Sep 07, 2024  
2023-2024 WWCC College Catalog 
    
2023-2024 WWCC College Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

CJ& 101 - Introduction to Criminal Justice


Credits: 5
LEC hours per week: 5
This course provides an overview of the criminal justice system, including law enforcement, the courts, corrections, juvenile justice, and current issues. This course examines the Constitutional requirement, historical developments, different agencies, processes and theories of the criminal justice system. Emphasis is placed on how the various systems interrelate and interact with each other to attain the goal of an equitable delivery crime-related public service. Formerly: CJ 101.
Course Outcomes:
  • Apply and effectively use a broad range of Criminal Justice terminology.
  • Describe the criminal justice system’s process, as well as the roles, responsibilities, jurisdictions, and functions of the various criminal justice agencies within the system.
  • Explain the history of law and discuss how the constitutional principles and fundamental rights are relevant to our criminal justice system.
  • Identify significant theories and/or perspectives of the criminal justice system.
  • Define the roles and functions of the police.
  • Summarize and explain the court structures in the U.S. at the local, state, and federal level; including the goals, process, and challenges of judicial disposition.
  • Describe offender management within both institutional corrections and community-based corrections.
  • Describe juvenile justice and how it works within the larger U.S. criminal justice system.
  • Articulate the issues surrounding ethics, bias, discretion, diversity, and professionalism within the criminal justice system and how these relate to, reflect, and influence the community as a whole.
  • Examine and explain the challenges cyber-crime, terrorism, drugs, and over incarceration pose to the American criminal justice system.
Course Topics:
  1. Foundations of the criminal justice system
  2. Law enforcement
  3. Courts
  4. Corrections
  5. Juvenile justice
  6. Criminology and victimology
  7. Current issues in criminal justice
Course Attribute(s): Social Science