Psychology in the Criminal Justice System.

Catalog description

This course seeks to start a dialogue about the affect Psychology has on the Criminal Justice System (CJS). Psychology influences every task in our day to day lives, why wouldn’t it affect the CJS? This course will span a wide range of notable topics such as implicit biases, juries, insanity defenses, false confessions and much more. However, it is impossible to discuss every aspect of Psychology in the CJS in one semester. Consequently, this course aims to help students think critically about our CJS. A goal of this course is to create a safe space for an open dialogue about the CJS that will include discussions of student’s criticism, inquiries and suggestions for the system. Students should walk away from this course with an understanding about factors that impact our CJS that they may not have been aware of before taking this course. Additionally, students should walk away with the ability to search for, understand and critique scholarly articles. Prerequisites: ENG 101 , ENG 102 , CJU 131 .