Criminology, Law and Justice Courses (Sociology and Criminology) (CRIM)

CRIM Courses

This is a list of courses with the subject code CRIM. For more information, see Sociology and Criminology (College of Liberal Arts and Sciences) in the catalog.

CRIM:1000 First-Year Seminar 1 s.h.

Small discussion class taught by a faculty member; topics chosen by instructor; may include outside activities (e.g., films, lectures, performances, readings, visits to research facilities). Requirements: first- or second-semester standing.

CRIM:1410 Introduction to Criminology 3 s.h.

Nature and causes of crime; the criminal justice process, correctional treatment, crime prevention. GE: Social Sciences.

CRIM:1447 Introduction to the Criminal Justice System 3 s.h.

Organization and function of criminal justice system in the United States; history, organization, and current practices of policing, criminal courts, and correctional system; sociological and criminological research on major subsystems comprising criminal justice systems.

CRIM:2210 Iowa Criminal Justice Policy and Reform 3 s.h.

Introduction to contemporary discussions of policy and reform across all stages of criminal justice system including policing, pretrial detention, sentencing, incarceration, and reentry; current practices and policies; development of applied skills in policy analysis and communication; course material extends beyond policies for crime reduction and considers policies geared towards other outcomes (i.e., reducing inequalities and racial disparities in the criminal justice system); exploration of criminal justice policies through an Iowa lens at state and local levels.

CRIM:2430 Comparative Criminal Justice Systems 3 s.h.

Criminal justice systems around the world; similarities and differences in how justice is defined and operationalized in contemporary legal traditions in terms of police, courts, and corrections examined in light of cultural norms and values; emphasis on link between societal characteristics and legal traditions; differences in defendant rights guaranteed under various legal traditions.

CRIM:2440 Student Practicum in Policing 3 s.h.

Practical application of criminal justice knowledge with physical demonstrations and hands-on exercises; physical participation includes defensive tactics, firearms instruction, and violent intruder training; students journal about student police academy topics and present to faculty. Prerequisites: CRIM:1410 or CRIM:1447. Requirements: background check.

CRIM:2460 Policing in Modern Society 3 s.h.

History, theory, and practice of policing; exploring the link between officer decision-making and department expectations; policing subculture; ethical considerations officers face; policing administration; policing/community interaction; legal issues affecting policing practice; contemporary developments in policing emergent crime types.

CRIM:2470 Research Methods in Criminology and Criminal Justice 3 s.h.

Introduction to social science research methods in the fields of criminology and criminal justice; techniques necessary for systematic analysis of research questions and program effectiveness; critical evaluation of existing empirical research and sources of criminal justice data; assessment of data quality. Prerequisites: (STAT:1020 or STAT:1030 or SOC:2160 or STAT:2010 or STAT:3510 or PSQF:4143) and (CRIM:1410 or CRIM:1447).

CRIM:2901 Special Topics in Criminology, Law, and Justice 3 s.h.

Varied topics in criminology, criminal legal system, gender and violence, global criminology.

CRIM:3110 Communities and Crime 3 s.h.

Why do some neighborhoods have more crime than others? Why do some neighborhoods see increasing rates of crime over time, while others seemingly do not? Although many crime events occur among individuals, scholars have long noted that crime events tend to cluster in neighborhoods and places where people live; students consider explanations for why this spatial patterning occurs; research methods that have been used to learn about crime in spatial context, classic and contemporary studies of this issue, and approaches to crime prevention that involve focusing on neighborhood or place, rather than simply on individuals. Prerequisites: CRIM:1410 or CRIM:1447.

CRIM:3250 Drugs, Deviance, and Social Control 3 s.h.

Introduction to social reality of drug use, drug users, and attempts to control drug behavior; exploration of relationship to crime and deviance, medicalization, and movements aimed at drugs.

CRIM:3260 Immigration and Crime 3 s.h.

Students are provided with a solid foundation to understanding key issues in immigration-crime debates; central to this is a critical examination of historical trends in immigration and its relationship to crime, media portrayal of immigration and its impact on public sentiment, relationship between immigration and crime at individual and aggregate levels, emergence of crimmigration—or blurring of immigration and criminal justice policies since the 1980s, and social impact of immigration policies including those that relate to deportation and militarization of U.S. borders.

CRIM:3350 Life Course Criminology 3 s.h.

How crime and antisocial behavior develop across the life span from birth onward, and how criminologists utilize methods and concepts of the life course perspective to examine systematic patterns of crime; focus on genetic predispositions, family environments, and biological mechanisms; patterns common to adolescence with considerations of peer settings, community processes, romantic involvement, and school context; examination of the transition to adulthood with emphasis on importance of social institutions, human agency, social change, and relevance of incarceration and criminal justice intervention for offending patterns.

CRIM:3400 Criminology Mentoring Program 1 s.h.

Career search through self-exploration, research, and discussion in area of criminology; preparation for criminology capstone and/or internship program; creation of an individual development plan; individual meetings with instructor at beginning and end of semester; bimonthly meetings to discuss aspects of criminology from a practical perspective; identification of student interests and potential career paths.

CRIM:3414 Criminology of Genocide 3 s.h.

Legal, social, and human causes and consequences of genocide in the 20th and 21st centuries; focus on the definition and dynamics of genocide, theoretical frameworks that help explain causality, dynamics, and consequences of genocide, and law, justice, and accountability for war crimes and genocide in the modern era.

CRIM:3415 Global Criminology 3 s.h.

Crime and the control of crime at the transnational and sub-national levels of analysis; focus on non-U.S. societies; consequences of economic, political, and cultural globalization.

CRIM:3416 Race, Crime, and Justice 3 s.h.

Extent and nature of racial disparities in offending and victimization; interpretation of patterns using various theoretical approaches; examination of race inequalities across many stages of criminal justice process.

CRIM:3417 Community Corrections 3 s.h.

Community corrections; probation, parole, intermediate sanctions (boot camps, intensive supervision, electronic monitoring); contemporary issues in community supervision of offenders.

CRIM:3420 Juvenile Delinquency 3 s.h.

Theories of juvenile delinquency; individual, neighborhood, and societal explanations of delinquency; research on families, schools, peers, neighborhoods, gangs, and delinquency.

CRIM:3425 Women, Crime, and Justice 3 s.h.

Overview of women's experiences with crime and criminal justice system, with reference to experiences of men for purposes of comparison; role of race, ethnicity, and poverty in women's experiences; causes of crime, inequalities in police-citizen interactions, imprisonment, and other aspects of criminal justice system experience. Same as GWSS:3425.

CRIM:3437 American Crime 3 s.h.

Prevailing issues in criminology; extent and nature of disparities in offending and victimization, interpretation of patterns using various theoretical approaches; evaluation of crime-control policies. Prerequisites: CRIM:1410 or CRIM:4430 or CRIM:3420.

CRIM:3450 Criminal Legal System 3 s.h.

Discretionary decision-making in U.S. criminal courts from arrest through sentencing; legal and sociolegal issues relevant to each stage of felony adjudication; sociological and social-psychological theories of decision-making in adjudication, empirical research testing these theories.

CRIM:3600 Crime and Public Policy 3 s.h.

Policies having to do with crime, delinquency, or deviance are often heavily debated; examination of certain crime-related policies including the theories that motivate them, research methods and design used to evaluate them, and prior studies that investigate whether they do, in fact, accomplish stated goals; students engage with a diversity of topics and policies including those dealing with individuals, groups, criminal justice institutions, geographic areas, and more. Prerequisites: CRIM:1410.

CRIM:4120 Environmental Criminology 3 s.h.

Macro-criminological theories tend to focus on sociodemographic correlates of crime (e.g., poverty), the basic question asked in environmental criminology is how does the built environment (e.g., roads, buildings, tourist destinations, etc.) shape where and when crime occurs? Students gain a more sophisticated understanding of spatial-temporal patterns of crime as opposed to garden variety application of peoples' routine activities; topics include seasonality and time of day, near repeat victimization, ambient population, geometry of crime, and offenders' journey to crime. Prerequisites: CRIM:1410.

CRIM:4300 Gender and Violence 3 s.h.

Focus on gendered violence, including violence against women and members of LGBTQ+ communities; relationship between masculinities and violence; ways in which gender, race, ethnicity, age, and social class combine to explain gendered violence; theories and empirical research.

CRIM:4400 Internship in Criminal Justice and Corrections 3 s.h.

Supervised fieldwork in a criminal justice or correctional agency. Prerequisites: (CRIM:1410 or CRIM:1447) and (CRIM:2430 or CRIM:2460 or CRIM:2901 or CRIM:3415 or CRIM:3416 or CRIM:3417 or CRIM:3420 or CRIM:3437 or CRIM:3450 or CRIM:4420 or CRIM:4430 or CRIM:4450 or CRIM:4460 or CRIM:4901). Requirements: criminology, law and justice major or minor, and junior standing.

CRIM:4410 Treatment Interventions in Corrections 3 s.h.

Introduction to treatment interventions utilized in the criminal justice system that target some of the special populations seen within the system as a whole; specific populations may include mental health, substance abuse, sex offenders, and domestic violence; emphasis on evidence-based practices and successful program outcomes with focus on identification and discussion of ethical issues and concerns that arise when providing specialized services to this population, as well as the sometimes difficult mixture of treatment and safety/security. Prerequisites: CRIM:1410 or CRIM:1447. Requirements: junior, senior, or graduate standing.

CRIM:4420 Criminal Punishment 3 s.h.

Sociological theories and research on criminal punishment; classical and contemporary theories; research on imprisonment and capital punishment.

CRIM:4430 Interpersonal Violence in Society 3 s.h.

Extent and nature of interpersonal violence in societies, in general and for specific population subgroups; theoretical explanations for the phenomenon; alternative ways of defining and responding to violence across various social contexts; application of scientific method; relevant literatures from multiple disciplines including sociology, anthropology, criminology, psychology, and behavioral economics; types of violence defined as illegal and those which are deviant but not illegal.

CRIM:4440 Sociology of White-Collar Crime 3 s.h.

Critical perspectives on causes and consequences of white-collar crime; definitions and types; criminological, social-psychological, and rational-choice theories; political and economic causes of white-collar crime under capitalism and socialism; rates and patterns of white-collar criminality across different social groups (defined by racial, ethnic, class, and gender attributes); control, prevention, and criminal justice response.

CRIM:4450 Juvenile Justice: A Sociolegal Perspective 3 s.h.

Examination of social, historical, and legal foundations of juvenile justice system in the United States; adjudication processes in juvenile justice, transfer of juveniles to criminal court, contemporary juvenile court, community-based corrections programs, legalities of juvenile system; current and future directions in juvenile justice.

CRIM:4460 Sociology of Law 3 s.h.

Conceptual, historical, and theoretical issues of law and operation of the criminal justice system; theory and research on law and the criminal justice system.

CRIM:4680 Corruption: The Social Scientific Perspectives 3 s.h.

Social scientists and policy makers alike recognize corruption as an obstacle to economic development, democratic governance, and human rights around the world; students survey recent research from sociology, criminology, political science, and anthropology that addresses causes and consequences of corruption; why individuals engage in corrupt behavior, how organizations affect patterns of corrupt transactions, and how rates of corruption impact and are impacted by political regimes; consequences that corruption has for social inequality, civic mobilization, lives of women and immigrants, and stability of autocratic governments. Same as SOC:4680.

CRIM:4800 Research Practicum in Criminology 3 s.h.

Students engage in a criminology research activity that is not related to an honors project, conducted under the supervision of (or in collaboration with) a faculty member.

CRIM:4901 Advanced Topics in Criminology, Law, and Justice 3 s.h.

Varied advanced topics in criminology, criminal legal system, gender and violence, global criminology.

CRIM:4930 Teaching Internship 1-3 s.h.

Students gain teaching experience by providing supervised support for instructors in introductory-level courses in criminology. Requirements: criminology undergraduate teaching aide appointment.

CRIM:4990 Directed Individual Study 1-3 s.h.

Students pursue interests not covered in other courses.

CRIM:4998 Honors Research arr.

Honors research projects under faculty supervision.

CRIM:5120 Introduction to Criminal Justice Systems 3 s.h.

Critically explore the criminal justice system and its impact on communities across the U.S. Topics include crime and criminalization, policing, courts, prisons, community supervision, immigration detention centers, and the juvenile justice system. Recommendations: some general knowledge of the criminal justice system terminology.

CRIM:7030 Readings and Research Tutorial arr.

CRIM:7090 PhD Dissertation arr.