The Doctoral Program in Criminal Justice

The City University of New York
CRJ U709: Organizational Behavior and Policy Making in Criminal Justice
Spring 1999

Course Web Site: http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~nbenton/crju709/

Professor Warren Benton
Room 3254N
(212) 237-8089

Professor Eli Silverman
Room 422T
(212) 237-8375


Description

Examines organizations as the instruments of law and policy implementation in criminal justice, by reviewing established theory and emerging research in the field of organizational behavior, and by examining the application of this material to criminal justice organizations and institutions. Examines how the performance of criminal justice agencies can be measured, and reviews established theory and emerging research on factors associated with success and dysfunction related to organizational behavior and structure.

Required Texts:

Neiderst, Jennifer, Web Design in a Nutshell (Cambridge, O'Reilly, 1999)

Ott, J. Steven Classic Readings in Organizational Behavior (Pacific Grove, Brooks/Cole Publishing, 1992).

Walker, Samuel, Sense and Nonsense about Crime and Drugs: A Policy Guide (Belmont CA, Wadsworth, 1994).

Wilson and Petersilia, Eds. Crime (San Francisco, ICS Press, 1995).

Course Overview

This course will integrate formal study of theory and emerging research on policy development and implementation in criminal justice, with internet-based research and presentation. We will complete a general survey of high-profile public policy issues in criminal justice, both as these are presented in published literature, as well as on the internet in document repositories associated with legislative and oversight The course will meet in the Graduate Computer Classroom

Students are not required or expected to have attained proficiency in internet-based computing prior to enrolling in the course.

Class Schedule and Assignments

The following is a preliminary list of course topics and assignments. In addition to the textbook assignments, students will be expected to read, and to independently identify, relevant internet-based journal articles, studies, and documents.

Students are also required to complete specified lab exercises specified on the course web page.

For each class with reading assignments, a student is assigned to prepare and post on the newsgroup a summary of the readings, and a second student is assigned to prepare a critical response. The following link contains these assignments: Reading Summary Assignments.

  1. Justice Policy on the World Wide Web
  2. Public Policy and Crime
  3. Public Policy and Crime
  4. Motivation, Group Behavior, and Leadership
  5. HTML Lab
  6. Social Contexts of Crime
  7. Work Design
  8. HTML Lab
  9. Interventions: Gun Control
  10. Interventions: Drugs
  11. Power, and Organizational Change
  12. Interventions: Police
  13. Interventions: Prosecution and Sentencing
  14. Interventions: Corrections and Rehabilitation
  15. HTML Lab

The Term Paper

Each student will develop a web site relating to a policy issue in criminal justice. The web site will include links to relevant sites, articles, studies, and documents on the internet, as well as original material written by the student. During the course, techniques and skills necessary to complete this assignment will be presented.

Web sites will be presented by each student to the class during weeks 10 through 15. Assigned times for presentation will be determined randomly during the first few weeks of class.

At the end of the course, each student will have a personal web page for future use.

Reading Presentations

Selected students will prepare written summaries (not more than 1 page double sided) of readings, provide brief oral summaries, and introduce WWW sites that may relate to the topics in the readings. During the course of the semester, students will be expected to complete 2-3 such assignments. The assignments will be completed on the course newsgroup site.

HTML Sessions

The class takes place in the Graduate Computer Classroom. During several class sessions, class time will be dedicated to the development of Internet research skills, including proficiency in HTML markup language.