LAWE 1400 - Crime Causation

Credit Hours: 3.00

Objectives: Students will identify the elements of:

1. The strain theory. Students will examine examples of this theory in current literature.
2. Cultural deviance theories. Students will distinguish these theories by looking at group behavior such as gangs.
3. Subcultures. Students will look intensively at gang behavior.
4. The social control theory. Students will discuss important social groups and how they affect human behavior.
5. Labeling, conflict, and radical theories. Students will assess these theories relationships to juvenile justice and current political ideologies.

Outcome 2: Upon completion of this course, students will be able to identify the major biological and psychological explanations of crime.

Objectives: Students will identify:

1. The early biological theories of Cesare, Lombroso, Hooten, Ferri, and Garofalo. Students will discuss the implication of such theories on the criminal justice system and defenses offered in courts of law.
2. Genetic theories of criminality. Students will discuss the implications of free will contrasted with genetic control of behavior.
3. Biochemical factors of criminality. Students will discuss the impact of environmental issues of personal behavior.
4. Neurophysiological factors of criminality. Students will discuss the current research on brain wiring.
5. The major elements of psychological theories of criminality. Students will assess these theories in light of criminal responsibility and the insanity defense. Students will also assess the competency to stand trial with respect to psychological theories of criminality.

Outcome 3: Upon completion of this course, students will be able to define profiling and identify the methodology used in criminal profiling and demonstrate in writing the analytical process used in creating a criminal profile.

Objectives: Students will:

1. Identify the elements of inputs. Students will identify how these shape a profile and their individual importance.
2. Identify the elements of risk related to victims and perpetrators. Students will discuss the theory of victim precipitation.
3. Identify the elements of analysis of data. Students will discuss how officers assess data found at crime scenes and discuss the sample utilized by the FBI in developing profiling techniques.
4. Identify the elements of collection of data. Students will identify police means of data collection and compare studies of academic researchers.
5. Identify the process of profiling a defendant. Students will develop a profile based upon learned principles.
6. Demonstrate in writing the ability to analyze a crime scene for clues to the personality of a perpetrator.

Outcome 4: Upon completion of this course, students will be able to define victimology and demonstrate how victimology can be used to explain behavior and mindset of offenders.

Objectives: Students will:

1. Define victimology.
2. Identify what the risk taking or lack of risk taking by a victim reveals about an offender.
3. Identify what the stat of dress of the victim reveals about an offender.
4. Identify what body positioning of the victim reveals about an offender.
5. Identify what pre and post mortem wounds to the victim reveal about the offender.
6. Identify what the method of death of victims and restraints or lack of restraints reveals about an offender.
7. Identify what personality traits of the victim reveals about an offender.
8. Identify what the profession of the victim reveals about the offender.

1. Theories
   1. Psychological
   2. Biological
   3. Sociological
2. Victimology
   1. Victim as part of a crime scene
   2. What the victim tells an investigator
3. Crime related to serial killing
   1. Stalking
   2. Arson
   3. Pedophilia
   4. Domestic Violence
   5. Child Abuse
   6. Rape
4. Profiling
   1. FBI
   2. Oakland County Child Killing