This course provides students with a historical, legal, theoretical, and empirical overview of the American criminal justice system. You will gain perspectives on deviance and crime; law and social control; theories of criminal behavior; and the three key criminal justice institutions – police, courts, and corrections. Emphasis is placed on how the criminal justice system operates, its major challenges, and how such challenges are addressed through research and reforms.

• Define key concepts in criminal justice, including crime, deviance, law, criminology, and justice
• Analyze how crime is measured
• Examine how criminal and constitutional law operate as tools of social control while safeguarding individual rights
• Compare the major theoretical perspectives on crime causation
• Examine the structure and functioning of the primary criminal justice institutions: police, courts, and corrections
• Evaluate our criminal justice institutions and the challenges that impact their effectiveness, including inequality and access to justice
• Examine social science research and how it's used to study criminal justice and human behavior

This course appears on your transcript identically to how it appears on the transcript of an enrolled ASU student who has taken the course on one of ASU’s campuses. Course attendance dates will be listed on your transcript. An on-demand course will appear on your transcript in the session you complete the course.

This course satisfies 3 credit hours toward the SOBE: Social and Behavioral Sciences General Studies requirement at Arizona State University. It is strongly encouraged that you consult with your institution of choice to determine how these credits will be applied to their degree requirements prior to transferring your credit.

To be successful in this course, we recommend English language fluency and computer literacy. We also encourage you to make sure your laptop or desktop computer meets the technical requirements.