SMCCME

The Criminal Justice program provides students with the skills and abilities they need to succeed in dynamic and rewarding criminal justice careers. Students will find career opportunities in law enforcement, forensics, corrections, probation/parole, private security and investigations, and asset protection.

The professional expertise of the faculty provides an important blending of academic accomplishment and practical experience. Students benefit from their professors' real world expertise in police patrol, investigations, evidence technology/forensics, drug and selective enforcement, supervision, management/leadership, corrections, and criminal prosecution. Career guidance and networking opportunities with criminal justice agencies and practitioners further enhance students' academic preparation and career success.

An internship program is offered to second year students who have maintained a 3.2 GPA. This one semester course offers students the experience of being an active part of a criminal justice, public safety, or social service agency. The Comparative Criminal Justice course features a one-week trip during the spring semester break to Ireland to compare their law enforcement systems with those of the United States. Two Advanced Forensics courses build on the Criminalistics course giving students substantial classroom, lab, and hands on experience in this rapidly evolving discipline.

  Upon completion of the program, graduates will be able to:

• Demonstrate general knowledge of the structure, process, and relationships between law enforcement, the courts and correctional system.
• Compare and contrast the organization and practices of foreign law enforcement agencies to their American counterparts within the criminal justice system.
• Compare and contrast the juvenile justice and criminal justice systems in American society.
• Explain the Scientific Method as it applies to crime and incident scene management and analysis.
• Describe the essential laws and legal procedures that define and guide criminal justice practices in a democratic society, e.g. rules of evidence/laws of arrest, search and seizure.
• Identify, analyze and apply current best practices of law enforcement techniques.
• Understand, compare and contrast the prevailing theories of adult and juvenile criminal behavior in American society.
• Explain the historical and current perspective of the laws pertaining to arrest, search and seizure.
• Prepare a case for court presentation through use of appropriate information gathering techniques, report writing, pre-court preparation and proper courtroom procedure.

Curriculum

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