Courses
Search for courses listed in this bulletin. To find a semester course schedule (including instructors, meeting times and locations), go to mynmu.nmu.edu.
- Offered: Every other winter.
- Prerequisites: CJ 110 or instructor's permission.
This course focuses on planning, conducting and analyzing interviews and interrogations as part of an investigation. Fundamental theories will be demonstrated in practical exercises including detecting deception. The class will analyze and discuss key Supreme Court decisions, particularly Miranda v. Arizona and the subsequent Fifth and Sixth Amendment cases that guide current practices in public and private investigations.
- Offered: Every other fall.
- Prerequisites: CJ 110 or instructor's permission.
This course describes and examines the history and current state of the illegal drug problem in the United States from the early 1800s to the present. This includes the nature of illegal drug use, the drug-crime connection, illegal drug production and trafficking, the structure of illegal drug enterprises, drug user profiles, drug control policy and treatment programs, and the drug legalization debate.
- Offered: Fall Winter
- Prerequisites: SO 101 or SO 113 OR CJ 110 or instructor’s permission. Cross listed with SO 263.
This course explores the nature, extent, causes and methods of treatment and prevention of crime and criminality. Emphasis is placed on theories and methods of studying crime and criminal behavior as social phenomena.
- Offered: Yearly
- Prerequisites: CJ 110.
This course involves the scientific study of environmental crime, sometimes referred to as green crime, including their forms, causes, victims, and efforts for prevention and control. The course focuses on theoretical explanations of environmental or green crimes, offender behavior, victim characteristics, greater social harms, and the role of specialized agencies within the justice system to both prevent these offenses.
- Offered: Contact department
This course provides a survey of the intersection of race and ethnicity with the criminal justice system. This course will emphasize the role of race and ethnicity with respect to crime, victims of crime, offenders, defendants, and criminal justice professionals.
- Offered: On demand
- Prerequisites: Instructor's permission.
- Offered: On demand
- Prerequisites: Instructor and department permission.
Individual research at an advanced level in the student’s field of interest as approved and directed by the major professor.
Notes:No more than 4 credits of CJ 191 and/or CJ 298 may be applied toward the AS or AAS degree programs. CJ 191 and CJ 298 do not apply toward the bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.
- Offered: Summer
- Graded: S/U
- Prerequisites: Admission to NMU Regional Police Academy.
The Regional Police Academy is a 16-week, 800-hour police training school designed to provide basic law enforcement training to in-service and pre-service recruits. At the successful completion of academy training, a recruit becomes certifiable as a police officer through the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards (MCOLES). This certification is transferable to all U.S. states except California and Hawaii.
Notes:These credits apply toward the associate of applied science in law enforcement degree, but will only count as general electives in other criminal justice programs.
- Offered: Contact department
- Prerequisites: CJ 110 and Junior standing or higher.
This course focuses on the relationship between media, crime and the criminal justice system. Television, film, newspaper, and internet/social media shape our ideas and responses while impacting the commission of crime. Key criminological theories and concepts are utilized to analyze the construction of crime news and other popular media representations.
- Offered: Fall Winter
- Prerequisites: CJ 110 and junior standing or instructor's permission.
- Offered: Contact department for information
- Prerequisites: CJ 110 and junior status, or instructor permission.
The course presents an in-depth analysis of the history and operation of prisons and jails in the United States and other countries. The course covers the management and operation of prisons and jails from the perspective of both employees and incarcerated persons. This course also explores the role of civil commitments as a form of involuntary incarceration in the criminal justice system.
- Offered: Every other winter.
- Prerequisites: CJ 110 and junior standing or instructor's permission.
This is a course on non-institutional corrections that focuses on the contemporary means and philosophy of positive intervention in the lives of selected offenders in an effort to facilitate improved social functioning. Specific attention is given to such critical corrections issues as resource brokering, problem solving, accountability and communication. Methods and techniques of service delivery within the context of probation, parole, diversion, halfway houses and other community settings are stressed.
- Offered: Contact department
Photographic documentation plays a crucial role in the criminal justice system. The knowledge of proper photographic techniques helps ensure that evidence is documented correctly and admissible in a court of law. This course examines how photography is used within the criminal justice system in the investigation and prosecution of cases. Students will learn and apply photographic investigative skills in practical exercises and study the law of evidence as it applies to this practice.
- Offered: Every other fall
- Prerequisites: CJ 110.
Course examines the subjects of firearm ownership, use and violence in the United States. Topics include the technical aspects of firearms; the Second Amendment to the US Constitution; the research on firearm violence; and the arguments for and against gun control.
- Offered: Winter
- Prerequisites: CJ 110 or instructor's permission.
CJ 350 is an in-depth study of the body of United States common and statutory law that defines criminal offenses, regulates the apprehension, charging, and trial of suspected persons, establishes the legal defenses, and sets penalties and modes of treatment applicable to convicted offenders.
- Offered: Contact Department
This course covers the causes of juvenile delinquency as well as the history and interventions of the juvenile justice system. Important and controversial topics such as due process of the law for juveniles, disproportionate minority contact in the juvenile justice system, waivers to adult court, life sentences without parole for juveniles, drugs and juvenile delinquency, gangs and juvenile delinquency, juveniles as victims of crime, and institutional corrections will be covered.
- Offered: Contact department
This course introduces students to the history of gangs, gang and gang member characteristics, gang life, female gang members, reasons for joining and leaving gangs, gang violence, prison gangs, and strategies of gang control. This course also addresses definitional issues associated with correctly identifying and classifying gangs and gang members.
- Offered: Yearly
- Prerequisites: CJ 110.
This course addresses the specialized area of environmental crime law implemented to protect wildlife, the natural environment and humanity. Students will examine the legislative history of laws designed to protect the environment and study local, state and federal law including statutes and court decisions. International treaties such as the Conventional on the International Trade in Endangered Species will be highlighted for study.
Notes:This course may not be repeated for credit.
- Offered: Winter
- Prerequisites: CJ 110 and junior standing or instructor's permission.
This course will examine the challenges and risks of the various "front line" crisis intervention situations encountered by police and corrections officers. Emphasis is on the dynamics of interpersonal relations and intervention techniques, especially in conflict-oriented situations. Alternatives available to officers, as well as the relative roles of other legal and social agencies, will be discussed. The second half of the course will focus on stress issues relative to police and corrections personnel.
Notes:May not be taken if the student has already taken LE 410 Police Crisis Intervention or LE 415 Police Stress Analysis.
- Offered: Winter
- Prerequisites: CJ 110, CJ 214 and junior standing or instructor's permission.
An in-depth study of advanced methods of criminal investigations using the latest research and application of relevant technology to major crime scenes and complex investigations through realistic simulations and case studies.
- Offered: On demand.
- Prerequisites: CJ 110 and junior standing or instructor's permission.
This course explores the justice systems of various countries in depth and compares the significant similarities and differences between them and the United States. Both statutory and common law are analyzed, as well as crime rates, prevention, detention and judicial procedures.
- Offered: Contact Department
- Prerequisites: CJ 212.
The focus of this course is on the many important issues that modern law enforcement officers face. This class will examine many of the current policing issues in an effort to get students to begin formulating possible solutions to these important problems.
- Offered: Contact department for information
- Prerequisites: CJ 110 and junior status, or instructor permission.
This course provides an examination of criminal victimization in the United States via an overview of current theory, research, and trends within the context of specific victimization types. Particular attention is paid to crimes of violence. Students will examine specific crime types, the impact of crime on victims and society, the relationship between crime victims and offenders, the role of victims within the criminal justice system, specific remedies, and victim rights and services.
- Offered: Every other winter.
- Prerequisites: Junior standing or instructor's permission.
This course examines the history and current state of the problem of domestic and international terrorism. This includes the types and nature of terror; profiles of the individuals, organizations and nation states involved in terrorism; their motivations and targets; the attacks against the United States; strategies currently used to control and prevent terrorism; and the prospects for the future.
- Offered: Fall Winter
- Prerequisites: CJ 110 and junior status or instructor's permission.