Spring 2013 Courses
JUST 401 - Intro to Justice Studies
Tuesday/Thursday 3:40PM to 5:00PM in DEM 112
Professor Charles Putnam
JUST 401 provides an overview of justice studies as the study of legal phenomena and systems. It incorporates perspectives from several academic disciplines regarding common questions of law, justice and legal procedure. The course introduces students to the basic processes and technical vocabulary of American judicial processes. It touches upon comparative views of other legal traditions. Students will also inquire into themes related to the operation of justice systems, such as competing conceptions of what is "just". Class discussions, readings and assignments will frequently use the criminal law and criminal justice system as points of reference. Taught primarily as a reading and lecture course, JUST 401 also requires students to engage course concepts through class participation, Socratic style discussions, written assignments and discussion. The course is a prerequisite to many higher level courses in the Justice Studies Program.
JUST 405 - Technology, Crime & Society
Monday 6:10PM to 9:00PM in Horton 4
Professor Kevin O'Shea
The goal of this course is to engage students’ critical thinking skills to better understand how technology impacts the world in which we live. Security and privacy will be the central principles that serve to focus discussions on the criminal uses of high-technology and the formal response. The digital forensic process will be used as an example to illustrate the forensic process, and will challenge the students to apply the central principles to a new and evolving field of inquiry.
JUST 501 - Research Methods
Section 01 - Monday/Wednesday 8:10AM to 9:30AM in Hewitt 301
Section 02 - Monday/Wednesday 9:40AM to 11:00AM in Hewitt 301
Professor Cathy Berube/ Professor Donna Perkins
Research is conducted in almost all disciplines of study. The ability to conduct sound and informative research that contributes to the scholarship of any discipline is an important skill. Two additional equally important and related skills are the ability to be critical consumers of others' research and the ability to use and apply others' research as it informs policy. This course is designed to introduce you to quantitative, qualitative, and legal methods of conducting sound research in an applied field of Justice Studies, which will include a focus on criminal justice and legal research. Because Justice Studies is very broad and interdisciplinary and because students dual major in Justice Studies for varying reasons (i.e., secure positions in applied fields, enter into research-based doctoral programs, or enter into law school), this course is intended to demonstrate how to examine justice-related topics from the three research perspectives introduced here (i.e., applied quantitative research methods, applied qualitative research methods, and legal research methods).
JUST 601 - Internship
Tuesday 6:10PM to 9:00PM in HORT 307
Professor Anita Remig
The major goal of this class is to provide an environment where each student can discuss and process the experiences they are facing at their respective field placement. Unlike other courses that you may have taken through the Department of Justice Studies, this course is not intended to be theoretical nor didactic, but rather experiential in nature. By that, I mean that this course is designed to help each student to better understand their field experience and what it means to each of you both personally and professionally. The readings and assignments for this course have been chosen as a way to promote personal introspection and course conversation about what it means to work in a justice related field. It is my goal that your field experience and the work you do in this course will better help you understand both your short-term and long-term goals related to your chosen field. Each of you know what a police officer does, what a lawyer does, what a domestic violence counselor does. I hope that this course will further your personal understanding of what it means to be a police officer, a lawyer, a domestic violence counselor, etc.
JUST 701 .01 - Laws and Wars
Thursday 9:40AM to 12:30PM in Morrill 204
Professor Molly Girard
In this senior seminar, we will study the interactions of laws and wars in order to assess the roles of law during crises to learn when or whether the rule of law can be maintained in prevention, combat, containment, and resolution. How sturdy and vibrant is the law? What shapes it and why? These questions are still relevant. Laws and wars are still with us. so what can we learn from the past? There will be multi-disciplinary approaches towards the material, in the spirit of Justice Studies, but the emphasis will be on history. Reading, discussion, and writing (including a major research paper) form the core of this class. Examples of case studies, which will focus on American situations since the mid-19th century, include such topics as military tribunals, chemical warfare, the G.I. Bill, conscription, war crimes trials, and the Alien & Sedition Acts.
JUST 701.02 - Juvenile Crime & Justice
Wednesday 2:10PM to 5:00PM in PARS N116
Professor Rick Trinkner
The goal of this course is to develop students' critical thinking skills while exploring the topic of juvenile crime/delinquency and justice. True to the philosophy of the Justice Studies Program this course will take an interdisciplinary approach and incorporate theory, research, and practice from a plethora of different disciplines including, but not limited to, psychology, sociology, and criminology. The class will be split into three broad areas: theoretical explanations of juvenile delinquency, delinquency in society, and the juvenile justice system. Students will read a variety of different sources (e.g., textbook, original research articles, case studies, etc.) expanding on these areas. Throughout the course students will constantly be challenged to apply what is being discussed in class to the real-world both through class discussion and weekly writing assignments. In addition, students will also write an intensive research paper exploring a topic concerning juvenile delinquency and/or justice.
JUST 701.03 - Bullying in Schools
Wednesdays 2:10PM to 5:00PM in HUDD G-10
Professor Donna Perkins
School bullying has become a topic of great interest by scholars, lawmakers, school administrators, the media, and the public in general in light of numerous recently publicized suicides that have been, at least partially, tied to victimization by peers. This course is designed to examine the issue of bullying and peer harassment in schools from a socio-ecological perspective, which suggests that in order to combat bullying, all players in bullying situations must take part, including the greater community, parents, school administrators, teachers, school staff, and students. The framework for the course will be provided by The Bully, The Bullied, and The Bystander (Coloroso, 2004), which considers the roles that various players in bullying situations take. Coloroso identifies three main roles present in most bullying episodes (i.e., the bully, the bullied, and the bystander) and argues that each plays an important role in combating bullying. In addition, we will consider a possible school bystander intervention and prevention program that may be effective in combatting this problem. In doing so, you will be asked to contribute to the creation of a bystander program that is well informed by the literature we have read.