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Canyon College

COURSE SYLLABUS: Theory of Criminology and Criminal Justice

Course Title: Department: Instructor: Phone:

CJ554 - Theory of Criminology and Criminal Justice Criminal Justice/Criminology Richard Healy, J.D. E-Mail - Vita 603-880-1468 (This is my business phone and sometime Internet connection, which may be busy at times. I use a cable connection most often, but email may be preferable.)

A. Course Description:

This class will analyze the theories surrounding the formation of laws and lawbreaking from sociological, economic and political viewpoints.

B. Required Textbooks Online Bookstore

1. David Garland (Editor) and Richard Sparks (Editor), Criminology and Social Theory (Clarendon Studies In Criminology), Oxford University Press, October 2000.
(Approximate price $15.95 at either BN or Amazon) ISBN #: 0198299427

2. Hart, H.L.A., The Concept of Law, (Clarendon Law Series), Oxford University Press, June 1997.
(Approximate price $22.36-$27.95) ISBN #: 0198761236

C. Backup Plans:

You must have access to the Internet throughout this course. If you're accessing the Net from a computer that's not yours, such as a friend's machine or one at work, please be sure that you can get to it when you need to do so.

It's a good idea to have a backup plan in case your computer fails. Where will you go to get online and for how long? Having a plan now may eliminate moments of terror and frustration later. We'll rely on the net to discover additional information all through the term.

D. Course Objectives
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to do the following.

1. Appreciate the origins of law; particularly criminal law and the attempts societies have made to control criminal behavior.
2. To realize the implications of various theories and views about the origins of criminal behavior and the applications of those theories to societal behaviors.
3. To discover more recent views of criminal jurisprudence and how they continue or interrupt the main traditions of Western political philosophy.
4. To discover the strengths and vulnerabilities of different approaches to viewing criminal behavior and the administration laws designed to limit that behavior. This particularly applies to political, economic and sociological approaches.
5. To explore questions such as, what are legal norms?
6. What is the relationship between law and morality?
7. What are the various justifications for punishments?
8. To examine the ideas of natural, positivist and pragmatist thinkers and how they relate to society.
9. To appreciate fully, that ideology or a belief system is the primary motivator of people- the, "wellsprings of action" (not my phrase). Accordingly, people for the most part, act based on beliefs, not in a random manner. Therefore, what people believe is of paramount importance in predicting actions and in attempting to control behavior.

E. Once You Enroll:

As soon as you enroll in CJ554, please email me (rhealy@canyoncollege.edu) with the following information;

Your name, email address (or addresses), your registration number, your professional work history, current position, education to this point and any other items you believe may help me to know you better.

F. Grading Procedure
The grades weights are assigned as follows:

1. Class/participation/discussions: 2. Assignments in the designated folders: 3. Mid-term exam: 4.Term Paper: 5. Final Exam (non-cumulative): 6. Positive attitude, timeliness, and cooperation (your workplace takes this into account, also):

1. 30% 2. 20% 3. 10% 4. 15% 5. 10% 6. 15%

G. Class Discussions:

Folders or areas for discussion, and submission of assignments and further comment on them, will be created weekly at the Canyon site. It's important for your comprehension and sense of community that you participate at least three tikes per week for a minimum of six posts per week. Regular, purposeful frequent communication adds to the depth of your understanding and makes the course more interesting.

H. Your Situation and/or Documented Disabilities:

Please tell me if a personal situation interferes with your learning and/or participation in the class. Perhaps something can be done to ameliorate the condition. I'm here to help you in any reasonable way I can, and knowledge of your problems/difficulties will enable me to be more effective in doing that. This includes any difficulties with the distance education technology (the course delivery system).

If you have a documented disability that qualifies under ADA504 and other relevant statutes and/ or sections of statutes, please communicate that fact to me, without disclosing the nature of your disability. Then you need to contact Canyon College administration to possibly obtain an accommodation sheet, which will enable you to function according to the accommodations agreed upon.

You'll receive the information you need to function in this course as we enter the material. I realize that this technology may be new to some of you, and that you may be apprehensive. Please realize that I'll help you to try to augment your success.

Since this class functions asynchronously, you may do the assignments and other work anytime during the week that they were assigned. Please be sure to check in often, as announcements and discussion group postings change. While the form is asynchronous, it's important to check the site often. Please try to get into that habit right away.

I. Course Schedule and Assignments

Week 1
The Nature and Development of Law:
Plato: Minos Dialogue.
Go to http://plato-dialogues.org/

Scroll down the list until you find Minos. Click on "English translation". This will take you to a Tufts University site and the beginning of that dialogue. Notice near the top of the page, there is a blue bar with a red marker that indicates where you are in the text. To advance to the next part of this brief dialogue, click on the blue bar to the right of the present location of the red marker. This will advance you to the next lines.

There are other text assignments as specified upon beginning the course.

Term Paper: Consideration and selection of a term paper topic to be 5-pages, single-spaced, conventional margins, maximum 12- point type. Please submit the proposed topic to the Instructor for approval before beginning any research. It will be due at the end of the seventh week of the course. (Course weeks run from Monday to Sunday). The topic may be anything that interests you that also is part of the subject matter of this course. You are encouraged (urged) not merely to collect and recite facts but to see implications from the thoughts and ideas you discuss. This will comprise a major portion of your Term Paper grade and will be emphasized in Class Discussions. As we go along, if you need clarification of this concept, I'll be happy to do that.

Week 2
Obedience and the State:
Morals, Ethics and the Criminal Law:

This is Plato's Crito. Read the Dialogue online and prepare for discussions.
Texts are as specified.
Finalize your term paper topic and submit the proposal to the Instructor no later than the end of the second week of the course. Earlier submission and approval will give you more time to do a good job.

Week 3
Theory (View) Natural Law:
Texts are as specified.
The Mid-Term Exam is distributed in the middle of the 3rd. week and is due at the end of the 4th week.

Week 4
Theory (View) Positivism:
Texts are as specified.
The Mid-Term Exam is due at the end of the 4th week.

Week 5
Theory: (View) Pragmatism:
Texts are as specified.
The Final Exam is distributed at the end of the 5th week and is due at the end of the 8th week.

Week 6
Perspective: Sociology:
Texts are as specified.

Week 7
Perspective: Economics:
Texts are as specified.
The Term Paper is due at the end of the 7th week.

Week 8
Perspective: Politics
Summary:
Texts as specified.
The Final Exam is due.

J. Academic Honesty Policy:

Canyon College requires all students to adhere to high standards of integrity in their academic work. Activities such as plagiarism (including extensive paraphrasing without proper attribution) and cheating are not acceptable and will not be condoned by the College. Students involved in such activities are subject to serious disciplinary action.

Term Paper- Methodology: Plagiarism is not acceptable. Any quotes must be attributed to the author. Please put the papers in generally accepted form. Any standard form reference is acceptable.

You'll need approval to begin your paper. I want to make sure it isn't too broad.

Please note that I am NOT looking for unsupported opinions. One of the purposes, and results, of a liberal education is to be able to gather a number of reference sources, examine and organize them into a coherent whole, and to develop a thesis that is supported and defended by reference to those collected sources. A thesis makes a statement or series of statements, and draws conclusions based on facts and ideas that you regard as relevant to the discussion.

Online information can be a great source of knowledge, or it can be a great source of inaccurate, useless information. In writing your term paper, I hope that you will keep Internet sources to no more than about 25% of your total research. Books are a nice primary source.

The term paper will be checked for plagiarism by using an Instructor-paid-for service called Integriguard. This Service runs what you have written against a very, very large database of works. If there is a problem with proper attribution of works (you haven't either quoted the work or properly acknowledged a paraphrasing of it), then Integriguard will probably specify that situation. If there are instances of unattributed writing (plagiarism), the Service will identify them in your writing and provide me with the location and quote from the plagiarized work.

At least three days prior to the official due date of the paper (which has been extended for three days to allow for this) please do the following process.

1. When that page comes up, hit the Student Services Reading and Writing Submission button.
2. Follow the directions there (1. and 2.) You need to establish an account (once) with them. The instructor code is Healy1265. The account costs you nothing. Then you submit the paper to be checked (follow those directions). That's it. The results are emailed to me. If there is a problem, I'll contact you.

I know we'll learn a lot, develop concepts, make connections and have a little fun along the way.

• This syllabus is subject to change at the discretion of the instructor.

Syllabus copyright 2001 by Richard Healy