Criminology Theory and Evidence

Catalog description

This course provides criminology majors a more in-depth understanding of the theories, methodologies, and research results within the scientific discipline of criminology. Students will first focus on concepts and definitions associated with theory development and research methods prior to applying these to historical and present theories of criminal behavior. Sociological theories and methods will be given greater weight in the course. At the end of the course, students will apply what they've learn to theoretically motivate a testable research question and outline this in a short research proposal. Throughout the course, theoretical concepts and evidence will be connected to current and historical criminal justice policies. This course serves as the foundation for later courses on specific substantive criminological topics, such as violence, race, gender, and neighborhood crime. The course also provides students the theoretical and methodological background for completing CRIM 250W , Research Methods in Criminal Justice, which includes an empirical research paper component. The Criminology program learning objectives directly relevant for this course are: - Recognize the causes and consequences of crime at the micro and macro levels and match these with prominent criminological Course Justification perspectives. - Apply theories of crime to explain actual and hypothetical scenarios, behaviors, and trends. - Explain the various social science methods of inquiry and use these to test specific criminological research questions.