CRJU110 - Introduction To Criminal Justice
Honors Course
CRJU110-080-02F
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There is one, and only one, thing in modern society more
hideous than crime - namely, repressive justice.
Simone Weil (1909-43), French philosopher,
mystic. "Human Personality" (published in La Table Ronde, Dec.
1950; repr. in Selected Essays, ed. by Richard Rees, 1962).
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Dr.
David B. Gulick
Office Hours: 311 Smith Hall
T&Th: 9:45 - 10:45 By Appointment
831-6114
dgulick@udel.edu
Catalogue Description:
A
general introduction to the study of the American system of criminal justice.
The crime problem, the police, the judicial system, and correctional agencies
will be examined. Special emphasis will be placed on depicting both the legal
and behavioral realities of each stage of the criminal justice process.
Expanded Description:
American
systems of justice administration (federal, state, local) will be examined from
a critical perspective. The content of the course will focus on the
following general objectives:
- To familiarize the
student with standard concepts, definitions, systemic relationships, and
key cases which define the structure and process of American criminal
justice;
- To encourage a healthy disillusionment
regarding the day to day functioning of the American criminal justice
system
- To examine the nature
of our "knowledge" of "crime" and its persistence
within the American polity;
- To introduce the
student to some of the "common sense" myths which distort our understanding
of the character of American criminal justice;
- To introduce the
student to criminal justice as a career option; including job
opportunities, professional organizations, standard literature of the
field, and state-of-the-art techniques for locating and retrieving
field-related information;
- To examine the nature
of crime in Delaware in terms of crime rates, legal definitions,
victimization patterns, and attitudes and beliefs concerning criminal
justice related issues.
- To provide a forum for
gaining perspective and understanding of contemporary crime and justice
issues as they appear in the media.
Course Philosophy:
This freshman-level course is presented within the context of the
following working assumptions:
·
A basic knowledge of the workings (theoretical and
actual) of the American criminal justice apparatus is not only fundamental to a
legitimate liberal arts education, it is a critical element of
citizenship. It justifies both the
cost of the course and the considerable investment in time and effort required
both of the instructor and the students.
Corollary – The instructor takes the course seriously. Students are expected
to do so also.
·
Lecture format classes, properly prepared and augmented by
additional resources, are effective vehicles of learning.
Corollary – The instructor is responsible for preparing stimulating and
informative lectures and developing in-class as well as out-of-class resources.
Students are responsible for attending class regularly, proactively thinking
about course-related materials, and taking responsibility for their own learning.
·
Learning is enhanced by active participation on the part
of the student.
Corollary – The instructor is responsible for making active participation possible
even though the section may be quite large. Students are responsible for taking
advantage of opportunities to participate.
·
Any student accepted to the University of Delaware is
capable of doing well in this course.
Corollary – Should the instructor be presented with the question; “I’ve read
all of the material, studied properly, and come to class regularly and am still
doing poorly, what can I do?” the answer is “I don’t know.” Though this
situation should rarely, if ever, arise, University
Counseling Resources are available and students are encouraged to take advantage
of them early in the semester.
Course
Requirements and Resources:
- Text: Inciardi,James
A. Criminal Justice, Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, (6th ed.) 1998.
(Required)
NOTE: The text will be the primary resource around which
lectures will pivot. Some chapters will be covered in detail. Others will be
highlighted only, and some will be skipped. Additionally, some chapters will
be assigned for study and inclusion on exams without being discussed in class.
- Email: Students are
required to have their University of Delaware email accounts activated by
the end of the second week of class. At that point, students will be held
accountable for information sent to the class via email. Email from accounts outside the
University will not be answered.
- LISTSERV: Techniques for
using LISTSERV groups related to the field of criminal justice,
particularly CJUST-L, will be presented in class.
- World Wide Web: A vast
array of criminal justice resources, including federal, state, and local
agencies; crime statistics, and divergent views of the problems of crime
and justice are available on the Web. Students will be strongly encouraged
to avail themselves of these resources.
- It is assumed that
students are familiar with all academic policies stated in the University of
Delaware Undergraduate Student Handbook.
- All assigned text
material must be read and studied prior to class. The text
will be used as a resource for the majority of exam items as well as a
general guide to course content. Class time will be used to supplement,
clarify and critique material from the text. Students unfamiliar with text
materials will find the content of class lectures difficult to grasp.
Additionally, exams will include materials from the text, including
entire chapters, not specifically covered in class.
- A study guide
consisting of a pool of multiple choice items from which exam items will
be drawn (stripped of answers) will be made available one week prior to
each exam.
- Exams: There will be
three hourly exams. Exams I and II will consist of 70 multiple choice
items drawn from the text and study guide, and 30 True False items drawn
exclusively from class presentations. An exam missed for other than University approved
reasons will be scored as 40%. The third exam will cover the last part of
the course and a collection of T-F items from previous exams. Exam dates
will be announced in class.
- Each student with
maintain a journal consisting of course-related clippings from local and
national media sources, brief written responses to the clippings (e.g.,
How do that relate to the course? What issues are involved?), and weekly
briefs and personal reactions to issues discussed in class.
- Each student will be
prepared to discuss course related issues in class as called upon to do
so.
Grades:
·
Each exam will count 25% of the course grade.
·
Journals will count 15% of the course grade
·
Class participation will count 10% of the course grade.
·
The grading schedule will be:
90 = A
89 = B+
80 = B-
79 = C+
70 = C-
69 = D+
60 = D-
59 = F