Criminal Justice

Criminal Behavior – 15%

1. Defining crime (i.e., what is crime, accepted definitions of crime)
2. Types of crime
3. Juvenile delinquency (i.e., emergence, trends, causation)
4. Measurement of crime and delinquency (i.e., UCR, NVCS, evaluation, survey data, research data, methods of data collection)
5. Crime in the United states (i.e., rate, trends)
6. Theories of crime

Criminal Justice System – 25%

1. Historical origins and legal foundations (i.e., statutory, common law, case law, procedural and substantive law etc.)
2. Crime control model versus due process model
3. Criminal justice agencies (i.e., law enforcement, courts and corrections)

Law Enforcement – 20%

1. History of policing
2. Types of law enforcement agencies
3. Law enforcement roles and responsibilities
4. Issues and trends in policing
5. The nature of law enforcement (i.e., PTSD, use of discretion, subculture and demographics (e.g., race, gender, age, etc.)

Court System – 20%

1. History of the court system
2. Organization, structure and levels of the court system
3. Adult and Juvenile court systems
4. Pretrial, trial and post-trial processes (e.g., bail, plea bargaining, prosecutorial discretion, judicial discretion, diversion, waiver, jury, and verdict)
5. Sentencing options and trends

Corrections – 20%

1. History of corrections
2. Philosophies of punishment (e.g., rehabilitation, restoration, deterrence, incapacitation, retribution)
3. Intermediate sanctions (i.e., probation, parole)
4. Adult prison facilities (i.e., administration and overcrowding)
5. Juvenile correctional facilities (i.e., types, functions, and controversies)
6. Capital punishment (i.e., controversies)
7. Inmate characteristics (i.e., subculture, gangs and demographics)
8. Issues and trends (i.e., inmate rights, security, healthcare, privatization and wrongful conviction)