Criminology and Criminal Justice
Brandon K. Applegate, Chair
Patricia Armstrong, Director of Academic Programs
The Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice offers programs leading to the M.A. degree with a major in Criminology and Criminal Justice and the Ph.D. in Criminology and Criminal Justice. Faculty research and teaching interests span a wide variety of crime- and criminal justice-related topics, including policing, courts, corrections, law and policy, macro- and microlevel criminological theory, sentencing, victimization, and program evaluation. Graduates from these programs are well-prepared to enter teaching, research, or policy-making positions in the criminal justice system.
Financial Assistance
The department offers financial support in the form of graduate assistantships and fellowships. Both are awarded on a competitive basis to incoming graduate students and are dependent on available resources. There is no separate application for an assistantship or fellowship. All full-time students who have a completed application, express a desire for funding, and have been accepted into a graduate program will be considered. Applicants requesting all other types of financial assistance should apply to the director of Student Financial Aid and Scholarships, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208.
M.A. / J.D. Dual Degree Program
The Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, in cooperation with the University of South Carolina School of Law, offers a combined degree program which permits a student to obtain both the Juris Doctor and the Master of Arts in Criminal Justice degrees in approximately four years.
Courses
Leadership and management strategies for criminal justice agencies during critical incidents and disasters including multi-agency and multi-jurisdictional response.
The collection and use of information and data-driven analysis in criminal justice organizations.
Examination of issues affecting prisons and the inmates confined within them. Specific topics of study will include the philosophy and goals of imprisonment, institutional crowding, inmate rights, inmate adaptation, and individual and collective misconduct.
Application of skills and theories of adolescent mentoring taught in the classroom to a supervised, structured mentoring field experience.
Cross-listed course: WGST 551
Experiential Learning: Experiential Learning Opportunity
Impact of gender-based relations on crime and the criminal justice system.
Cross-listed course: WGST 554
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Diversity and Social Advocacy, GLD: Global Learning, GLD: Professional and Civic Engagement Leadership Experiences
Development of criminal and delinquent behavior over time.
An historical overview of the intersection between issues of race, crime, and justice. The impact of the criminal justice system on minority groups.
Graduation with Leadership Distinction: GLD: Diversity and Social Advocacy
Origins and modern day activity of organized crime in the United States and internationally will be investigated. Attention is given to problems of criminal activity and the present day transnational character of criminal organizations.
Overview of the history and evolution of the death penalty. Identification of key legal developments in death penalty jurisprudence.
Legal and policy responses to crime and criminal justice issues.
Computing, database systems, and software applications in research and professional practice.
A seminar for advanced students. Individual topics to be announced by title. May be repeated once with the consent of the advisor.
Classical and recent literature in criminal justice. Trends and issues that transcend criminal justice.
Examination of law as an instrument of criminal justice policy, social control, and the protection of civil liberties.
Scientific methods in criminal justice research to include methods of design, data collection, and interpretation of research findings.
Management strategies and selected analytic tools for the administration of criminal justice agencies.
Descriptive and inferential statistics and the use of computers in criminal justice.
A detailed treatment of the general linear model, logistic regression analysis, and statistical models for event count data with applications in criminology and criminal justice. Restricted to criminology and criminal justice majors.
Historical and contemporary role of the police, societal expectations, resource allocation, police policies, and the effectiveness of various police strategies in controlling crime.
Principles of leadership and management applied to law enforcement.
Classic and contemporary theories of ethics and their applications to criminal justice decision-making.
Cross-listed course: PHIL 715
Historical development, structure, and organization of the federal and state criminal court systems and review of the factors that influence criminal case processing.
Historical development of corrections, trends, and changes in the field of corrections and rehabilitation.
Policy development, implementation, and evaluation in corrections.
The major theories of the etiology of criminal behavior, including biological, environmental, and other causative factors.
Historical evolution of the juvenile justice system.
Theories and methodologies for the organization of delinquency prevention and control programs. Emphasis on the role of the program evaluation.
Examination of the relationship between crime and place, ecological perspectives in criminology, and the spatial distribution of crime.
The role of gender in explaining crime, criminal justice system processing, and punishment.
The role of race in explaining crime, criminal justice system processing, and punishment.
Causes of, consequences of, and responses to violence and victimization.
Seminar for advanced students. Topics of current importance, such as drugs, judicial reform, or crime prevention. May be repeated for credit up to 6 semester hours with consent of advisor.
Independent study for advanced students, under faculty supervision. May be repeated for credit up to 6 semester hours.
Placement in a criminal justice agency under faculty supervision.
Review of strategies and skills necessary for a successful career after completion of a doctoral degree in criminology and criminal justice.
The study of the legal and policy-making processes as they apply to criminology and criminal justice, Examines the interrelationships between law, crime, and public policy and the research methodologies appropriate for the study of crime-related policies.
Intensive coverage of the logic and practice of research design and measurement issues commonly encountered in criminology and criminal justice research. Emphasizes the use of experimental research designs as the preferred methodology for making causal inferences.
Review of applied quantitative methodological literature in criminology and criminal justice. Topics include analysis of data from randomized field experiments, interrupted time-series studies, regression discontinuity studies, instrumental variable estimation, treatment probability matching estimators, statistical power analysis, and study planning.
Examination of the qualitative research paradigm and its contribution to social inquiry, including the collection, organization, and analysis of qualitative date. Collection and analytic strategies involve interviewing, observation, and textual analysis.
Advanced coverage of theoretical and developments and empirical research in criminology, with a focus on definitive statements from important theoretical traditions, empirical tests of criminological theories, and the translation of theory into policy.
Dissertation Preparation.