CJBA 230 Understanding Criminal Behavior

3 hours 

This interdisciplinary course focuses on the scientific study of criminal situations and criminal behavior in four parts. First, it will discuss the importance of measuring crime and review the major sources that collect information about crime including the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). Second, it will examine punishment philosophy and review retributive, deterrence, rehabilitation and incapacitation models. Third, it will examine the historical, political, and empirical trends leading to theory development. Finally it will examine the major criminological theories from biology, economics, psychology, and sociology and focus especially on neo-classical approaches that seek to manipulate environments to reduce and/or prevent criminal behavior.