Based on reasonable projections of faculty availability and appropriate curriculum considerations, the following courses can change as deemed necessary by Baker University to fulfill its role and mission. Approximately 18 months are required to fulfill the core program requirements. Courses must be completed in the order recommended by the university.
CJ 100 Introduction to Criminal Justice Concepts
This course introduces students to the various processes used to prevent and control crime, as well as to examine the nature, extent, and implications of these processes on crime and American society. The bulk of this course will focus on explanations for why and how the stages of the criminal justice system handle crime and offenders. This is coupled with a goal to inform students on practical aspects of the criminal justice system.
CJ 220 Criminal Justice Research
This course introduces the logic and methods of the science that explain crime and crime control. The contributions of social science to knowledge are not mere deductions of common sense, but are conclusions drawn from thorough empirical research using a scientific process.
CJ 225 Criminology
This course introduces students to the various theories used to explain crime, as well as to examine the nature, extent, and causes of crime in American society.
CJ 226 Victimology
Victimology is the social scientific study of criminal victimization. As a sub-field of criminology, it too seeks to explain crime, but through more of a focus on the victims of crime.
CJ 247 Criminal Investigation
This course covers the fundamental principles and procedures employed in the investigation of a crime. Emphasis is placed on the investigation of specific crimes, the identification of sources of information, and the procedures necessary for the proper handling of evidence.
CJ 330 Inequality and Crime
This course examines how class, race, and gender intersect with crime and the criminal justice system. The course provides an overview of class, race, ethnic, and gender stratification in the United States and looks at how that stratification is reflected in judgments about crime and in treatments of various groups in the criminal justice system.
CJ 344 Youth and Crime
This course introduces students to the basic theories and issues in the study of juvenile delinquency and the juvenile justice system. The class covers four areas of the relationship between youth and crime.
CJ 380 Law and Society
This course is an analysis of the legal order of society. The basic premise is that law is both the product of social interaction and the impetus for social change.
CJ 385 Corrections
This course examines correctional practices, reforms, and their consequences. Included in the course examination will be the cultural, social, and theoretical context from which various corrections reforms have emerged over the past several centuries.
CJ 395 Criminal Justice Ethics
This course examines a wide range of moral issues in the field of criminal justice. Topics covered include the use of harm to prevent harm, the use of discretionary decision making, and moral dilemmas.
CJ 495 Criminal Justice Seminar
The senior seminar is the final course in the program’s course of study. The seminar provides an opportunity to the criminal justice major to apply the knowledge, skills, and perspectives learned in study of the discipline.
Each student will study in-depth a selected topic in criminal justice.
