School of Criminology and Criminal Justice

CRIM 1000. Criminal Justice at Northeastern. (1 Hour)

Designed to help students adjust to college life and become fully acquainted with the resources and services offered by the University. Covers various campus services, studies how to access various library resources, and focuses on study skills and time management. Also explores various careers for which the criminal justice major can prepare students.

CRIM 1100. Introduction to Criminal Justice. (4 Hours)

Surveys the contemporary criminal justice system in the United States. Examines the phases of the criminal justice system beginning with the detection of crimes by the police; the handling of the case through the courts; and, finally, disposition and sentencing. Analyzes issues and characteristics of each of the phases of the criminal justice system (police, courts, and corrections) and identifies its key actors (for example, police, judges, prosecutors, correctional officers). Traces the role of systemic racism and intersecting dimensions of oppression in the historical development of and current policies and practices in the criminal justice system. Also introduces students to the U.S. juvenile justice system.

Attribute(s): NUpath Societies/Institutions

CRIM 1110. Criminal Due Process. (4 Hours)

Focuses on a historical evaluation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and its use in making rights prescribed under the Bill of Rights applicable to the individual states. Examines constitutional requirements in the administration of criminal justice with a particular emphasis on the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendment requirements and their implications for police practices in the areas of arrests, searches and seizures, right to counsel, and eyewitness identification. Through discussions of recent criminal cases, exposes students to the role that bias plays in wrongful convictions. Expects students to be familiar with basic concepts and legal language as well as the courts' changing interpretations of the law. Briefing of cases is required.

Attribute(s): NUpath Societies/Institutions

CRIM 1120. Criminology. (4 Hours)

Describes the nature and extent of crime, explains its causes, and examines society’s responses to it. Defines the field of criminology by discussing the different types of crime and discusses different theories of crime causation. Studies the connections between systemic racism, inequalities, and crime and the role of bias in the development of the field and criminological theories. To establish the extent of crime in society, addresses measurement issues in the field of criminology.

Attribute(s): NUpath Societies/Institutions

CRIM 1300. The Death Penalty. (4 Hours)

Reviews the history of the death penalty in the United States from colonial times through the present. Among Western democracies, the United States stands alone in its continued use of capital punishment as a sanction. Examines the contemporary death penalty and the many controversies surrounding its continued use (focusing on U.S. Supreme Court decisions around the constitutionality of the death penalty). Discusses historical and contemporary controversies around the administration of the death penalty including potential innocence, special populations, methods of execution, race and gender biases, costs, deterrence, and international relations.

CRIM 1400. Human Trafficking. (4 Hours)

Offers an overview of human trafficking in its various forms. Emphasizes understanding the experiences and needs of trafficking victims and the methods of operations of traffickers and their networks across various cultural contexts. The trafficking of persons for sex or labor through force, fraud, or coercion has become an increasingly serious problem in modern society. Federal, state, and local criminal justice authorities have been tasked with the responsibility of identifying and rescuing trafficking victims and prosecuting their perpetrators. Offers students an opportunity to critically evaluate the social and cultural practices that give rise to and support human trafficking in the United States and around the globe.

Attribute(s): NUpath Interpreting Culture, NUpath Societies/Institutions

CRIM 1500. Corruption, Integrity, and Accountability. (4 Hours)

Traces the history, nature, and current effects of corruption using concrete cases and illustrations. Covers international and national laws and standards against corruption (with special emphasis on the U.N. Convention against Corruption and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act). Discusses efforts to measure corruption, governance, and anticorruption efforts. Focuses on the role of stakeholders from private sector to government, civil society, and individual actors. Corruption affects every aspect of our life and its quality. From bribery and illicit enrichment to obstruction of justice, from abuse of power to clientelism and favoritism, corrupt acts touch global, national, and local communities. Illustrates how fundamental are the values and practice of integrity, responsibility, and accountability.

Attribute(s): NUpath Ethical Reasoning, NUpath Societies/Institutions

CRIM 1700. Crime, Media, and Politics. (4 Hours)

Discusses and critiques contemporary portrayals of crime and justice in the arenas of political debates and campaigns; news reports; and films, television shows, and music. Covers current events as they occur in these arenas. To set up these discussions, students have an opportunity to develop critical tool kits for assessing these images of crime and justice by reading and discussing theories, research, and critiques. Additionally, students are expected to read and discuss historical portrayals of crime and justice with the goal of identifying both parallels and differences between these and current events.

Attribute(s): NUpath Interpreting Culture, NUpath Societies/Institutions

CRIM 1990. Elective. (1-4 Hours)

Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.

CRIM 2310. Courts: The Third Branch of Government. (4 Hours)

Studies the third branch of government—the judiciary: how courts work, how they are structured, what they do, and how they do it. Examines the theoretical underpinnings of our three-branch system of government; explores the U.S. and Massachusetts constitutions; and discusses the concepts of separation of powers and of judicial review. Students visit a number of state and federal courts to observe and interact with court leaders. Explores the interplay of the judiciary with the legislative and executive branches, as well as with external entities such as business and the media. Examines the role of the courts as a critically important component of a democratic society.

Attribute(s): NUpath Integration Experience

CRIM 2320. Youth Crime and Justice. (4 Hours)

Introduces students to the history, structure, processes, and philosophies of juvenile justice systems in the United States. Responses to juvenile offenders-ranging from prevention and diversion to institutional corrections and aftercare-are explored in the context of youth policy generally. Focuses on contemporary issues and controversies (system fragmentation, changing conceptions of juvenile offenders, lack of a coherent justice system rationale, racial and gender bias in processing and confinement, and proposals to abolish the juvenile court).

CRIM 2330. Punishment in the Age of Mass Incarceration. (4 Hours)

Examines the concept of punishment and its form, function(s), and enforcement throughout history, with an emphasis on current sentencing policies and procedures and their impact on the corrections system and correctional overcrowding. Explores the operation, structure, clientele, and issues confronting the institutions, agencies, and programs encompassing the corrections system including jails, prisons, and community-based corrections.

CRIM 2340. Corporate Security: Securing the Private Sector. (4 Hours)

Examines the history and evolution of security from a focus on crime prevention to one of loss prevention for business, industry, institutions, and government. Emphasizes the need for analytical, interpersonal, and communications skills in developing cost-effective programs for the protection of assets, personnel, and third parties. Discusses the security/government relationship.

CRIM 2350. Policing a Democratic Society. (4 Hours)

Traces the history, evolution, and organization of the police in the United States. Examines the role of police in society, structure and culture of police organizations, function and activities of the police, and police deviance and accountability. The course objectives are to acquaint students with prior research on the police, examine critically the police as a component of the criminal justice system, explore the complex nature of the profession, and assist those who are considering a policing career to understand the realities of the job.

CRIM 2370. Restorative Justice: Transforming the System. (4 Hours)

Explores the roots of restorative justice and locates contemporary examples of its application in various settings in the United States and the world. Examines its utility in addressing the mass incarceration crisis and the current penal system and mode of punishment in the United States. Students practice and apply critical race and systems theories to use a systems lens to examine the impact of racism, sexism, gender discrimination, and other systems of oppression on behavior and the justice system.

Attribute(s): NUpath Integration Experience

CRIM 2380. Black Families and Incarceration. (4 Hours)

Focuses on how the Black family functions, both interpersonally and as a social unit within a carceral state. Introduces the diverse institutional, cultural, and historical issues relating to past and present circumstances from the effects of slavery and colonization on the Black family structure. Explores policies and practices within carceral institutions dealing with childhood, motherhood, and fatherhood. Assesses the social and psychological harms of incarceration on Black children and their families.

Prerequisite(s): ENGW 1102 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1111 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1113 with a minimum grade of C or ENGW 1114 with a minimum grade of C

Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity

CRIM 2990. Elective. (1-4 Hours)

Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.

CRIM 2991. Research Practicum. (2-4 Hours)

Involves students in collaborative research under the supervision of a faculty member. Offers students an opportunity to learn basic research methods in the discipline. Requires permission of instructor. May be repeated once for up to 4 total credits.

CRIM 3000. Co-op Integration Seminar 2. (1 Hour)

Continues CRIM 2000. Allows students to reflect on what they learned during their first co-op, and use their journal entries as the basis from which to examine real-life issues of ethics, values, and diversity as they experienced them in the workplace.

Prerequisite(s): CRIM 2000 with a minimum grade of D- or EESH 2000 with a minimum grade of D-

CRIM 3010. Criminal Violence. (4 Hours)

Surveys the trends, nature, patterns, and causes of criminal violence. Blending sociological and psychological perspectives on violent criminal behavior, focuses on serial and mass murder, sexual predators, youth and school violence, violence among intimates and family members, as well as the impact of media and entertainment violence. The effectiveness of various criminal justice responses are also examined including intervention strategies, police tactics, gun control, incarceration, and capital punishment.

CRIM 3030. Global Criminology. (4 Hours)

Seeks to strengthen an understanding of crime and its causes from a comparative, cross-national standpoint. In doing so, it places extant definitions of crime and deviance in a cultural context. Explores existing methods of studying crime on a global scale; offers an overview of various types of criminal and deviant behavior that occur in isolated group contexts as well as those crimes that transcend country boundaries. Examines various strategies designed to address these acts of crime on a national as well as transnational level.

Attribute(s): NUpath Interpreting Culture, NUpath Societies/Institutions

CRIM 3040. Psychology of Crime. (4 Hours)

Explores the inner lives of offenders including cognitive, emotional, perceptual, and physiological phenomena. Examines the ecological context of crime, individual and social risk factors for psychological attributes related to offending, how these attributes develop, how they interact with the environment to produce crime, and, most importantly, how knowledge of the psychology of crime can assist in efforts to prevent delinquency or to help offenders desist.

CRIM 3050. Organized Crime. (4 Hours)

Examines the myths and realities surrounding organized crime. Offers an overview of the nature and extent of organized crime, the factors that contribute to it, as well as the origins and opportunities/motives for criminal enterprises. Discusses the impact of organized crime on U.S. society, both in terms of economy and politics. Also examines the interconnections between organized criminals and legitimate organizations as well as analyzes legislative and policy responses.

CRIM 3060. Political Crime and Terrorism. (4 Hours)

Provides students an understanding of what political crime and terrorism is, the nature and extent of the problem historically and currently, as well as prevention efforts designed to combat political crime and terrorism. Students are exposed to several sources of information on political crime and terrorism including the news media, scholarly sources, and video accounts.

CRIM 3070. Corporate and White-Collar Crime. (4 Hours)

Introduces students to a variety of topics and issues in the areas of white-collar and corporate crime. Examines corporate and white-collar offending through the criminal justice and regulatory justice systems, beginning with detection and prosecution through adjudication and sentencing. A variety of special topics are also covered such as definitional issues, the nature and extent of white-collar crimes, measurement, crime types, case studies, and the etiology of offending.

CRIM 3100. Criminal Law. (4 Hours)

Discusses the definition of common crimes and criminal responsibility. Addresses moral, philosophical, constitutional, and public policy considerations in the use of criminal sanctions to regulate conduct. Requires the knowledge of particular criminal law concepts and the ability to identify them in complex fact patterns and discuss their implications and ramifications. Also requires the application of legal principles to fact situations in a logical way. Case briefing is required.

CRIM 3110. Gender, Crime, and Justice. (4 Hours)

Examines the topics of femininities and masculinities and their influence on participants in the criminal justice system. Also explores topics such as gender and criminological theory; the notion of gender and offending; women and men as victims of violence; and women and men as professionals within the criminal justice system.

Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Societies/Institutions

CRIM 3120. Race, Crime, and Justice. (4 Hours)

Provides students with an overview of the role and treatment of racial/ethnic minorities in the criminal justice system. Covers historical and theoretical frameworks for understanding the relationship between race, crime, and criminal justice. In so doing, students become familiar with trends and patterns in criminal offending by racial/ethnic minorities, as well as system response to such behavior.

Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity

CRIM 3540. Addiction and Recovery. (4 Hours)

Introduces theories, skills, and policies that surround chemical dependencies and their treatments. Draws from psychology, sociology, social work, and other human service disciplines. Incorporates a bio-psycho-social-spiritual focus on substance-abusing clients, including information regarding basic assessment of substance abuse and dependence; properties of the different substances; modalities of substance abuse treatment; and individual, group, and family interventions. Offers students an opportunity to investigate the effects of chemical dependency on individuals, families, and communities.

CRIM 3600. Criminal Justice Research Methods. (4 Hours)

Introduces the basic concepts involved in conducting research in the areas of the criminal justice system and criminology. Through lectures, group discussions, and readings, familiarizes students with the scientific methods that are necessary for systematic analysis of crime trends, offender behavior, program effectiveness, and public attitudes about crime and justice. Critiques the historical role of racism and other biases in the development and implementation of research questions and methods. Offers students an opportunity to become capable of developing a research question, investigating and critiquing how it has been researched, developing a research design, and administering its implementation.

Attribute(s): NUpath Analyzing/Using Data, NUpath Writing Intensive

CRIM 3700. Analyzing and Using Data on Crime and Justice. (4 Hours)

Offers a foundation in different statistical techniques that may be utilized to answer research questions in the social sciences. Examines a range of computational social science techniques across data platforms to address crime and criminal justice system problems. Emphasizes existing databases that may inform questions about crime and criminal justice. Also introduces students to different ways to display or visualize quantitative data. Offers students an opportunity to learn how to produce and consume quantitative information.

Attribute(s): NUpath Analyzing/Using Data

CRIM 3900. Topics in Criminal Justice and Criminology. (1-4 Hours)

Focuses on topics related to criminal justice to be selected by instructor. May be repeated without limit.

CRIM 3990. Elective. (1-4 Hours)

Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.

CRIM 4000. Co-op Integration Seminar 3. (1 Hour)

Continues CRIM 3000. Builds upon what students learned in CRIM 3600 and focuses on experiences and research journals from the second co-op. Students discuss their research activities and findings, and begin to do some critical thinking about the nature of organizations. The discussion in this seminar also prepares them for the third co-op experience, in which they keep journals on some other aspect of organizational culture or dynamics. The seminar is pass/fail.

Prerequisite(s): CRIM 3000 with a minimum grade of D-

CRIM 4040. Crime Prevention. (4 Hours)

Offers an overview of issues related to crime prevention, both from criminological and criminal justice points of view. Examines crime prevention programs that encompass both the individual and community levels, as well as the integration of such levels. Offers students an opportunity to learn current theories of and leading research on the main approaches to preventing crime, including developmental, situational, and community prevention. Focuses on assessing effectiveness of prevention programs and policies.

Attribute(s): NUpath Writing Intensive

CRIM 4120. Courts and Sentencing. (4 Hours)

Examines the role of criminal courts in the United States, the structure and organization of the court system, and the flow of cases from arrest to conviction. Focuses on the key actors in the courtroom-prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, and court clerks-and the decision-making processes in charging a person with a crime, setting bail, pleading guilty, going to trial, and sentencing. Addresses prospects for reforming courts.

CRIM 4660. Communities and Crime. (4 Hours)

Provides students with an overview of issues related to communities and crime. Examines sociological aspects of community context, behavior, and functioning, and how communities are implicated in both crime-generating and crime-preventing processes. Familiarizes students with historical and contemporary literature surrounding the communities and crime relationship, as well as how the study of human behavior generally, and crime particularly, should examine the interaction of persons and places.

Attribute(s): NUpath Difference/Diversity, NUpath Societies/Institutions

CRIM 4710. Law and Psychology. (4 Hours)

Examines a broad array of topics, from criminal profiling to the nature of justice and its relationship to social control. Focuses on five major questions: what forensic psychologists do; how psychologists and lawyers look at the world; how the criminal justice system (police, courts, and corrections) and other institutions involved in social control use psychologists; what psychologists think about the criminal justice system and other institutions of social control; and how psychological (and other behavioral science) research can be used to help prevent crime. Because psychologists and lawyers see the world very differently, the course is designed to help facilitate communication and understanding among present and future practitioners in each field, as well as in criminal justice and delinquency prevention generally.

CRIM 4800. Crime Mapping. (4 Hours)

Designed as a practical and hands-on introduction to various GIS techniques. Offers students an opportunity to obtain an understanding of how geographic information systems (GIS) are used by law enforcement agencies. Covers tools that provide a more complete understanding of crime locations and explores how criminological theory and geographic information together can be used to develop crime prevention/reduction strategies. Focuses on the strengths and limitations of various criminological perspectives, how they may be used to inform enforcement decisions, and how to use GIS applications to create maps that convey a clear message regarding the spatial distribution of a given criminal behavior.

Attribute(s): NUpath Analyzing/Using Data, NUpath Natural/Designed World

CRIM 4949. Senior Capstone Seminar. (4 Hours)

Offers students an opportunity to engage in a semester-long capstone project in which they identify a crime or justice system problem to research and propose a policy solution. Students draw on a variety of knowledge, tools, and experiences from their time at Northeastern: understandings of and experiences with justice system institutions, knowledge of the causes and consequences of crime and the laws intended to protect the accused, and expertise in the methods used and problems encountered in addressing crime and justice issues.

Attribute(s): NUpath Capstone Experience, NUpath Writing Intensive

CRIM 4970. Junior/Senior Honors Project 1. (4 Hours)

Focuses on in-depth project in which a student conducts research or produces a product related to the student’s major field. Combined with Junior/Senior Project 2 or college-defined equivalent for 8 credit honors project. May be repeated without limit.

CRIM 4971. Junior/Senior Honors Project 2. (4 Hours)

Focuses on second semester of in-depth project in which a student conducts research or produces a product related to the student’s major field. May be repeated without limit.

Prerequisite(s): CRIM 4970 with a minimum grade of D-

CRIM 4990. Elective. (1-4 Hours)

Offers elective credit for courses taken at other academic institutions. May be repeated without limit.

CRIM 4991. Research. (4 Hours)

Offers an opportunity to conduct research under faculty supervision.

Attribute(s): NUpath Integration Experience

CRIM 4992. Directed Study. (1-4 Hours)

Offers independent work under the direction of members of the department on a chosen topic. Course content depends on instructor. May be repeated without limit.

CRIM 4994. Internship. (4 Hours)

Offers students an opportunity for internship work. May be repeated without limit.

Attribute(s): NUpath Integration Experience

CRIM 5201. Global Criminology. (4 Hours)

Examines how the processes of globalization influence crime and criminal justice around the globe. Analyzes globalization and recent developments in global crime, including global trends in policing and security. Explores the global applicability of dominant criminological theories and transferability of crime control policies. Offers students an opportunity to develop an understanding of international criminal justice, particularly as it pertains to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the global protection of human rights.

Attribute(s): NUpath Interpreting Culture

CRIM 5203. Security in the 21st Century. (4 Hours)

Examines societal security concerns by drawing upon current work in the social sciences, humanities, and physical sciences, as well as research and policy initiatives from public, private, nongovernmental, and nonprofit organizations. Offers students an opportunity to review extensive work on the interconnected nature of different types of risk and on the development of integrated strategies to address threats to security and sustainable growth. Considers the continuing evolution of global social justice, values, and institutions that can support comprehensive security and sustainable growth strategies in the 21st century.

CRIM 5250. Victimology. (4 Hours)

Involves a scientific study of crime victims and public policy responses to them. Focuses on the nature and extent of criminal victimization, the dynamics of victim-offender relationships (e.g., incest and domestic violence), theories of victimization, a historical analysis of the victim’s role in the criminal justice process, the restorative justice model, and the contemporary victim rights and victim services movement.

CRIM 5264. Immigration and Crime. (4 Hours)

Focuses on crime and deviance (or lack thereof) among immigrant populations in the United States. Offers students an opportunity to develop an understanding of the historical relationship between patterns of immigration and patterns of crime, to examine the nature and extent of contemporary immigrant crime and victimization, and to assess the social and health consequences associated with crime among immigrant populations and within immigrant communities.

CRIM 5270. Crime Mapping. (4 Hours)

Offers students an opportunity to obtain an understanding of how crime mapping is used by law enforcement agencies. Designed as a practical and hands-on introduction to various crime mapping techniques. Employs a holistic approach to learning how to create and interpret maps, which seeks to provide a much deeper understanding of crime mapping and leave students with a solid foundation of skills that are transferable and scalable.

CRIM 5600. Illicit Flows and Criminal Networks. (4 Hours)

Reviews in-depth the extent, nature, victimization, causes, responses, and control of the problem of illegal trade in a variety of products. Focuses on medical supply chains and a wide variety of consumer goods. Examines the types of crimes committed, theoretical frameworks that can be used for the study of these types of misconduct, and the types of victimization associated with illicit flows and criminal networks. Investigates the social organization of illegal markets and networks. Studies techniques and technologies used for authentication, security, prevention, detection, investigation, and sanctioning of offenses, as well as disruption and mitigation strategies governance challenges.

CRIM 5601. Financial Crimes. (4 Hours)

Offers an in-depth review of the extent, nature, causes, and control of the problem of financial crimes. Through readings, group discussion, and research assignments, familiarizes students with financial crimes such as terrorism financing, money laundering, fraud, corruption, and banking scandals. Examines the nature and extent of offenses committed by corporations, professionals, and public officials in the course of their occupations. Investigates the social, economic, and physical costs of such misconduct. Proposes challenges, techniques, and approaches to effective prevention, detection, investigation, regulation, and sanctioning of financial crimes.

CRIM 5602. Crime, Place, and Community. (4 Hours)

Reviews in-depth the relationship between the characteristics of and social processes in communities and criminal behavior within those communities. Explores the nature of communities and crime through research-policy collaborations. Examines the complementary roles of “communities” and the “places” therein (i.e., individual properties) in shaping crime patterns. Examines how public safety agencies do their job through conversations with local practitioners. Investigates the design and execution of a research study on how community organizations and public agencies interface in addressing “problem properties.”.

CRIM 5900. Topics in Criminal Justice and Criminology. (4 Hours)

Offers an intensive study of a topic related to criminal justice selected by the instructor. May be repeated up to four times.