Sampler of Elective Courses

Few graduate programs can match the panapoly of criminal justice related courses available at John Jay. Below is a sampler of elective courses that are of likely interest to forensic computing students:

CRJ 733. The Constitution and Criminal Justice
Provides an intensive review of recent landmark Supreme Court decisions that interpret Constitutional guarantees and limit government actions. Examines problems of reconciling individual rights with societal concerns about safety and crime prevention.

CRJ 734. Criminal Law
Considers selected issues in substantive criminal law, including the bases of culpability, burdens of proof, evidentiary standards, rationales for punishment, and defenses such as justification, insanity, and duress.

CRJ 739. Crime Mapping
Explores the theory and practice of crime mapping. Demonstrates how mapping of crime patterns can assist in the explanation of crime. Illustrates how this understanding is vital for designing and implementing effective programs of crime prevention, problem solving and community policing. Discusses the major theories of criminal events which are crucial for interpreting crime patterns. Introduces state-of-the-art mapping techniques and provides experience in the use of mapping software.

CRJ 751. Crime Scene Investigation
Analyzes issues related to the investigation of crime scenes. Reviews the legal rules, derived from the Fourth Amendment and the laws of evidence, that investigators must master in order to maintain the legal integrity of the crime scene search and that of any evidence seized during the crime scene investigation. Examines, in depth, the scientific principles and procedures essential to thorough, effective handling of physical evidence at a crime scene investigation. Discusses specific types of evidence including fingerprints, firearms evidence, arson evidence, and DNA evidence.

CRJ/PAD 754. Investigative Techniques
Focuses on the discovery and documentation of corrupt practices in politics and administration. Provides an overview of the public employee's obligations and rights and of the laws and regulations governing criminal investigations. Illustrates themes with case studies of white collar crimes and scandals involving public officials.

CRJ 744. Terrorism and Politics
Discusses the history of terrorism, especially since the French Revolution; its evolving definition and how it relates to state violence; and its protean contemporary forms. Examines topics including the attacks on the World Trade Center, Middle Eastern terrorism from the Palestinian Hamas movement and Israeli religious violence to state terrorism in countries such as Iraq; right-wing terrorism in this country (Oklahoma City); the case of Shoko Asahara’s fanatical Japanese group, Aum Shinrikyo; and the specific threat of terrorists using weapons of mass destruction. Develops a global perspective in raising comparative questions about terrorism.

CRJ 746. Terrorism and Apocalyptic Violence
Examines the new, apocalyptic or world-ending violence that reached American shores in its most tragic form on September 11, 2001. Discusses the history of apocalyptic movements (such as the Crusades); of violent cultic groups from the Middle Ages to the contemporary world (such as Jim Jones); of fundamentalism in the major religions of the world and how and why it so often gets connected to terrorism; and of the way nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons have changed our psychological landscape.

PAD 706. Bureaupathology
Explores corruption, waste, favoritism, excessive secrecy, arbitrary, and illegal exercises of power and other "pathologies" of bureaucracies. Examines the organizational situations and social contexts conducive to departures from the laws, rules and regulations that define the formal mission of an agency. Considers the remedial and preventative actions available to elected officials, organizational managers, line employees and clients, customers, and citizens.

PAD 758. Ethics for Public Administrators
Explores the role of ethics in the public service. Identifies and analyzes ethical issues through the use of case studies and critical incidents. Examines codes of ethics and other policies designed to guarantee that public officials and employees faithfully discharge their duties and fulfill their fiduciary obligations to the public.

PAD 701. Fraud, Abuse, Waste and Corruption
Focuses on the nature and prevalence of fraud, abuse, waste, and corruption in public, quasi-public, and not-for-profit programs and organizations. Includes political, economic, legal and philosophical perspectives on these problems. Examines approaches to investigating, monitoring, deterring, and controlling these phenomena.

PSY 729. The Psychology of Terrorism
This course will consider the definition and various forms of terrorism, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of terrorism typologies. Various forms of political, religious, and cultural terrorism will be examined, as well as their causes. Learning theory, psychodynamic theory, and other psychological constructs will be considered for their salience in helping to reach an understanding of terrorism from a psychological perspective.

PSY 718. Social Science Evidence in Court
This course will focus on the ways in which social science information is being used in court. The course will examine the empirical issues raised in criminal law, tort law, trademark law, etc. The use, misuse, and nonuse of social science information in court will be considered.

PSY 701. Psychology of Criminal Behavior
Focuses on the major psychological theories of criminal criminal and aggressive behavior. Viewpoints from cognitive, psychodynamic, psychoanalytic, behavioral, social learning, descriptive and developmental psychologists are discussed and compared with current psychodiagnostic classification systems. Case examples are used to illustrate the various theories. If time permits, selected specialized topics may be considered including alcohol and crime; sex crimes; juvenile delinquency; and women and crime. Suggested prerequisite: Psychology 745.