Criminal Justice: An Introduction

Define criminology and victimology, noting criminology's historical base and study of crime types, frequency, and motivations. Show victimology's focus on victims—the who, when, where, why—and their psychological and emotional impacts.

Explore criminology, the study of crime and criminals, through four theories—classical, biological, psychological, and sociological. Compare criminology with criminal justice, focusing on roots and causes versus how the system responds.

Explore classical, biological, sociological, and psychological criminology theories, including general and specific deterrence, swift, certain, and severe punishments, social disorganization and broken windows, and learning and cognitive perspectives.

Examine victimology and its focus on the victims and communities affected by crime, and analyze perception theory, lifestyle theory, and the DVM place theory.

Evaluate crime scenes, victims, coroner or medical examiner reports, and expert insights to build a criminal profile using psychological and sociological research, identifying patterns, modus operandi, and offender characteristics.

Explore the types of law relevant to criminal justice, including criminal law, constitutional law, civil law, and administrative law, and understand judicial review and the constitution's supremacy.

Explore actus reus, the guilty act, and mens rea, the guilty mind, and how intent vs. action shapes crime, with examples like murder, vehicular assault, and strict liability.

Explore felonies and misdemeanors by crime seriousness, with assault as an example that can be misdemeanor or felony; infractions carry no jail time, and the UCMJ remains separate.

Explore how defense strategies like insanity, self-defense, and duress shape outcomes; examine tests such as the monotony test, diminished capacity, irresistible impulse, consent, and impossibility.

Explore criminalistics, the forensics used to detect crimes, mostly lab work. Learn about DNA examiners, ballistics, document examiners, and forensic accounting.

Explains the constitution as the supreme law and outlines the three branches and seven articles. Highlights the bill of rights, the 14th amendment's equal protection clause, and judicial review.

Explore the bill of rights, from First Amendment freedoms (speech, press, religion, assembly, petition) to Second Amendment gun rights and protections against unreasonable searches, warrants, and self-incrimination.