Curriculum: Graduate Certificate in Crime Analysis and Prevention

This course is designed to teach the elementary skills and techniques of Geographic Information Science (GIS), with a focus on crime analysis, using ESRI ArcGIS 10.1, or similar software package. ArcGIS is a software platform that is used to apply geography to solving problems and making decisions. In addition to GIS techniques, we will be covering basic data preparation procedures, as well as a brief survey of various types of crime data and how to acquire such data. Topics to be covered will include querying, editing, designing, analyzing, and building map systems utilizing crime data. Analysis techniques will cover both attribute table and spatial data operations such as table relates and joins, spatial aggregation, and buffer analysis.

This course will introduce the statistical techniques used in the social sciences, including criminology and criminal justice, with emphasis placed on interpretation of results and computer applications. The course will include learning thelogic of, and how to calculate, different statistical techniques.

This course teaches students about the practice of crime analysis in law enforcement. Students will learn the terminology, principles, and techniques crime analysts use in everyday practice. A major component of this class is learning how to perform advanced analytical techniques employed by crime analysts using software programs such as ArcGIS 10.3, Excel 2013, and CrimeStat IV, or other versions as appropriate.

This course is designed to provide an exploration of the various approaches to reducing crime as well as the theories that inform those approaches. We will focus most fully on situational approaches to crime prevention, though we will also explore crime prevention through social development, community-based crime prevention. We will also examine how policing intersects with these various approaches to crime prevention.

This graduate-level course provides a comprehensive exploration of the basics of the forensic science field and its interplay with the criminal justice system. Students will delve into the fundamental principles and practices of forensic science, examining the various techniques employed to analyze evidence and link individuals to crimes and the crime investigative process. This course is not a course in how to conduct forensic science techniques (although these will be reviewed); instead, its objective is to critically evaluate the role of forensic evidence in the judicial process, considering both its strengths and limitations.

This course is designed to provide an exploration of the various approaches to reducing crime as well as the theories that inform those approaches. We will focus most fully on situational approaches to crime prevention, though we will also explore crime prevention through social development, community-based crime prevention. We will also examine how policing intersects with these various approaches to crime prevention.

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.