Criminal Justice Degree Requirements

You can view the required Criminal Justice courses at Kutztown University below.

• CRJ 10: Introduction to Criminal Justice

  This is a course designed to provide the student with a broad, but basic, understanding of the criminal justice system. As the first course to be taken in the field of criminal justice, it will introduce the student to the roles of the police, prosecutor, criminal court, and treatment and correctional facilities within the system. With the completion of this course, the student will be familiar with the essentials of the criminal justice system.

• CRJ 121: Introduction to Law

  This course will introduce the student to various types of law that comprise the American legal system. The course is designed to provide the student with a basic understanding of western legal theory and constitutional legal history, criminal law, tort law, contract law, environmental law, family law, antitrust law and consumer law, administrative law, property law, and federal torts: civil liability law. After completion of the course the student will have a foundation on which to build upon when taking more advanced and focused legal theory and applied courses.

• CRJ 175: Criminal Justice Organizations and Systems

  This survey course will introduce students to organizational theory, examine local and state criminal justice agencies as organizations, explain the specific functions of each agency, and explore the reality of whether criminal justice operates as a system. The course will also introduce the student to the development and implementation of criminal justice policy at the local and state levels.

• CRJ 250: Criminology

  An intensive review of the major theories of criminal behavior and their applications in crime prevention and control. Examination of leading crime types and criminal behavior systems.

• CRJ 362: Research Methods in Criminal Justice

  An introduction to research methods employed to study the causes of crime and to evaluate attempts to ameliorate crime on both individual and systems levels.

• CRJ 380: Senior Seminar in Criminal Justice

  An interdisciplinary seminar devoted to the analysis of selected contemporary issues in criminal justice and to the integration of the student's previous studies and experiences.

• CRJ 101: Introduction to Police

  This course examines the concepts and practices of police agencies in the United States. Police service is discussed as being an essential element in society's over-all effort to establish order. Factors that contribute to the definition of order and the means to achieve it provide the model for analyzing organizational structures for delivering police service in a diverse society. This course is of particular interest to majors in human services.

• CRJ 170: Introduction to Security Management

  This course examines the nature and scope of private security in modern society from historical, philosophical, and legal perspectives. It also addresses the latest trends and concerns in the security industry today.  Basic principles of administration, organization, and operation of security and protection units are explored with an emphasis on the management aspect of the private security industry.

• CRJ 171: Loss Prevention / Asses Protection

  This course examines the theory and application of proactive measures to avoid or minimize industrial loss caused by criminal action as well as non-criminal events resulting from human error, natural disasters, and emergencies.

• CRJ 181: Criminal Law

  This course is an in-depth analysis of criminal law in the United States. It focuses on the nature and purposes of criminal law, the sources of classifications and limitations on criminal law, the elements of criminal liability, defenses to criminal liability, parties to crime and the specific crimes against persons, property and public order and morals. Attention will be given to the model penal code and the criminal law of Pennsylvania.

• CRJ 182: Criminal Procedure

  An extensive analysis of criminal procedure in the United States. The course will focus on decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court dealing with criminal procedure principles and doctrines. This course is designed as a follow-up course to Criminal Law.

• CRJ 190: Federal Law Enforcement

  This course examines the structure, authority, history, and jurisdiction of federal law enforcement, and its relationships with other state and local law enforcement agencies. The students will explore how federal law enforcement has evolved since this nation was formed and how its organizations have responded to the changing needs of the nation.

• CRJ 200: Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

  This course is structured to cover the four major criminal justice systems in the world. It offers a topical approach, comparing cross-national criminal justice systems based on substantive and procedural laws, police, corrections, and juvenile justice. In addition, the course explores genocide and the international criminal tribunals that are organized under the auspices of the United Nations.

• CRJ 210: The Development of the Criminal Justice System

  A history of the American criminal justice system from the colonial period through the twenty-first century. This course provides an overview of the origin, development, operation and impact of police, courts, law, corrections and the juvenile justice system. Major analytical perspectives on American social control are described and analyzed.

• CRJ 215: Introduction to Crime Mapping and Analysis

  This course provides an introduction to the theoretical and practical aspects of spatial analysis of crime. The foundational topics that will be covered include theories of crime and place, data and analytical techniques, detecting crime trends and hotspots, linking and forecasting crimes. In addition, the crime mapping software such as ArcGIS will be demonstrated to students throughout the course.

• CRJ 221: Juvenile Justice

  An introduction to the agencies and processes involved in handling juveniles who are suspected or accused of violating the law; examination of the principles upon which the juvenile justice system is based; and analysis of the differences in procedure with the adult justice system.

• CRJ 232: Diversity in Criminal Justice

  Criminal practitioners deal with diverse populations on a daily basis. The concept of diversity can be applied to a range of population characteristics. The primary characteristics explored in this course will be race, ethnicity, and gender. This course explores issues stemming from this diversity as they affect victims, offenders and professionals in the criminal justice system.

• CRJ 270: Management of Offenders

  This course is a survey of history, current practices, and offender characteristics in adult corrections. It includes a critical review of treatment and control strategies.

• CRJ 271: Substance Abuse and Crime

  This course surveys the concept of addictive substances, the relationships between substance abuse and crime, treatment modalities for the addictions, and the role of the criminal justice system in managing substance abusing offenders.

• CRJ 272: Community Corrections

  This course examines the structure and functions of community correctional agencies including those involved with pretrial release, probation, intermediate sanctions, and parole.  Each of the areas explores current practices and their empirical bases.

• CRJ 272: Career Criminals / Criminal Careers

  This course is designed to introduce students to major psychological perspectives on crime by examining and integrating the career criminal and criminal career paradigms that link the fields of psychology and criminology. Students will learn that integrating the career criminal and criminal career paradigms provides them with a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of criminal behavior than either paradigm is capable of alone.

• CRJ 274: Policy, Punishment, and Society

  This course provides an in-depth look into policy issues related to incarceration, with a particular emphasis on inmate experiences and how they might be shaped by societal perceptions of crime and punishment. Correctional practices will be used as a focal point of discussion for understanding the purposes and impact of incarceration on the U.S. population.

• CRJ 280: Ethics in Criminal Justice

  This course is structured to explore professional ethics in the various sectors of the criminal justice system in the United States. It covers ethical theories, the history of ethics, and contemporary ethical issues in law enforcement, courts, and corrections. The course examines various perspectives on justice, fairness, discretion, professional duties, and civic responsibilities from the Greek classical period to modernity and post-modernity.

• CRJ 281: Crime and Delinquency Prevention

  This course examines various strategies of crime and delinquency prevention in the United States. Theoretical frameworks underlying these strategies and their effectiveness will be evaluated based on research. The role of different social and criminal Justice agencies such as the media, school, neighborhood and police in crime and delinquency prevention will be addressed. Successful prevention initiatives employed in other countries will also be examined.

• CRJ 301: Investigation and Intelligence

  This course is a study of the role of information and information usage in the investigation of completed or predicted crime and the compilation of data useful in the anticipation of criminal or terroristic activities - either on American soil or abroad. The effects of varying scale of agency size and functions will be examined as key variables.

• CRJ 320: Evidence

  This course is designed to provide students with an in-depth understanding of the rules of evidence.  The focus will be on evidence from the time it is collected until it is introduced in court. The emphasis will be on the Federal Rules of Evidence, which are applied in federal court in all fifty states and are similar to each state's rules of evidence. The student will examine evidentiary topics that commonly occur in criminal proceedings, including, but not limited to: hearsay, privileges, and constitutional issues regarding the collection and exclusion of evidence.