CRM 473 Criminal Justice Policy and Program Development

This course provides a detailed understanding of planned change processes in criminal justice agencies.  Specific attention will be given to introducing planned change models and applying these models to real world problems.

This course is a writing intensive course and requires students to satisfactory complete several writing assignments throughout the semester. Some class time will be devoted to helping students improve their writing skills. Additionally, this is an enhanced course aimed at enhancing students’ higher level of critical thinking. The course assignments focus on building students’ ability to perform analytical, synthetic and critical evaluations of issues or problems specific to criminal justice and criminology, which will extend beyond general thinking skills that target knowledge, comprehension and application.

Upon completion of the course, students will have a working knowledge of how criminal justice agencies create policy and programs, the problems inherit with this process, and how programs/policies are evaluated.

This course is a 4 credit class but is only scheduled for 3 hours of instruction time per week.  In addition to the lecture classes held twice a week, a one hour writing lab will be held each week for students to obtain additional assistance in completing their writing assignments.