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 CJ 202:201 -
Criminal Justice in America
Syllabus
Fall 2007
Tu - Th 9:30 - 10:50
REQUIRED TEXTS
Criminal
Justice in America: Media Edition
- 4th Edition, by George F.
Cole and Christopher E. Smith, 2005.
Criminology:
Using MicroCase Explorit - 5th
Edition, by Steven F. Messner, 2004
Both
texts can be purchased at the bookstore. The Cole and Smith
text is also available at various on-line bookseller sites and
at ichapters.com,
which also sells an electronic book version of the text. The Messner text is also available
on-line but I urge caution
if you choose to buy it there:
the book contains a CD that you must have and students who have
purchased it on-line in the past have received copies that lacked the
CD.
The
publisher of the Cole and Smith textbook maintains a web site that has
several resources that can help you prepare for exams, including
on-line tutorial quizzes and flash cards. You will be required to
complete some of the on-line quizzes, so you should familiarize
yourself immediately with the website. To get to the book's on-line
companion site, click
here.
The
Messner book has a
CD-ROM that contains a student version of a program called "Explorit" and data files for use
with the program. If
you purchase a used book, make sure that it contains the CD-ROM. Whether you purchase it new or used,
make sure that the CD-ROM is working as soon as possible. To do this, carefully follow the installation instructions
that are printed on the label affixed to the plastic envelope that
contains the CD-ROM. Those instructions amend the
directions given in the "Getting Started" section of the
workbook. The
program will not work if you follow the instructions in the "Getting
Started" section instead of on the label!
If
the CD-ROM is not functioning, contact the bookseller where you
purchased the book immediately.
COURSE
OBJECTIVES
This
course is intended to provide students with the following:
- A comprehensive
overview of the American criminal justice system, including the
functions of its components, the role of the various participants and
the purposes of crime control;
- An appreciation
of the interconnectedness of the components of criminal justice, which
together create a social system;
- An
understanding of the basic precepts of substantive and procedural
criminal law, including the concept of due process and its application
throughout the criminal justice process;
- An awareness of
the importance of discretionary decisionmaking
in criminal justice;
- A critical
examination of controversial issues involving criminal justice
institutions today and an appreciation for the role of public policy in
criminal justice; and
- Familiarity
with basic statistical methods used in criminal justice in order to
understand and better evaluate quantitative information
The above
objectives are to be achieved through a process involving readings,
lectures, class discussions and various written exercises.
COURSE
DESCRIPTION
This
course provides an overview of crime and the criminal justice system in
the United States. The course
material will include an introduction to basic legal concepts such as
the elements of a crime, the classification of offenses and legal
defenses. Students will learn about the extent and nature of crime, the
characteristics of criminals and victims, and the systems used to
collect official crime statistics in this country. The history and
functions of the major components of the criminal justice system -
police, courts and corrections - will be presented along with the
procedures involved in the arrest, adjudication and punishment of an
offender, from the investigation of a crime through supervision of
paroled inmates. Students will also become familiar with the mandates
and limitations imposed on the system by the Constitution, court
rulings and legislation. The course will deal with several contemporary
issues confronting each part of the system, such as the use of force by
the police, changes in sentencing policies and practices, and the
growth in the prison population. Students' understanding of the
criminal justice system will be reinforced through a series of
exercises utilizing basic statistical methods.
STUDENT
EVALUATION
Students'
mastery of the readings and lecture materials presented in class will
be evaluated on the basis of their performance on three tests and a
final exam, participation in group activities in class that explore
aspects of various course topics, four exercises using statistical
software, self-assessments of required readings (available on-line and
referred to as "tutorial quizzes"), and class participation.
Make-up
exams will be given only if you have
obtained my permission to be excused from the actual exam prior
to the time of that exam. Similarly,
written assignments will be accepted after the due date only
if, prior to the due date, you have obtained my
permission to hand them in late. Furthermore,
if an assignment is turned in past the due date, points may be deducted
for each day that it is late.
Participation
Students
are expected to attend class regularly and to have completed all
assigned readings prior to the date for which they are assigned (see
schedule below). Some of the readings are available through Sakai, which is used
as well for on-line discussions, so click
here for information about access to Sakai.
Points
in this category will be earned through class attendance and through
contributions to class discussions either in class or on-line via
discussions conducted through Sakai.
Students who miss a class are responsible for getting notes from
someone else in the class and for finding out about any assignments
that were given out that day.
In
addition to communication through Sakai, messages for
the entire class may be posted through our electronic mailing
list. Being able to navigate Sakai and being part
of the mailing list are extremely important (most of your grades will
be posted electronically, for instance, and you will be notified of
that via e-mail), so
read
the instructions about how to get your name on the list and
be subscribed to Sakai.
Tutorial quizzes
The
publisher's course web-site for the Cole and Smith text includes a
tutorial quiz for every chapter. We will be covering 14 chapters in the
textbook. Students will complete the tutorial quiz for ten chapters of
their choice; each tutorial quiz will be worth half a point toward your
final grade (i.e. five points
altogether). To receive credit for a tutorial quiz, you must: a) answer
all the questions in a given quiz and b) e-mail the results of the quiz
to Jessica Sullivan the
same week a chapter is assigned. Assignments
will be accepted only the week a chapter is assigned and only until
Friday of that week. NO
EXCEPTIONS!! If you complete a
tutorial quiz early, e-mail the results to yourself, wait until the
week it is due and then forward it to Jessica.
These
quizzes are intended to help you learn the material in the textbook and
prepare for the exams. Thus, you will receive credit for the quiz
regardless of your score on it. In addition, the quizzes will alert us
to individuals who may need additional support if we see that they are
consistently scoring poorly on the quizzes. They will also bring to our
attention questions that a large proportion of the class gets wrong and
that therefore may merit further explanation in class.
For
instructions on doing the tutorial quizzes, click
here.
Grades
Final
grades will be computed on the following basis:
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Tests
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45% (15%
each)
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Final exam
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20%
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Microcase assignments
(Assignment 1 = 4%, others = 5%)
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19%
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Tutorial quizzes
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5%
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Group activities
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6%
(1.5% each)
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Class
participation
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5%
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ACADEMIC
INTEGRITY
The
college's academic integrity policy, which can be found in the college
catalogue, will be enforced in this class. Using other students' work
or committing plagiarism are
considered extremely serious offenses that can result in a tarnished
official record or even expulsion from the university. Students are
encouraged to read our department's plagiarism
policy, which includes some useful links to other sites that
may help you avoid plagiarizing inadvertently. If you are in doubt
about what might constitute plagiarism in an assignment, please check
with me.
SCHEDULE
Assigned
readings should be done prior to
the date where they appear. The schedule outlined below represents my intended
timetable, but adjustments may be made during the semester and
additional readings may be assigned. Specific texts are referred to by
the names of the authors.
Students
are responsible for knowing the material in the readings, regardless
of whether it is discussed in class or not. In other words,
your tests will include materials from class lectures and your
readings, unless otherwise noted. Taking notes on your
readings and seeking clarification of any readings you find difficult
to understand are strongly recommended.
Students
with disabilities requesting accommodations in the class are encouraged
to contact Nathan Levinson as soon as possible to better ensure that
such accommodations are implemented in a timely fashion. His office is
on the second floor of the Business and Sciences Building, Mr.
Levinson's phone number is 225-6219; his e-mail address is nlevinso@camden.rutgers.edu. Special
accommodations will be made upon notification from his office that they
are required.
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WEEK OF:
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TOPIC
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READINGS
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ASSIGNMENTS/ EXAMS
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OVERVIEW
OF CRIME AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE
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9/4
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Introduction
and course overview
The system of criminal justice.
Steps in the criminal justice process.
Justice and our multicultural society.
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Cole & Smith, Ch. 1
Messner, "Getting Started," pp. xi-xvii
Available in Readings
section of Sakai:
"The War on Drugs is a War on Racial Justice"
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9/11
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Defining and
measuring crime.
What causes crime?
Understanding graphic representations of quantitative
information. Univariate
statistics
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Cole & Smith, Ch. 2
Messner, Ch.
1 and 2
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9/18
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Substantive and
procedural criminal law.
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Cole & Smith, Ch. 3
Available in Readings section of Sakai:
"The Law of War
in the War on Terror"
"Combatants or
Criminals?"
"Iraq's
Legal System Staggers Beneath the Weight of War"
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MicroCase
exercise 1 due 9/18.
The assignment consists of the exercise found at the end of Chapter 2
in the Messner text,
which you should complete using the worksheets in the book at the end
of Chapter 2. The worksheets are designed to be torn out from
the book. If you do not wish to tear out pages, you can
photocopy them and then complete the exercises. If your book
is missing the worksheets, see me.
In any case, turn in all worksheets and all charts and graphs
that are generated in response to the questions in
the exercise.
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POLICE
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9/25
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History and
functions of the police.
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Cole & Smith, Ch. 4
Available in Readings section of Sakai:
"Excessive
Force"
Ch. 3
of "Understanding
Community Policing" (this reading is on the Web, not in Sakai, so click
the title to get to the document)
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Group
activity 1 - 9/25
EXAM 1 - 9/27
Chapters 1 - 3, plus associated readings and statistical
procedures covered in Messner, Ch. 1 & 2
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10/2
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Police
operations and services.
Introduction to the General Social Survey.
Uncovering associations through cross-tabulations
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Cole & Smith, Ch. 5
Messner, Ch. 4 and 5
Cross-tabulations
- PowerPoint slides
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10/9
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Police and the
rule of law.
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Cole & Smith, Ch. 6
Available in Readings section of Sakai:
"The
Exclusionary Rule "
"In
Defense of the Search and Seizure Exclusionary Rule"
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Worksheets for MicroCase exercise 2 due 10/9
Go to Sakai and,
under "Resources," open the "MicroCase Assignments" folder. Print
out the exercise labeled "MicroCase Assignment 2." The exercise
is
in PDF format, so you will need Adobe Acrobat reader to view
it. If you do not have Acrobat reader, you can download it
for free at the Adobe
website.
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10/16
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Issues and
trends in policing
Measuring associations between variables: Scatterplots
and correlations
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Cole & Smith, Ch. 7
Messner, Ch. 6
Correlations
and Scatterplots -
PowerPoint slides
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Group activity
2 - 10/18
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COURTS
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10/23
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Court structure.
Judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys
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Cole & Smith, Ch. 8
Click on
the following title to go to this on-line document:
Chapter Two: Race and
Prosecutorial Discretion of
"Justice on Trial" by the Leadership Council on Civil Rights
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EXAM
2 - 10/23
Chapters 4 - 7, plus associated readings and statistical procedures
covered in Messner, Ch. 5 &
6
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10/30
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Pretrial
processes, including bail and detention
Plea bargaining, trials and appeal
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Cole & Smith, Ch. 9
Available in Readings section of Sakai:
"The
Practice of Law as a Confidence Game"
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Worksheets for MicroCase exercise 3 due 11/1
Go to Sakai and,
under "Resources," open the "MicroCase Assignments" folder. Print
out the exercise labeled "MicroCase Assignment 3." The exercise
is
in PDF format, so you will need Adobe Acrobat reader to view
it.
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11/6
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Rationales for
punishment. Forms of sanctions. Sentencing.
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Cole & Smith, Ch. 10
Available in Readings section of Sakai:
"Supreme
Court Decision Focuses State Attention on Sentencing Regimes"
"Justices...Raise Doubts on Sentencing Guidelines"
"U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Held Advisory"
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Group activity
3 - 11/8
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CORRECTIONS
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11/13
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History and
organization of corrections. Incarceration and corrections issues.
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Cole & Smith, Ch. 11
Click on
the following title to go to this on-line document:
The
Sentencing Project's Comparative International
Rates of Incarceration: An Examination of Causes and Trends
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EXAM
3 - 11/15
Chapters 8 - 10 plus associated readings and any statistical procedures
covered in MicroCase
exercises to date
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11/20
No
class Thursday 11/22!
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Probation and
intermediate community sanctions
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Cole & Smith, Ch. 12
Available in Readings section of Sakai:
"A decade
of experimenting with intermediate sanctions: What have we learned?"
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11/27
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Incarceration
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Cole & Smith, Ch. 13
Click on
the following title to go to this on-line document:
"The
Psychological Impact of Incarceration: Implications for
Post-Prison Adjustment"
(paper prepared by Craig Haney for the "From Prison to Home" National
Policy Conference)
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Worksheets for MicroCase exercise 4 due 11/29
Go to Sakai and,
under "Resources," open the "MicroCase Assignments" folder. Print
out the exercise labeled "MicroCase Assignment 4." The exercise
is
in PDF format, so you will need Adobe Acrobat reader to view
it.
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12/4
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Release from
imprisonment and supervision in the community.
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Cole & Smith, Ch. 14
Available in Readings section of Sakai:
"The Risks and
Needs of the Returning Prisoner Population"
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Group activity
4 - 12/4
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12/11
Last
day: 12/11!
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Review and
wrap-up
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FINAL
EXAM - 9:00 - 12:00 - Tuesday, 12/18
The
final exam is cumulative: it covers all lecture material plus
the readings from the last unit (Corrections) and materials from the MicroCase exercises.
The final will be held in the same room where class is normally
held.
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