-11

Diverse Cultures: Gold

Promotes an understanding of the impact of physical and mental disabilities on people in their daily livesthrough in-class contacts and exercises with and about persons with disabilities.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-07

Diverse Cultures: Gold

This anthropology course explores the areas of anatomical forensic science. Students will learn the techniques and methodology involved in collection, preservation, and analysis of evidence pertaining to human remains. The course will include such subjects as analysis of skeletal trauma, victim identification, bite-mark analysis, and crime scene recovery methods. Ethnics and standards in medico-legal investigations will also be stressed.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-03

The purpose of this course is to help students develop critical thinking, problem solving and decision making skills necessary to manage the challenges they face now (choice of major) and in the future (career choice and balancing work and life roles). Meets General Education requirements for critical thinking.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-11

This course provides the knowledge and skills necessary to respond and perform in an emergency to help sustain life, reduce pain, and minimize the consequences of injury or sudden illness. This course includes an advanced level of First Aid certification, including bloodborne pathogens, and all aspects of cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillation (CPR/AED) for the Emergency Medical Responder.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-11

Traditional syllogistic logic and an introduction to the elements of modern symbolic logic.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-02, GE-04

To what extent do the differences among races and between genders represent biological differences, and to what extent are they constructed by society? Is racism best conceptualized as an additional burden to sexism or as one different in kind?

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06, GE-07

Discussion of theories of value and obligation.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06, GE-09

Discussion of the ways that a culture both creates human community and shapes self-identity. Exploration of similarities and differences between and interdependence among cultural traditions, and of vocabularies for assessing traditions.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06, GE-08

Introduction to community leadership-elected, professional, or voluntary-and the skills and values which support it.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-09, GE-11

Introduction to community leadership-elected, professional, or voluntary-and the skills and values which support it.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-09, GE-11

Language provides not only communication but identification of oneself and one's group. Humans are extremely sensitive to language, dialect, jargon, and slang. An understanding of language and its relationship to culture is basic to any understanding of human beings.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-08

Diverse Cultures: Purple

Beginning ASL - Level I aims to develop a basic understanding and use of American Sign Language through learning parameters of sign, fingerspelling, basic grammar and a basic understanding of Deaf culture.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-11

The course explores communication with people from other cultures, why misunderstandings occur and how to build clearer and more productive cross-cultural relationships.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-07, GE-08

Diverse Cultures: Purple

A study of American racial/ethnic minorities, especially the histories of Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans. Their roles and contributions to American society will be emphasized.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-07

Diverse Cultures: Purple

This course introduces students to multicultural and ethnic knowledge and values in and outside the United States. Students are exposed to such issues as race, culture, ethnicity, dominance, immigration, stereotypes, discrimination, and intergroup relations through interdisciplinary approaches-anthropological, economic, historical, political, psychological and/or sociological.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-07

Diverse Cultures: Purple

Cultural aspects of interactions between people and their environment focusing on spatial patterns of population, agriculture, politics, language, religion, industrialization, and urbanization. Emphasis is placed on the processes that create the cultural landscape and on management of land and natural resources.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-08

Diverse Cultures: Purple

This course familiarizes students with the field of Gender and Women's Studies. It focuses on major questions and approaches to understanding gender alongside race, class, and sexuality, among other identity categories.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-07

Diverse Cultures: Purple

This course familiarizes students with the field of Gender and Women's Studies. It focuses on major questions and approaches to understanding gender alongside race, class, and sexuality, among other identity categories.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-07

Diverse Cultures: Purple

Cultural and artistic traditions of groups that have experienced discrimination or exclusion in U.S. society and how these groups express themselves through the visual, literary and performing arts and other forms. May be repeated when topic changes.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06, GE-07

Diverse Cultures: Purple

This class will cover the psychological experiences of diverse individuals in American educational, work, health care, consumer, and legal environments. Diversity in this course will be broadly defined to include race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age, obesity, pregnancy, disability status, and others as deemed appropriate. Topics of prejudice, discrimination and stigma will be discussed. We will also discuss potential solutions to diversity-related problems in these environments.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-07

Relationships, marriage, and families are studied from a sociological perspective. Focuses on the connections between society, culture, social institutions, families, and individuals. Particular attention is given to the ways that race, ethnicity, social class, gender, and sexuality shape family patterns and dynamics.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-07

Diverse Cultures: Purple

Class introduces students to history of the discipline and surveys both historical and contemporary topics of importance to American Indian Studies including gender roles, education, sovereignty treaties, and oral traditions.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-07

Oral traditions are at the base of all American Indian cultures. This class will provide students with the necessary tools for a better understanding of traditional knowledge and its importance within diverse traditional cultures.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-07

Diverse Cultures: Purple

Course introduces students to the legal side of being American Indian. Politics and policies will be examined to show how a contemporary native experience is shaped through American courts, Presidential chambers, and Native activist movements.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-07

Diverse Cultures: Purple

This course will explore the historical, social, political, and cultural experience of African Americans. It will also examine the contributions of African Americans to the growth and development of the United States.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-07

Diverse Cultures: Purple

Introduction to the history and cultures of the major Asian American ethnic groups with a comparative approach to their similarities and differences.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-07

Diverse Cultures: Purple

A survey of the history and present status of Hispanics/Latinos in the United States from 1848. Emphasis will be on culture, history, and socio-political patterns.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-07

Diverse Cultures: Purple

Students will examine the gendered and systematic nature of violence. Special attention will be given to the ways in which violence against women is perpetuated through interpersonal relationships and through institutions such as schools, the judicial system, welfare policies. The effects of internalized oppressions, such as internalized sexism, racism, and homophobia will be discussed. Emphasis on feminist analysis and building skills for educating ourselves and others about constructing non-violent cultures.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-09

Diverse Cultures: Purple

Students will examine the gendered and systematic nature of violence. Special attention will be given to the ways in which violence against women is perpetuated through interpersonal relationships and through institutions such as schools, the judicial system, welfare policies. The effects of internalized oppressions, such as internalized sexism, racism, and homophobia will be discussed. Emphasis on feminist analysis and building skills for educating ourselves and others about constructing non-violent cultures.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-09

Diverse Cultures: Purple

We explore the influence of gender on legal rights in the United States historically and today, focusing on constitutional rights, employment, education, reproduction, the family, gender-based violence, and related issues. We will study constitutional and statutory law as well as public policy. Race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and additional intersecting identities will be examined.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-09

Diverse Cultures: Purple

This course will explore the scientific, pharmacological, neurochemical and cultural aspects of psychoactive substances. The material is presented intuitively, with no mathematics. Course topics will include discussions of the major classes of pharmaceutical and psychoactive substances, basic neurochemistry, the role of psychoactive substances in medicine, the ritual use of psychoactive substances by traditional cultures, the FDA approval process, the significance and implications of drug testing, the controversy of drug-induced behavioral modification, national and global perspectives of substance abuse and the ethics of legalization. V

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-03

Explores social media and their impacts on society through consideration of technologies, social networks, markets, communities, politics and social movements, and major companies. Special focus on individuals' roles as users, producers, consumers, and laborers toward becoming responsible online citizens.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06, GE-09

This course will focus on the struggle for civil rights by diverse groups in the United States. Emphasis will be on how these struggles have impacted their communities and cultural pluralism in the U.S.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05

Diverse Cultures: Purple

Explores how popular culture shapes and mirrors our understandings of gender and sexuality and their intersections with race and class. Critically examines representations of gender and race in popular culture forms such as film, television, music, books, and the internet.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-02, GE-06

Diverse Cultures: Purple

Through a series of historical simulations, students develop communication and oral reasoning skills by researching, writing, and participating in debates about key global political events that changed the course of history. Students will study primary and secondary sources related to the historical events. Students will draft, rewrite, and defend oral arguments based on their research, and they will conduct debates with other students in class.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-09, GE-1B

Students will develop communication, reasoning, and collaborative skills through history-based exercises interrogating diverse and changing understandings of democracy in what is now the United States. Students will analyze historical sources highlighting American traditions of disagreement as well as creative compromise over the character and features of self-government, the narratives by which to understand the past, and the legacies and lessons of the past for the present. The course puts current divisions among Americans into historical context to help students widen their perspectives, work productively across differences, and learn to substantiate their opinions on public issues with historical and contemporary evidence.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-09, GE-1B

This course provides information on a variety of topics related to chemical use, abuse and dependency. Students will be exposed to chemical dependency counseling, assessment and intervention techniques. Different drug classifications will be discussed in detail. Counselor core functions and ethics will be discussed also.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05

Consideration of the basic philosophical approaches to the idea of justice and how this idea relates to other fundamental ideas in political philosophy, ethics, and law.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06, GE-09

Study of the nature of politics and government and their influence on society and human behavior.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05

Rejoin the political debates of 1787 to understand the US Constitution. Compare the founding document with amendments, later usage and Supreme Court interpretations. Examine controversies over the meaning of the Constitution using the methods of political philosophers, historians, and legal scholars.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05

This course is designed to provide a thorough introduction to the broad spectrum of theories and applications that make up the field of psychology

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05

Introduces students to major issues in society that impact their lives, behaviors, and the way they think. Course requires student to critically address controversial and non-controversial issues through clear argumentations, intensive writings, research and presentations.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-02

A critical description and analysis of selected social problems, as well as the social problems process through which problems are socially constructed and defined. A social constructionist approach examines how people and social systems define and react to social problems. Emphasis on the sociological perspective, critical thinking, roots of social inequality, and exploration of solutions and alternatives to existing social problems.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-07

Diverse Cultures: Purple

he objective of this course is to explore social welfare as a social institution. Consideration will be given to formal and informal efforts to meet common social needs of diverse populations. This course emphasizes social challenges and impact of oppression facing American society and the program and policy prescriptions designed to minimize or eliminate these problems.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-09

Diverse Cultures: Purple

The objective of this course is to explore social welfare as a social institution. Consideration will be given to formal and informal efforts to meet common social needs of diverse populations. This course emphasizes social challenges and impact of oppression facing American society and the program and policy prescriptions designed to minimize or eliminate these problems.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-09

Diverse Cultures: Purple

This course will identify and analyze global social, economic, political and environmental problems impacting community viability and explore the full range of solutions to these problems. The course will view communities as complex, sustainable organisms and bring together the works of the great minds working on sustainability.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-05, GE-10

This course requires students to complete 50 hours of volunteering at a community agency to gain experience and learn how the agency and its staff perform their objectives. The course also requires students to practice their writing skills in assignments designed for reflection on personal strengths and interests, career pursuits, and résumé writing. Class discussions emphasize professional development, ethics, and various issues relevant to criminal justice and corrections. Corrections majors should take this course as early as possible.

Prerequisites: none

Research methodologies as they apply to correctional evidence-based practices are covered, as are strengths and limitations of various research practices, especially with respect to central correctional concepts such as risk, recidivism, and program evaluation. Students will gain experience with data sources, data collection, and basic interpretation of data analysis.

Prerequisites: none

Assist the students in starting a healthy conversation on cultural competencies for correctional professionals, and develop resources, skills, and strategies needed to address racism and inequity. The idea is to take a journey in building a more inclusive, connected, and effective correctional organization. Students will discover a framework to help discuss issues related to cultural competency: learn about methods, practices, and values that define cultural competency and culturally based work in various fields and organizations; understand the complexities within ethnic communities; and gain insights into the nature of institutionalized racism.

Prerequisites: none

Diverse Cultures: Purple

Advanced Crime Theory & Prevention provides an overview of the nature and causes of crime and victimization. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the course surveys theories of criminal behavior at the macro- & micro-level. Students will learn how to evaluate criminological theories. The course also covers the link between theory and crime prevention efforts, focusing primarily on how crime prevention efforts employed by legislatures, police, courts, and corrections agencies in the United States are derived from theory.

Prerequisites: none

Addresses theoretical roots, historical developments, and current practices of probation, parole, and other community corrections programs. Special attention is given to innovative, future approaches to community corrections. Writing intensive

Prerequisites: none

Principles and methods of individual and group counseling with juvenile and adult offenders; development of interpersonal helping skills, negotiation, and mediation skills.

Prerequisites: none

Examines the rights of inmates, probationers, and parolees.

Prerequisites: none

Field Practicum & Capstone Experience is a hybrid experiential learning course where students complete a 400-hour internship experience within an agency that manages justice-involved persons while participating in other professional development & experiential learning opportunities that vary from semester to semester. In addition to their internship experiences, students can expect guest speakers, facility tours, training, and/or other educational experiences to be offered in-person, or via teleconference. Required for the Corrections major. Formal application required. Contact Director of Criminal Justice Field Studies to apply.

Prerequisites: none

A sociological perspective to examine the history of drug use and abuse in the United States. Multicultural issues in drug abuse, international drug distribution networks, prevention efforts, and legal issues will be discussed.

Prerequisites: none

Overview of the characteristics of victims, victim-offender relationships, societal victimization, victim's rights and services, and restorative justice. The focus will be on developing effective criminal justice responses to the victims/survivors and the perpetrators.

Prerequisites: none

This course focuses on the experiences of women in the criminal justice system--as victims, offenders, and professionals. Women's involvement in this system (whether they were a defendant, an attorney, an inmate, a correctional officer or a crime victim) has often been overlooked or devalued. The goal of this course is to bring the special needs and contributions of women in the criminal justice system into sharper focus.

Prerequisites: none

Students will engage in community experiences, public service interactions, experiences with a variety of diverse groups, and/or interactive panels that will provide for opportunities to reflect, observe, conceptualize, and grow as a future criminal justice professional.

Prerequisites: none

An examination of issues facing criminal justice today in constantly changing legal, social and cultural environments. Topics will vary and may be repeated for credit.

Prerequisites: none

This course focuses on mass incarceration (including the policies that produced and maintains it) in addition to the concept of recidivism (how it is defined/measured, and how it represents, for better or worse, the antithesis of the intended goals of community reentry after release from prison). In that framework, the course explores various obstacles and facilitators of successful community reentry. Students are expected to gain an understanding of crime policy, its limitations, as well as concrete ways to facilitate community reentry despite factors that impede it.

Prerequisites: none

This class will be taught in modules where students will gain learn how to determine if practices in Corrections are evidence based, the types of programming in Corrections that are supported by research, and skills and knowledge necessary to implement these practices.

Prerequisites: none

This course explores topics in criminal justice beyond what is covered in the existing curriculum. Students study specialized topics of current importance in the field. Specific topics will change depending on the term and instructor. May be retaken with a change of topic.

Prerequisites: none

Students will learn about the legal, cultural, and political factors that contribute to sexual assault and gendered violence. This course will combine hands-on training in activism from course instructors and community members in the field of sexual assault advocacy, as well as a background in theories of gender and sexual assault. Sexual assault advocates provide confidential services to victims of sexual violence, including hospital and legal advocacy, crisis counseling, and emotional support. Students who satisfactorily complete 40 hours of training will be certified as sexual assault advocates at the end of the semester.

Prerequisites: none

Diverse Cultures: Purple

This course explores sociological understandings of deviance including: an overview of major sociological theories of deviance; examinations of specific examples of high consensus criminal deviance (i.e., murder, rape, street crime, white collar crime), lifestyle deviance (i.e., alcohol and drug abuse, sex work), and status deviance (i.e. mental illness, obesity and eating disorders, LGBTQ identities). This course will emphasize how social constructions of deviance reinforce inequalities in society.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-09

This course explores various forms of family violence including dating violence, spouse abuse, and child abuse. There is particular emphases on power dynamics in families and in the broader culture and evaluations of current policies related to family violence.

Prerequisites: none

Applies sociological theories of identity to the experiences of women being released from prison. Taught at the women's prison in Shakopee, Minnesota and integrates Minnesota State University, Mankato, students with students drawn from the educational program within the women's prison in Shakopee.

Prerequisites: none

Diverse Cultures: Gold