CRJU 300 INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINAL JUSTICE

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1 CRJU 300 INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINAL JUSTICE Professor: Dr. Stacy L. Mallicoat Office Location: UH 520 Office Hours: Wednesdays from or by appointment Phone: General Information: This course is a study of history and philosophy of criminal justice including ethical considerations. Topics include the definition of crime, the nature and impact of crime, an overview of the criminal justice system, law enforcement, court system, prosecution and defense, trial process, and corrections. This course fulfills a core curriculum requirement for the criminal justice major and minor. CRJU 300 also fulfills the General Education requirement III.C.2 (Implications, Explorations, and Participatory Experience in the Social Sciences). Learning Goals According to UPS , the learning goals for this course include: 1. To understand broad, unifying themes in the social sciences from cross-disciplinary perspectives. 2. To solve complex problems that requires social scientific reasoning. 3. To relate the social sciences to significant social problems or to other related disciplines 4. When deemed appropriate, to apply disciplinary concepts from the social sciences in a variety of settings, such as community based learning sites and activities These goals are accomplished in a variety of ways throughout this course. The study of criminal justice involves a variety of subtopics, including law, the social world and its systems and the psychological interactions between individuals. An understanding of the issues surrounding the criminal justice system and its relationship to the broader social world allows for students to engage in multi-level discussions of reasoning across the disciplines. In addition, the assignments for this course allow students to develop their critical thinking, research and writing skills addressing social issues that impact daily life.

2 The Online Classroom Environment: This is an online course. Contrary to what many anticipate, this does not make it easier. This course is designed for self-motivated students who wish to proceed through the subject matter at their own pace. Keep in mind that independent study is not the best option for every student. The lack of scheduled class meetings means you are responsible for your own schedule. To succeed in this course, you must be independent, motivated and well organized, willing to learn in isolation, and your reading, studying, and analytical skills should be strong. Please give careful consideration to whether this is a format that will work for you. Marginal students just taking this class to avoid attending class or because they think it will be easy are strongly encouraged to drop now and enroll in a traditional version of this class. I am available to address any concerns via or office hours. It is my goal to address all questions within a 48-hour time period. If you prefer to meet in person, please see my scheduled office hours at the top of the page or contact me to meet by appointment. Technical Competencies Required of Students Students are expected to adhere to the CSUF policy on computer competency (UPS ) All entering students are expected to be knowledgeable in the use of a personal computer (PC or Macintosh) prior to being admitted to the university. Entering students should have 1) the ability to use a personal computer to locate, create, move, copy, delete, name, rename, and save files and folders on hard drives and on secondary storage devices; 2) the ability to use a word-processing program that runs on a PC or Macintosh computer to create, edit, format, store, retrieve, and print documents; 3) the ability to use an electronic mail system to receive, create, edit, print, save, and send an message with and without an attached file; and 4) the ability to use an Internet browser to search the World Wide Web. Additionally, students are expected to adhere to the following course requirements: Maintain and access three times weekly a student account ; Use Internet search and retrieval skills to complete assignments; Apply his/her educational technology skills to complete expected competencies; Conduct themselves appropriately and professionally when online. Please remember that an online course is subject to technical problems. DO NOT wait until the last minute to finish your assignments. Students must have reliable and regular access to a computer and the internet. You should not rely on the computer lab on campus to take an online course, nor should you rely on your employer s computer, since company computers often have firewalls and other safety features that present difficulties with the format of an online course. It is the student s responsibility to resolve his/her own technical problems. Students will not be allowed to make-up work or turn in late assignments because their computer didn t work. PLEASE NOTE: THIS CLASS UTILIZES BOTH TITANIUM AND THE MYCJLAB PROGRAM THAT ACCOMPANIES YOUR TEXT BOOK (CJ2013). YOU WILL BE UNABLE TO COMPLETE THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THIS COURSE WITHOUT ACCESS TO MY CJ LAB. Please note: Students who do not use their university account will miss important information.

3 Course Readings: The following books are assigned for this course and is available through the Titan Bookstore: Fagin, James A. (2013). CJ Boston, MA: Pearson Publishing Gardiner, Christine L. and Mallicoat, Stacy L. (eds.) (2012). California s Criminal Justice System. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press. Course Policies: Online Decorum ( Netiquitte ): The discussion forums on Titanium will be an arena where you will feel free to generate ideas, take risks and challenge yourself and others. There will be times throughout the semester where differences of opinion will be expressed. It is my goal to provide a safe and open environment for all and I request that we respect each other. Please make every effort to be considerate of others, even if you disagree with their viewpoint or presentation. Discrimination, slander, or criticism of anyone based on sex, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation or disability will not be tolerated. Academic Honesty: Students are expected to adhere to the California State University Policy on Academic Integrity [UPS ]. Please familiarize yourself with the provisions of this policy, which can be viewed at Note that ignorance regarding its provisions does not excuse a violation. If you have any questions about the Honor Code, please see me. All work submitted in this course must be your own and prepared exclusively for this course. Any cheating on exams or plagiarism of papers will constitute a score of zero on the assignment. Violations will also be reported to the Office of Student Affairs. Withdrawals Authorization to withdraw after the second week of classes shall be granted for only the most serious and compelling reasons, e.g., a documented physical, medical, emotional or other condition which has the effect of limiting the student s full participation in class. Poor academic performance, e.g., lack of effort or poor attendance/participation is not evidence of a serious reason for withdrawal. Accommodations: If you have specific physical, psychiatric, or learning disabilities and require accommodations, please let me know within the first week of class so that I may ensure that your learning needs are appropriately met. Students should meet with a representative from the CSUF Disabled Student Services office, located on the first floor of University Hall to facilitate any documentation or assistance with their educational needs. Course Requirements: This course is structured around your engagement in an informed academic conversation about the problems facing the system of American Criminal Justice today. The requirements for the course are all focused toward meeting this goal. Quizzes: (40% of Final Grade) = 200 points It is very easy for students to get behind in completing required readings and viewing course materials. As a method of evaluating student learning, quizzes will be administered online at the conclusion of most weeks via Titanium. Each quiz will be worth 3% of the final grade x 10 weeks = 30%. Quizes will only be assigned from the material from the CJ2013 text. You will need to

4 log into Titanium and complete the quiz between 12:01am on Friday and 11:59pm on Sunday at the end of the week to take the quiz. Please consult the course schedule for dates of the scheduled quizzes. You will have 20 minutes to complete the quiz once you begin it. Quizzes are comprised of 20 multiple-choice questions and are selected at random meaning that not everyone will receive the same questions. Questions are presented sequentially, meaning you must answer each question as presented and you will not be allowed to go back to a previous question. This is a closed book at closed notes quiz. You are to take the quiz by yourself, without help from anyone else (in the class or not in the class). Gaining an unfair advantage by using the textbook or internet, acquaintances, friends, co-workers or family members constitutes a violation of academic integrity and will be reported to the Dean of Student Affairs. Make up quizzes will not be given without proof of a documented emergency or prior approval of the professor. In such cases, you MUST contact me by prior to the date/time of the scheduled quiz to discuss accommodations. It is highly recommended that you do not use mobile devices to log in and complete the quizzes due to compatibility and platform stability issues. me immediately if you have any problems. Include a description of what happened, when it happened, and a phone number where I can reach you if necessary. Applied Paper: (20% of Final Grade) = 100 points You will be required to write a paper interpreting portrayals of criminal justice concepts in popular culture references. The goal of this assignment is to illustrate how the criminal justice system is portrayed to society through venues such as television, movies, music, art/photography and the written word. Additional information on the details of this paper will be provided at the end of this syllabus. Papers should be no less than 5 pages and no more than 7 pages in length, must be typed, double-spaced and should be written clearly, free of grammatical errors. Please consult the course schedule for due date. No late papers will be accepted. No exceptions. All written assignments must be submitted via the assignment tool on Titanium. If you would prefer, you may hand in your work in person to the Division office (UH- 511) prior to the due date during normal operating hours (M-F, 8-5). Simulations MyCJLab: (20% of Final Grade) = 100 points Students are required to complete the online simulations for the 10 chapters in the Fagin text through MyCJLab. Each of these simulations will be worth 2% of your final grade. Simulations are due on Wednesdays by midnight for those weeks where a chapter from the Fagan book is assigned. Please consult the course schedule at the end of the syllabi for specific dates (or the assignment schedule on MyCJLab). Online Discussions: (20% of Final Grade) = 100 points Students are required to engage in online discussions via the Titanium website. There are a total of 9 discussions. Please consult the course schedule at the end of the syllabi for specific dates There are three different types of assignments: Current Events in California Criminal Justice: You ll be provided an opportunity to link a current event to an issue in criminal justice. These posts require you to locate a news article online that you will use to apply real life events to topics of criminal justice from our course. Specific instructions can be found within each discussion board. When assigned, these posts are due on Wednesdays. In your posts, you should reference the readings from the California CJ Text in order to receive full credit. FrontLine Video: You will review a selected frontline video (available for streaming online see the discussion boards for specific titles and access). Following your viewing, you should post your thoughts about the video. What did you find interesting, concerning, frustrating, perplexing? What did you learn from the video that you didn t know before? How does this change your

5 understanding of the criminal justice system? What questions do you still have about the issues raised in the videos? When assigned, these posts are due on Sundays Applied Discussions: At the beginning and end of the course, you will be given discussion boards asking you to assess the issue of investment in the criminal justice system and how your decisions reflect your notion of justice. Additional details are provided in the course schedule Before submitting a posting to the discussion board, please follow the academic rules of writing no abbreviations, no slang, proper sentence structure, and proofread your work. Students must keep hard copies of any and all written work submitted (uploaded) in this course. Save all your work either on your hard drive or on a disk. I also recommend that you save screen shots when you turn something in via the MyCJLab site or Titanium, just in case there are any discrepancies. After you ve posted your submission, double-check that it was received and is posted on the discussion board. Please consult the course schedule for due dates. No late posts will be accepted Each entry needs to be substantive and consist of at least four sentences per question/response presented. No late posts will be accepted. If you would prefer to engage in these assignments in a more traditional manner, you may turn a hard copy of your contributions in to me via the Division office (UH-511) prior to the scheduled due date. All paper submissions must be time and date stamped (p.s. The Division office closes at 5pm.) Each discussion activity requires a minimum of two posts. Your first post should reflect your response to the issue posed. A minimum of one additional posts should reflect on the postings of your classmates. The purpose of assigning a minimum number of posts is to generate a discussion about the issues (much as we might do in the classroom, but here we are using discussion boards as our method of talking. Posts should contain a minimum of 4 sentences in order to receive full credit. Grading Criteria: Please note that a grade of C (2.0) or better is required to satisfy basic General Education categories. For students who began their university studies in Fall 2005 or later, please note that a grade of C (2.0) or better is required to satisfy Criminal Justice major/minor requirements. For students who began their program prior to Fall 2005, they may receive one D (1.0) in the required course curriculum and a C (2.0) average within the major/minor.

6 Course Schedule: This schedule outlines the structure of the course, materials that will be covered during each class period, the assignments required and grading criteria. I reserve the right to modify the course requirements and schedule. Any changes will be announced via the Titanium course announcements page. All discussion board postings and papers are due by midnight on the date listed below. All quizzes run from 12:01am on the date specified to 11:59pm on the date specified. Week: Activity: Due Date: 1 Discussion Activity: Introductions The purpose of this first discussion question is to have each student introduce themselves to the class, get familiar with the discussion board, and learn a little about their fellow students. Include in your post: (1) Name and major (2) Why you re taking this course online as opposed to a traditional course, (3) at least one thing you hope to learn about the criminal justice system in this course, (4) your favorite topic of criminal justice, (5) an important piece of information from the course syllabi that you think most students may have missed J 1 Applied Discussion Activity: How would you spend 10 million dollars? Assume that you have been elected to the state legislature (congratulations). The public is clamoring for you to "do something" about crime. Statistics indicate that the amount of crime in your state has been steady - no dramatic increases, but no dramatic decreases either. You will soon have to decide how to allocate state funds for criminal justice. You have the following seven options for spending $10 million. 1. Construct a new prison that will hold 188 inmates 2. Allocate funds to local police departments to purchase equipment and to hire 100 new officers across the state, whose primary task will be the enforcement of drug laws and immigration status 3. Fund early education (preschool) programs to low-income families who would not otherwise be able to afford them. Over time, children who participate in these programs are 40% less likely to be arrested for a violent crime by the time they are 18 and are 80% less likely to become chronic offenders in adulthood. 4. Hire additional judges, public defenders and prosecuting attorneys so cases can proceed more quickly through the court system. 5. Fund the placement and monitoring of security cameras on city streets. Cameras are associated with a 7% reduction in crime on the streets where they are placed 6. Allocate the funds to state crime labs so that DNA evidence may be processed more rapidly to aid in identifying offenders in unsolved cases. Currently, there are not sufficient resources to process all DNA evidence, which has resulted in a considerable backlog of cases. One study estimates that up to 550,000 unsolved crimes nationwide could be solved with additional resources were available. 7. Use the funds to create a Positive Futures sports program based on similar programs in England. The program, designed for at-risk youth aged 10 to 16 provides a variety of sporting opportunities while also promoting education, leadership, and mentoring. Research from England suggests that the program is effective in reducing crime State funds are limited, so you can only select one of these options. It would not be feasible to "mix and match" by combining options, as doing so would minimize the overall effectiveness and return on investment. Wednesday 8/28 Sunday 9/1

7 How would you rank order these options? Which one do you think is best and should receive the highest funding priority? Which do you think should receive the lowest funding priority? Why? What factors have shaped your answers? Realistically, most states don't have an extra $10 million to throw around. Look back at your top funding priority. Would you be willing to cut other items in the state budget (e.g. roads, education, social services, public health, state parks) to fund it? Why or why not? If so, what would you cut? Why? 2 Read Chapter 1 in CJ2013 9/2-9/8 2 Chapter 1 Simulation Wednesday 9/4 2 Chapter 1 quiz Quiz Begins: Friday 9/6 3 Read Chapter 2 in CJ2013 9/8 9/9-9/15 3 Chapter 2 Simulation Wednesday 9/11 3 Chapter 2 quiz Quiz Begins: Friday 9/13 4 Read Chapter 3 in CJ2013 9/15 9/16-9/22 4 Chapter 3 Simulation Wednesday 9/18 4 Chapter 3 quiz Quiz Begins: Friday 9/20 5 Read Chapters 1, 3 and 4 in the California Criminal Justice Book s 5 Complete Current Event Discussion Post: Select a recent crime from a local newspaper. Post the article at the beginning of your post. How might one of the theories that you ve studied help explain the criminal behavior of the person accused of the crime? Are there other explanations that our current theories of crime don t consider? How might we prevent this crime, according to the criminological theory that you ve chosen? What implications does this crime have for California s criminal justice system? 9/22 9/23-9/29 Wednesday 9/25 5 Complete Frontline Video Activity: Sunday 9/29

8 Discussion Activity: View the Frontline Video: The Interrupters. The video can be accessed at Following your viewing, you should post your thoughts about the video. What did you find interesting, concerning, frustrating, perplexing? What did you learn from the video that you didn t know before? How does this change your understanding of the criminal justice system? What questions do you still have about the issues raised in the video? 6 Read Chapter 4 in CJ2013 9/30-10/6 6 Chapter 4 Simulation Wednesday 10/2 6 Chapter 4 quiz Quiz Begins: Friday 10/4 7 Read Chapter 6 in CJ /6 7 Chapter 6 Simulation Wednesday 10/9 7 Chapter 6 quiz Quiz Begins: Friday 10/11 8 Read Chapter 7 in CJ /13 10/7-10/13 8 Chapter 7 Simulation Wednesday 10/16 8 Chapter 7 quiz Quiz Begins: Friday 10/18 9 Read Chapter 8 in CJ /20 10/14-10/20 9 Chapter 8 Simulation Wednesday 10/23 9 Chapter 8 quiz Quiz Begins: Friday 10/25 10 Read Chapters 5, 7 and 11 in the California Criminal Justice Book 10/27 10/28-10/3

9 s 10 Complete Current Event Discussion Post: Select a recent crime from a local newspaper. Post the article at the beginning of your post. Your article should focus on an issue related to policing, courts or sentencing in California. Examples might include a local issue in policing, legal challenges that impact criminal justice practices or a sentencing outcome in a particular case. 10 Complete Frontline Video Activity: Discussion Activity: View the Frontline Video: The Real CSI. The video can be accessed at Wednesday 10/30 Sunday 11/3 Following your viewing, you should post your thoughts about the video. What did you find interesting, concerning, frustrating, perplexing? What did you learn from the video that you didn t know before? How does this change your understanding of the criminal justice system? What questions do you still have about the issues raised in the video? 11 Read Chapter 9 in CJ /4-11/10 11 Chapter 9 Simulation Wednesday 11/6 11 Chapter 9 quiz Quiz Begins: Friday 11/8 12 Read Chapter 10 in CJ /10 11/11-11/17 12 Chapter 10 Simulation Wednesday 11/13 12 Chapter 10 quiz Quiz Begins: Friday 11/15 13 Read Chapter 11 in CJ /17 11/18-11/24 13 Chapter 11 Simulation Wednesday 11/20 13 Chapter 11 quiz Quiz Begins: Friday 11/22 14 Read Chapters 7, 10 and 11 in the California Criminal Justice Book s 11/24 12/2-12/9

10 14 Complete Current Event Discussion Post: Select a recent crime from a local newspaper. Post the article at the beginning of your post. Your article should focus on an issue related to policing, courts or sentencing in California. Examples might include a local issue in policing, legal challenges that impact criminal justice practices or a sentencing outcome in a particular case. 14 Complete Frontline Video Activity: Discussion Activity: View the Frontline Video: The Released. The video can be accessed at gn=viewpage&utm_medium=grid&utm_source=grid Following your viewing, you should post your thoughts about the video. What did you find interesting, concerning, frustrating, perplexing? What did you learn from the video that you didn t know before? How does this change your understanding of the criminal justice system? What questions do you still have about the issues raised in the video? 15 Applied Discussion Activity: Justice Reinvestment At the beginning of the semester, you were asked to consider how you would spend $10 million on criminal justice initiatives. We now return to the theme of justice expenditures by exploring the concept of justice reinvestment. Wednesday 12/4 Sunday 12/8 Wednesday 12/11 The premise of justice reinvestment is that the money spent on incarceration (sending offenders to prison or jail) could be better spent on other initiatives. Justice reinvestment advocates suggest that there is no logic to spending a million dollars a year to incarcerate people from one block in Brooklyn over half for non violent drug offenses, and return them, on average, in less than three years stigmatized, unskilled and untrained to the same unchanged block (Tucker & Cadora, 2003, p. 2). Instead, justice reinvestment suggests the following place-based approach: 1. Think of public safety as entailing more than just incarceration. Although prisons may be one component of a public safety model, it is also necessary to reinvest in neighborhoods and redevelop communities that lack fundamental services and crime prevention programs. 2. Make the provision on justice and public safety a local function. Empower local areas to make their own decisions about how offenders should be handled, and how to meet the needs for the community whether for public safety, crime prevention, social services, or other needs. 3. Allocate a sum of money to communities based on the projected costs (based on data from prior years) of incarcerating offenders from that community 4. Allow the local jurisdiction to spend the money in any way they see fit as long as the end result is a safer community. If some high-risk offenders need to be incarcerated, the community pays the state back the costs for doing so. The dollars that remain can be allocated to items such as job training, drug treatment programs, preschool programs.a locally run community loan pool to make micro-loans to create jobs or family development loans for education, debt consolidation, or home ownership and rehabilitation, transportation micro-enterprises for residents commuting outside the neighborhood, a one-stop shop for job

11 counseling and placement services (Tucker & Cadora, 2003, p5), or other suitable initiatives. 5. Make the offenders partners in community redevelopment. Community service sentences, or conditions of parole or other post-release supervision, could require offenders to spend time implementing programs and redeveloping the neighborhood while working alongside other community residents. This is consistent with principles of restorative justice. Assess the advantages and disadvantages of justice reinvestment programs. Do you think anything could be done to improve the results regarding recidivism? Would you recommend this type of program? If not, why? If so, under what circumstances? Finals Week NOTE this post is worth 20 points! Applied Paper Due Monday 12/16 Applied Paper Assignment: Popular Culture and the Criminal Justice System Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to observe how concepts of criminal justice are illustrated in references of popular culture. The intent of this paper is to analyze the portrayal of issues of criminal justice, discuss the accuracy of these portrayals and assess the implications of the reference on the social understanding of the correctional systems. I. Directions: Choose one item of creative popular culture that utilizes themes from criminal justice. You may pick from the following references: Theatrical Movie Television Show Theater/Artistic Production Song Lyrics Photography/Artistic Image Written Word (Short Story/Poetry) Note: Documentaries and Crime News shows are not to be used for this assignment. II. Outline of the Assignment: 1) Provide a general description of the popular culture reference. An example of this might be a summary of the film or television episode storyline and its characters. 2) Identify and define three (3) concepts in criminal justice that are portrayed and discuss how the concepts are illustrated in the reference. For example, in the film Shawshank Redemption the character Red (played by Morgan Freeman) is the hustler role in prison, as he is the person that one might go to, to get items from the outside to the prisoners, such as cigarettes or posters of women, as he did for Andy Dufraine (Tim Robbins character) by the way, the movie Shawshank Redemption is excluded from being used for this assignment, since I am using it as an example. 3) Analyze the application of each criminal justice concept to the popular culture reference, addressing the following questions:

12 a) How accurate and complete is the portrayal of correctional concepts? b) What are the benefits that this portrayal has for the social understanding of criminal justice? How does the portrayal of this concept enhance the public s understanding of this issue in criminal justice c) Are there any negative implications that occur as a result of this portrayal? How does the portrayal of this concept serve to create inaccuracies or misconceptions about the realities of the criminal justice system? 4) In conclusion, what effect does the reference of popular culture (film, tv episode, song lyric, etc.) have on the public understanding of criminal justice? III. General Guidelines: Your paper should be in essay form and should be 5-7 pages in length. This means your writing needs to be clear, concise and to the point, while answering the questions completely there s no room for fluff here. Your paper must be typed, double-spaced and free of grammatical errors. If there are more than three grammatical errors on the first page of your paper, you will receive a zero for the assignment. Make sure you proofread your paper several times. If you need help with your writing, please seek out resources such as the Writing Center on campus for assistance. Your grade will be based on the following: o Ability to follow directions o Thoroughness and detail of explanations o Quality of analysis and application o Spelling, grammar, and overall proofreading