Special Programs and Courses
With flexible and interesting courses to challenge you both mentally and physically, the School of Criminal Justice allows you to learn on your own time and in your own way.
View some highlights of our course offerings for Fall 2018 and Spring 2019 below, and visit Catalyst for more offerings and information. Contact Erin Cochran with any additional questions you may have.
Human Trafficking: An Overview of Forms, Causes, and Policy, March 8, 2019 Valerie Anderson, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, UC School of Criminal Justice UG Version: CJ 4126 001 (Class TBA) Graduate Version: CJ 6026 001 (Class TBA)
This one-day seminar provides an overview of the phenomenon of human trafficking. Human trafficking is a complex social problem that involves the trafficking of persons for sex or labor through force, fraud, or coercion. During this seminar, students will examine different forms of human trafficking, the causes of human trafficking, and current policy responses to human trafficking at local, national, and international levels.and federal law enforcement officials and prosecutors will describe their work in the apprehension and prosecution of local criminal gang members, including discussions of innovative tactics based on data-driven approaches.
Complete them on your own time, at your own pace and earn an extra credit hour or two.
- Working With Special Populations – Substance Users: This course will provided an overview of working with special populations in the field of criminal justice, specifically offenders with substance use needs. Criminal Justice staff are often challenged with how to work most effectively with clients who use substances or have addiction disorders. This course covers some foundational information on the prevalence and impact of substance use, and provides examples of strategies that staff can use to work more effectively with this population.
- What Works in Changing Offender Behavior: Introduction to EPICS: In this course, you will be introduced to a way to structure interactions with offenders to promote prosocial behavior change. We will discuss strategies for identifying and addressing targets of change with the EPICS (Effective Practices in Community Supervision) model. The course will review the principles of effective intervention and will lay a foundation as to why the EPICS approach is important. Components of the EPICS model will be introduced and we will discuss how best to use these components to target behavior change through core correctional practices.
- What Works in Changing Offender Behavior: Core Correctional Practices: This course will provide an overview of What Works in Changing Offender Behavior and how the competencies of Core Correctional Practice play a key role in helping any staff in the field work toward becoming change agents. Research in the field of corrections shows these core skills to be effective in supporting behavioral change with the offending population. In this course, we will identify the Principles of Effective Intervention and provide an overview of each Core Correctional Practice: quality interpersonal relationships, effective social reinforcement, effective disapproval, effective use of authority, cognitive restructuring, anti-criminal modeling, structured learning/skills building, and problem solving techniques.
From Skydiving for course credit to studying Policing in America, there's bound to be a course or two of interest to you.
- Managing Extreme Risks: Introduction to Skydiving: The purpose of this class is to introduce studentsto the management of extreme risks using skydivingas a case study. Instruction will include biological reactions to extreme risks, mental conditioning forrisks, as well as principles, techniques, safe practices, and strategies of bothrecreational and competitive skydiving. Only very basic skills will be taught. This class will not certify anyone to skydive, but will be a first step for those who choose to pursue a skydiving license. Students will be provided with the opportunity to skydive; however, the jump is not required to pass the course. Personal experience, fitness, and sound judgment are necessary to make this program as safe as possible.
- Juvenile Justice System: Examination of the U.S. juvenile justice system including the processing of the juvenile offender from the delinquent act through treatment. Students will examine the strategies of prevention and effective treatment and the manner in which the social scientist researches, analyses, and evaluates such methods.
- Community Corrections: Examines how criminal justice social scientists develop, examine, and evaluate the impact and successes of the various community corrections programs. Examines community corrections, probation and parole, treatment philosophies, and strategies for supervision. Practice in use of presentence investigation and examination of evidence-based, effective community-based correctional programs.
- Corrections in America: Familiarizes the student with the history, current practices, and future directions of corrections. The course will examine how criminal justice social scientists develop, examine and evaluate the impact and successes of the various treatment practices in our correctional system.
- Policing in America: This is an introductory course devoted to the examination of the police and law enforcement in the United States. The course describes and examines the number and variety of policing agencies, their development and evolution, and the operations of police and law enforcement organizations. The course examines the range of U.S. police agencies, with an emphasis on local police. The course also introduces the student to how the discipline of criminal justice examines those roles and operation and evaluates their impact on society.