Syllabus

MCJ547 sections D and DC 

Psychology of Criminal Behavior (3 Credits)

Spring Semester, 2008

Meets from 2:00 – 2:50 on Wednesdays

In the Distance Learning Room or via the distance learning link

Professor:  Dr. Karen R. Hendricks, Associate Professor of Psychology

Office:  Library, Room 105 

Office Hours:  Tue: 2:30 – 4:30; Wednesday: 1 – 1:50 & 3 – 3:50; Thursday 9:30 – 11.

                        I’m also available by appointment.

Phone: 406-791-5337             Fax: 406-791-5990          email: khendricks01@ugf.edu

Proposed Course Schedule* Recorded

Reading         Lecture

DATE*                       TOPICS                                                                           Assignment   Assignment

Jan 9               Introduction to Course                                                                                              Lecture 1

Jan 16            What is Crime?                                                                                 Chapter 1       Lecture 2

Jan 23            The Criminal Justice System                                                           Chapter 2
            The Juvenile Justice System                                                           Chapter 3       Lecture 3

                        Exam 1 questions handed out  (Chapters 1 – 3)

                        Paper topic idea must be handed in                            

Jan 30            Biological Roots of Crime                                                                Chapter 4       Lecture 4

                        Exam 1 answers must be received by 1 p.m.

Feb 6              Psychological roots of crime                                                           Chapter 5       Lecture 5

Feb 13            Psychological roots of crime (continued)                                       Chapter 5       Lecture 6

Feb 20            Social and Environmental Roots of Crime                                     Chapter 6       Lecture 7

                        Exam 2 questions handed out (Chapters 4 – 6)

Feb 27           The Development of Crime from Childhood to Adolescence      Chapter 7       Lecture 8

                        Exam 2 answers must be received by 1 p.m.

Mar 12            The Development of Crime from Adolescence to Adulthood      Chapter 8       Lecture 9

Mar 19            Mental disorders and Crime                                                            Chapter 9       Lecture 10

Mar 26            Mental disorders and Crime (continued)                                        Chapter 9       Lecture 11

                        Exam 3 questions handed out (Chapters 7 - 9)         

                        Completed paper must be received by 1 p.m.                                         

Apr 2              Violent Crimes                                                                                  Chapter 10     Lecture 12

                        Exam 3 answers must be received by 1 p.m.

Apr 9               Victims of Crime                                                                               Chapter 12     Lecture 13

Apr 16            The future of Crime                                                                           Chapter 14     Lecture 14

                        Exam 4 questions handed out (Chapter 10, 12 and 14)

Apr 23            Students discuss their papers for this course

Apr 28            MONDAY:  Exam 4 answers must be received by 1 p.m.

*These dates are subject to change at any time:  it is the responsibility of the student to keep current on any changes.

REQUIRED TEXT:  Cassel, E. and Bernstein, D. A. (2007) Criminal Behavior, 2^nd edition, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

Course Focus:

MSC 547 focuses on violence and aggression:  problems of prevention and treatment, along with related ethical and legal issues will be addressed.  A developmental perspective is followed with the presentation of violence and aggression as the culmination of a developmental process that begins in childhood, takes root in adolescence, and, all too often, flourishes in adulthood.  The course also recognizes that this developmental process occurs in social, political, and individual contexts.  Finally, the course addresses the ways in which mental illness, the justice systems, imprisonment, other forms of punishment, and the victims’ rights movement affect these behaviors and the consequences for perpetrators, individual victims, and society as a whole.  The course is organized around five dimensions related to the causes, characteristics and consequences of violence and aggression:

1) the criminal and juvenile justice systems

2) the biological, psychological, social, and environmental roots of violence and aggression

3) the nature of crime

4) the victims of violent and aggressive crime

5) the punishment system for violence and aggressive crime.

Course Objectives/Outcomes and Assessment for this course:

Upon completion of this course, the successful student will be able to understand and describe:

1. The lifetime of developmental processes involved in violence and aggression. 
2. The biological, psychological, political, social and environmental contributors to violent and aggressive behavior.  This objective will be assessed by your performance on 4 take-home exams.
3. How mental illness may or may not be a contributing factor to violence and aggression.  This objective will be assessed by your performance on 4 take-home exams.
4. How the justice systems, imprisonment, other forms of punishment, and the victims’ rights movement affect violent and aggressive behaviors.  This objective will be assessed by your performance on 4 take-home exams.
5. How the justice systems, imprisonment, other forms of punishment, and the victims’ rights movement affect individual victims and society as a whole.  This objective will be assessed by your performance on 4 take-home exams.
6. Risk factors for violent and aggressive behavior.  This objective will be assessed by your performance on 4 take-home exams.
7. Violence prevention and obstacles to prevention.  This objective will be assessed by your performance on 4 take-home exams.
8. Synthesize and critically analyze some of the current research findings on one of the relevant Psychology of Criminal Behavior topics for the course.  This objective will be assessed via your performance your the research paper.

Relevant MSM—Criminal Justice Concentration Educational Outcomes/Learning Objectives that will be assessed in this course:

1.  Make evident an understanding and command over key concepts, theories and data regarding society and the criminal justice system.  This objective will be assessed via course objective numbers 1 through 8 from above.
2. To be able to critically evaluate social research.  This objective will be assessed via course objective number 8 from above.
3. Display a working knowledge of quantitative and/or qualitative research methods.  This objective will be assessed via course objective number 8 from above.
4. Exhibit an understanding of and an ability to apply criminological theories in explaining the criminal justice system.  This objective will be assessed via course objective numbers 1 through 8 from above.
5. Make evident an understanding of the process of management and supervision of personnel.  This objective will be assessed via course objective numbers 4, 5 and 7 from above.
6. Demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of substantive areas within the discipline of criminal justice. For example, such areas of specialization can include, but are not limited to, law enforcement, the courts and the law, and corrections.  This objective will be assessed via course objective numbers 1 through 8 from above.
7. Exhibit an understanding of ethics and obligation of service to others.  This objective will be assessed via course objective numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 from above.

Course Activity Summary:

In this course you will:

1. Take 4 take-home, essay-style exams.  These exams will be used to assess course objective numbers 1 through 7 from above.
2. Participate in class discussions.  Class participation should improve your performance on all of the course objectives.
3. Write a paper synthesizing and critically analyzing the current research on the relevant Psychology of Criminal Behavior topic of your choice.

Evaluation and Grading:

1. EXAMINATIONS  (400 points):  Four take-home examinations of an essay format will be given (All exams will be worth 100 points). 
1. All exams must be sent via email and received by the professor by 1 p.m. on the due dates shown on the first page of this syllabus.  Exams will not be accepted via fax or regular mail.  Late exams are rarely accepted and only accepted when truly extenuating and documented emergencies occur.  Also, you must call the professor on or before the day that the exam is due.  If the professor determines that a late exam will be accepted, the score that you earn will be dropped by a full letter grade (i.e., a B drops to a C, an A- drops to a B-).
2. The exams will cover readings, lectures and handouts provided during lecture.  Lectures will contain material that is not in the text.  If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to obtain the notes from a classmate.   

2. ATTENDANCE and CLASS PARTICIPATION (100 points):  Class attendance and participation is required for this course.  You can miss 1 class without repercussion.  Each additional absence will result in a loss of 10 points.  In addition, lack of participation or obvious lack of preparation prior to coming to lecture can also result in a loss of 7 points per lecture.  Lack of preparation will be tested via the "pop" quiz method.  Please come to class having read the assigned chapter, having listened to the recorded lecture, and prepared to contribute to the discussion.

3. PAPER:  (200 points):  Each student must submit a research synthesis and critical analysis paper concerning one of the topics from this course.  You must submit your paper topic idea for approval.  Once the topic idea is approved, you cannot change topics without permission from the professor.  Each paper must be based upon at least 8 research articles from peer-reviewed journals in the fields of criminal justice, psychology, and/or sociology.  The articles must have been published at least as recently as 2001.  The paper must be written according to the APA style manual.  The paper length must be a minimum of 10 pages (excluding the title page, reference page(s) and any figures or tables). The grading rubric for the paper is listed below.  The paper must be sent via email and received by the professor by 1 p.m. on the due date shown on the first page of this syllabus.  I’m sure that each of you will turn in the paper but failure to turn in the paper will result in a failing grade for the course.  The paper due date is listed on the course schedule.  For each calendar day that your paper is turned in late, the grade you earn will be dropped by 5%.

4. GRADE ASSESSMENT:  As listed above, there are 700 points available for this course.  Final grades            will be determined based upon the following percentage scale: 

                        A:        100-90%                              D:          69-60%

                        B:        89-80%                                 F:          59-0%

                        C:        79-70%                                

Student Responsibilities and Tips For How To Do Well:

1. Most learning takes place out of class.  The “rule of thumb” for graduate courses is 3 hours of out of class work for each hour of lecture.  For this 3-hour course, you should allocate 6 to 9 hours per week to learning the wonderful material for this course.
2. Read the assigned chapter prior to attending each class.
3. Listen to the recorded lecture prior to coming to class.  Take notes.  Notes will help you during the live class and will help you assemble your take-home examination questions most efficiently.  Be sure to write down the questions posed during the recorded lecture, write out your answers, and bring both to class.   
4. Come to class.  I encourage you to ask questions!  Please expect that you will need to take notes during the class.
5. Start your paper early!  If you like, I will read 1 to 2 drafts of your paper and let you know how you are doing and what you could do to improve your paper (if improvements would benefit you). 
6. If you’re not doing as well as you would like:  make an appointment to consult with me about how to excel in this course.

Accommodation for Special Needs:

Any student needing special accommodation for academic purposes such as testing environments should contact this professor privately during the first week of class.  The Center for Academic Excellence in Sullivan Hall provides additional support (phone:  791-5213).

Policy on academic misconduct:  dishonesty, plagiarism and cheating:

 The hallmark of any serious academic study is a commitment to the truth.  Students in this class are expected to meet rigorous standards of honesty.  Students are on their honor to avoid acts of academic dishonesty.  Such acts include:

· Cheating: Use or attempted use of unauthorized material or the work of another student in any academic assignment, paper, or examination.

· Plagiarism: Intentional representation of another's work as one's own. This includes the unauthorized and unacknowledged use of the phrases, sentences, paragraphs, ideas, illustrations, drawings, photographs, or computer programs of another.

Students who engage in these behaviors will receive a failing grade (an “F”) for this course.  Severe or repeated instance of academic misconduct will result in more severe sanctions up to and including expulsion.    

Policy on Diversity:

University-level education is about broadening horizons and looking at academic issues from a variety of perspectives.  With this in mind, the participants in this class are encouraged to bring their own life experiences and viewpoints to bear on classroom discussions and assignments.  Along with the freedom to express one's own view comes the responsibility of race, ethnicity, age, creed, religion, gender, sexual orientation, martial-status, or political ideology.  In other words:  you must be kind.  Intolerance is never acceptable.

Example Test Question Response

Sample of test directions:

The answers to these questions are DUE:  August 10^th by 1 p.m..  You must submit your exam answers via email.

This examination is to be completed alone.  Collaboration and conversation with anyone else -- in the class or not -- is absolutely not allowed.  Please take this rule seriously.  However, you are welcome to email me, come to office hour, or call me if you have questions.  I am the one person that you are welcome to collaborate with.

Exam submission criteria:  Please submit your essays in a typed format (double-spaced with a 12 point font and 1” margins).  Please number your essays.  In general, each essay should be about 1 page long.  For those who tend to be very thorough:  limit each of your typed essays to 2 pages.  Please be succinct:  I will not read beyond the page limit.  Total page length for this exam:  6 to 12 pages.  Exams must be submitted via email as a Word document.

Grading:  100 point exam + 8 extra credit points.  Each essay question is worth 18 points (this includes the extra credit points).  Each fact presented is worth 2 points (description of a fact is described below).     

Answers should be thoughtful and written in your own words.  (It’s fairly easy to discriminate between my wording, textbook wording, and your wording.  Do not simply copy sentences out of the book/lecture handouts.)  You will NOT receive any credit for work that is NOT in your own words (no quotes, please).

Your grade will be earned from your presentation of the factual material for this course.  Although I do value your opinion, I cannot grade you for your opinion.  I can only grade you for your ability to present me with the factual basis for your opinion as learned in the text and lecture material for this course.  A fact is a statement describing an idea that you learned in text/lecture.  You are required to back up your facts by showing where this fact can be found in the textbook for this course.  If you do not show where you found the fact at the end of the sentence, you will not earn credit for it.  At least 6 of your facts for each essay must come from the textbook (not the lecture).  Example:  One role of a forensic psychologist is to assist trial lawyers in jury selection (Cht. 19, p. 454) [to reference lecture:  (Lecture 12 recording)].

I am looking for 9 good facts in each essay.  In addition, up to 4 points can be deducted from each essay for "style".  Style issues include:  grammar, spelling and how clearly written your essay is.  Please "polish" your essay such that complete, grammatically correct sentences are presented and the essay flows with a logical order.  Points will also be deducted if you have not answered all of the parts of the question. 

Please submit your essays in a typed format (double-spaced with a 12 point font and 1” margins).  Please number your essays.  In general, each essay should be about 1 page long.  For those who tend to be very thorough:  limit each of your typed essays to 1 ½ pages.  Total page length for this exam:  6 to 9 pages.

Sample Question  (most examination questions will be presented as short case scenarios which you will then answer in relation to the course material):

1. Arthur Angry has been convicted of murder.  This is his 4^th conviction.  Two of the previous three were aggravated assault convictions that resulted from bar fights that he started and the third was for beating his son when the boy brought home a poor report card.  Ironically, Arthur can barely read and write.
1.  What procedure is the prison system likely to follow in determining which facility in which to place Arthur? (5 points)
2. What procedure………… (5 points)

Please notice that the answer that follows is in direct response to the facts given about Arthur in the question.  Here’s what we know:

1) He’s been convicted for murder and the state must decide which correctional facility in which he should be placed. 

2) He’s got anger problems

3) He’s got reading and writing problems

4) He’s got probable substance abuse problem.

Sample Answer:

1. a.  Arthur will first be sent to a classification center for several days to weeks in order to determine which facility is the most appropriate for him and for those who will be housed with him (p. 353). It is likely that a team of professionals (psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and others) will administer tests, interview Arthur, review his records, and then make recommendations (p 353).  Since Arthur has an obvious anger problem, Arthur will definitely require placement in an anger management program (p. 353).  Because Arthur can barely read and write, he will also be assigned to an educational program to improve his reading level (pg. 353).  An assessment should be conducted to see if Arthur still has an alcohol abuse problem.  If he does, substance abuse treatment should be offered to Arthur as well (p. 353). 

Sample Grading:

Arthur will first be sent to a classification center for several days to weeks in order to determine which facility is the most appropriate for him and for those who will be housed with him (p. 353). ****1^st fact******  It is likely that a team of professionals (psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and others) will administer tests, interview Arthur, review his records, and then make recommendations (p 353).  *****2^nd fact ******  Since Arthur has an obvious anger problem, Arthur will definitely require placement in an anger management program (p. 353).  *****3^rd fact ******  Because Arthur can barely read and write, he will also be assigned to an educational program to improve his reading level (pg. 353).  *****4^th fact  ********  An assessment should be conducted to see if Arthur still has an alcohol abuse problem.  If he does, substance abuse treatment should be offered to Arthur (p. 353).  *****5^th fact ******

5 facts @ 2 points/fact = 10 points.

MCJ 547 D/DC, Psychology of Criminal Behavior, Spring, 2008:   Research Paper Grading Rubric

Name ______________________________  Date _____________________ Total points ___________________

Form—20 points	18 to 20 points	14 to 16 points	10 to 12 points	6 to 8 points	2 to 4 points
APA title page—4
Abstract—4
Body 3-8 pages—4
Opinion—4
References (>=8)—4
Style—20 points	18 to 20 Points	14 to 16 points	10 to 12 points	6 to 8 points	2 to 4 points
APA—14
12 point—2
Double spaced—2
1” margins—2
Grammar—20 pts	16 to 20 Points	14 to 16 points	10 to 12 points	6 to 8 points	2 to 4 points
Grammar/Spelling	Correct grammar,	Mostly correct grammar,	Some errors in	Partially correct	Incorrect grammar,
20 points	punctuation, spelling	spelling, punctuation	grammar, punctuation,	grammar, spelling,	punctuation, spelling
		1-2 errors	spelling 3-4 errors	punctuation	7 or more errors
				5-6 errors
Topic of	34 to 40 points	26 to 33 points	18 to 25 points	10 to 17 points	1 to 9 points
assignment—40	Completely supports	Mostly supports the topic	Partially supports the	Somewhat supports	Strays from topic
points	the topic of assignment	of assignment	topic of assignment	the topic of assignment	requirements to irrelevant areas
Flow of thought—60 points	48 to 60 points Paragraphs centered on topic—supporting	34 to 47 points Paragraphs mostly centered on topic—	24 to 33 points Paragraphs partially centered on topic—	12 to 23 points Paragraphs somewhat centered on topic—	1 to 11 points Strays from topic  No supporting details and
	details and examples Well introduced and	supporting details and examples	supporting details and examples	supporting details and examples	examples, not well introduced or
	summarized	Well introduced and summarized	Well introduced and summarized	Well introduced and summarized	summarized
Research—40 points	34 to 40 points	26 to 33 points	18 to 25 points	10 to 17 points	1 to 9 points
	Well cited, professional references & resources	Mostly well cited, professional references	Partially well cited, professional references	Somewhat well cited, not professional	Strays from being well cited, not professional
	of the discipline	and resources of the discipline	& resources of the discipline	references & resources	references & resources
Total
Late points