CCJ 4014: Criminological Theory

CCJ 4014: Criminological Theory Summer A 2016 Section: 0013 Instructor: Elise T. Costa Email: [email protected]

Video lectures: Dr. Marvin Krohn, Professor at the University of Florida, recorded lecture videos that will be used for this course. There will be some lectures and summary videos recorded by me, Elise T. Costa. Although the videos may have Dr. Krohn's contact, please be advised that I am you instructor; therefore, any questions or comments regarding the class should be directed towards me.

Course Description: This course provides an overview of criminological theory, past and present. Theories of crime causation are the main focus of this course. This course will examine theories included biological, sociological, economical explanations for crime causation. As this is a six-week course, it will be divided into six modules. Given the nature of a six-week summer course, students must be prepared to put in maximum effort in order to cover the material necessary to earn credit in this course. This is a course required for the criminology & law degree, thus most of the material that is covered in a 16-week semester is fit into this six-week time frame.

Course Objectives: By the end of the course you will be able to:  Explain the different types of theories  Critically evaluate crime causation theories  Engage with colleagues in discussion of the causes and correlates related to criminal offending Textbooks: Required: Akers & Sellers. Criminological Theories: Introduction, Evaluation, and Application. 6th Edition Oxford University Press, 2012 (ISBN: 9780199844487) Note- You can buy or rent this book on Amazon and it is available on with Prime.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

COMMUNICATION This is a 100% web based course. For success, it is of the utmost importance that you have access to a computer and good Internet connection. If you have any issues with Internet connection (especially when it concerns the submission of assignments or exams) you will need to contact the UF Help Desk immediately. If you encounter issues, you MUST have verification from the UF Help desk to make up any assignments. The UF Help Desk number is: 352-392-HELP (4357) and their site can be found at: http://helpdesk.ufl.edu/. UF Help Desk will provide you with a claim ticket. Because there is no face-to-face interaction, this will be the only acceptable form of "excuse" for submission issues. You must have a claim ticket number that you can provide to me.

With Instructor: All email correspondence must be through the email address listed above or through Canvas. You can expect a response within 24 hours on business days. When there is a deadline (i.e. tests), emails must be sent at least 48 hours before or I may not have enough time to respond. If I do not respond in 48 hours, please email me again. Also, please address and word emails semi-professionally. Please refrain from using texting jargon (i.e. lol). Email communications are potential public records and documentation, so please proceed as such. Refer to Netiquette Guidelines below for more information.

With fellow classmates: A discussion board titled "Student tips, tricks, and helpful hints" is provided for students to post questions for one another to answer. If you have a question, you can use this board to ask your peers. You can also use this board to post responses to emails from me. If you email me questions, feel free to post my response to benefit your classmates. Thus, I encourage you to use and check this board prior to emailing “housekeeping” questions about the syllabus, exams, etc, as many questions may be more quickly or easily answered by one another. However, I will not regularly monitor this board so any pressing questions should be emailed to me directly.

COURSE POLICIES: ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING

Note: All dates for each category can be found on the Course Schedule on the last two pages. You must plan ahead. These dates are not flexible unless I am informed of a conflict well in advance.

Exams: (25% each, 75% of total grade/100 points each, 300 points total) There will be three exams in this course. The exams will open on May 20th, June 3rd, and June 17th. Exams will cover lecture and reading materials, as well as any discussion topics. Exams will consist of 50 multiple- choice questions worth two points each. Exams will be open book and you will have 50 minutes to take each exam. You may not talk to classmates through phone call, text, email, Canvas, or any other platform about the exam or exam questions. Further, you may not take exams together. The exam period for exam 1 and 2 is Friday at 8am and close at Sunday at 8pm, EST. You must start exam 1 & 2 but 7:10pm if you want the full 50 minutes, otherwise your exam will immediately submit at 8pm. Exam 3 is only open ONE DAY; 12:01am to 11:59pm on June 17th. This is the last day of the semester so if you do not take it in that window, you will automatically get a 0. For exam 3, you must start the exam by 11:09 pm if you would like to take advantage of the 50 minutes, otherwise your exam will immediately submit at 11:59pm Any exam deadline not met will result in 0 points earned and no make-up dates will be allowed. Exams can be found under the “Quizzes” tab on the Canvas site.

Discussions: (25% of total grade) There are a total of 12 discussion prompts divided among the six Modules, each worth ten (10) points, for 100 points all together. This means that your lowest two grades will be dropped. Students are required to respond to the discussion prompt with their own thread AND make substantive comments on one (1) other student's post. 5 of the 10 points will be for your initial post and 5 will be for your response to a classmate. Points are not based on completion; they are graded based on substance. See the Course Schedule document for all due dates and discussion prompts; this is also available on the last two pages of this document. These discussions are designed with specific learning objectives in mind and should not be considered “busy work”. Any assignment deadline not met will result in 0 points earned and no make-up dates will be allowed.

Extra Credit: There is no extra credit offered in this course.

Graded work and grading: The success or failure of an online program (and the value of your degree) will depend on academic integrity: both in terms of content of the courses and in terms of the grades you earn. We need to structure grading in ways that make cheating harder—that includes more writing assignments. That also includes using exams as assessment tools—we will not release the correct answers. Because of past problems that students have had with Proctor-U, we will not use it in this class. You must still abide by the UF Honor Code. The online format has some benefits for students. One of them is moving away from the large in- class closed book tests. There are also some benefits in terms of flexibility, but there are limits. Modern technology makes it easier to cheat, so I will have to be fairly rigid. There is no working with classmates on exams or discussion posts. For discussion posts, grammar, punctuation, and syntax matter. You are expected to submit your own independent work. Please be careful about plagiarism; it is easy to “cut and paste” from others’ work. CITE, CITE, CITE! If you take someone else’s ideas, cite it; if you take someone’s words verbatim, use quotation marks and cite it. If you are referring to our text or lecture material, make sure that you indicate that.

Grading Exams (3 x 100) 300 points Discussion posts and replies 100 points Total possible: 400 points Grading Scale: Percentage Grade Points Break Down 93-100% A 371-400 90-92% A- 359-370 87-89% B+ 347-358 83-86% B 331-346 80-82% B- 319-330 77-79% C+ 307-318 76-73% C 291-306 70-72% C- 279-290 67-69% D+ 267-278 63-66% D 251-266 60-62% D- 239-250 <60% E 238 or less Note: I DO NOT round score up. You will receive your grade based on the range above. This accounts for rounds of grades on the border.

Policy on Late Assignments: Assignments will be accepted late but will have a penalty. Per calendar day late, there will be a 10% deduction in your grade. However, once a module closes, you can no longer submit to the module for credit. See Course Schedule. Canvas dates reflect reply posts, not initial post dates.

PREPARATION & PARTICIPATION Because of the nature of this course, it is suggested that students attend to each week’s module material early in the week, giving ample time to construct thoughtful posts and essay answers by each deadline. This course is fast paced. There are 15 weeks of material crammed into six weeks. You must reference the syllabus frequently and not rely exclusively on Canvas to give you dates. I will do my best to add tasks to the calendar but they are not all guaranteed to be on there so do not rely on it. The syllabus is the contract between the students and myself for what to expect. The last part of the syllabus is all of the dates you will need for this course. This is online but the time requirement is the same as in person summer classes. Summer classes on campus meet for 75-minutes a day Monday-Friday. That is 6 hours and 15 minutes in person each week. Outside of class work is twice that so 12.5 hours anticipated outside of class. Because this entire class is online, you can expect to spend the equivalent of that effort weekly on this class. That works out to be just shy of 19 hours per week. That seems high, but you are choosing to take an online class that is required for the major in summer so you should expect that. This is not intended to scare you but rather to prepare you for the level of work this class required. Make organization and preparedness a priority as it is your responsibility to plan ahead and review due dates. Completing assignments earlier than the marked deadline is permitted. Be mindful of important deadlines, exam and essay grades, and discussion post dates. You can review the posted schedule to help stay on track and pace for the course. You will not be able to work ahead of the current syllabus week. Modules will open on Sundays and you can complete the assignments due that week. Modules 1 & 2 will open on May 9th; modules 3 & 4 will open on May 22nd; modules 5 & 6 will open June 5th. Exams must be taken in the provided window and all assignments and discussions must be completed by the listed due dates and times.

CLASSROOM TECHNOLOGY

Canvas: Canvas is accessible at: http://lss.at.ufl.edu. If you experience any computer-related difficulties, don't hesitate to contact the UF Computing Help Desk at http://helpdesk.ufl.edu, 352-392-4357. Please familiarize yourself with the course site, as it is intended to enhance your learning experience. The "Student Help FAQ" tab is a good introduction for anyone new to e-Learning. Discussions: As mentioned above, a discussion board titled "Student tips, tricks, and helpful hints" thread has been started for any questions regarding this course. Fellow students can post responses/replies to questions. Time sensitive questions/ suggestions regarding course material should be directed to me, as I will not be reviewing this forum. Netiquette: All members of the class are expected to follow rules of common courtesy in all email messages, threaded discussions and chats. Please review the Netiquette Guide to Online Courses (below)

NETIQUETTE GUIDE FOR ONLINE COURSES It is important to recognize that the online classroom is in fact a classroom, and certain behaviors are expected when you communicate with both your peers and your instructors. These guidelines for online behavior and interaction are known as netiquette.

Security: Remember that your password is the only thing protecting you from pranks or more serious harm. • Don't share your password with anyone • Change your password if you think someone else might know it • Always logout when you are finished using the system

General Guidelines: When communicating online, you should always:  Treat instructor with respect, even in email or in any other online communication  Use clear and concise language  Remember that all college level communication should have correct spelling and grammar  Avoid slang terms such and texting abbreviations such as “u” instead of “you”  Use standard fonts such as Times New Roman and use a size 12 pt. font  Avoid using the caps lock feature AS IT CAN BE INTERPRETTED AS YELLING  Limit and possibly avoid the use of emoticons like :) or   Be cautious when using humor or sarcasm as tone is sometimes lost in an email or discussion post and your message might be taken seriously or offensive  Be careful with personal information (both yours and other's)  Do not send confidential patient information via e-mail Email Netiquette: When you send an email to your instructor, teaching assistant, or classmates, you should:  Use a descriptive subject line  Be brief  Avoid attachments unless you are sure your recipients can open them  Avoid HTML in favor of plain text  Sign your message with your name and return e-mail address  Think before you send the e-mail to more than one person. Does everyone really need to see your message?  Be sure you REALLY want everyone to receive your response when you click, “reply all” o Be sure that the message author intended for the information to be passed along before you click the “forward” button

Discussion Board Netiquette and Guidelines: When posting on the Discussion Board in your online class, you should: • Make posts that are on topic and within the scope of the course material • Take your posts seriously and review and edit your posts before sending • Be as brief as possible while still making a thorough comment • Always give proper credit when referencing or quoting another source • Be sure to read all messages in a thread before replying • Don’t repeat someone else’s post without adding something of your own to it.  Avoid short, generic replies such as, “I agree.” You should include why you agree or add to the previous point  Always be respectful of others‟ opinions even when they differ from your own  When you disagree with someone, you should express your differing opinion in a respectful, non-critical way  Do not make personal or insulting remarks  Be open-minded

UF Policies

University Policy on Accommodating Students with Disabilities: Students requesting accommodation for disabilities must first register with the Dean of Students Office ( http :// www . ds o . ufl . edu / drc /). Documentation will be given to the students who register & it is your responsibility to provide me with this documentation. Documentation must be submitted prior to any assignments. Accommodations are not retroactive; therefore, if you do not turn documentation in prior to assignments, I will not go back and make accommodations for past assignments, only future assignments. Academic Honesty: Academic honesty and integrity are fundamental values of the University community. Please make sure you are aware of the policies in the UF Student Honor Code at http://www.dso.ufl.edu/sccr/honorcode.php. Ignorance is not an excuse in regards to academic honesty. Please make sure you educate yourself on university policies. In order to maintain the integrity of your education and degree, cheating and/or plagiarism or any other academic misconduct issues are taken very seriously. If academic misconduct occurs, student will be taken to Judicial Affairs for them to handle.

End of Semester Evaluations: “Students are expected to provide feedback on the quality of instruction in this course based on 10 criteria. These evaluations are conducted online at https://evaluations.ufl.edu. Evaluations are typically open during the last two or three weeks of the semester, but students will be given specific times when they are open. Summary results of these assessments are available to students at https://evaluations.ufl.edu/results.”

Final Remarks: Please note that this syllabus is subject to change, including dates. I will give you warning if anything changes. Disclaimer: Please note that this syllabus is subject to change, including dates. I will give you warning if anything changes.

Dates Module Readings Assignments & Due Dates May 9-May 14 Module 1: History & Chapter 1 & 8 Discussion 1A. Initial post May 10, Response Social Disorganization May 11 Discussion 1B. Initial post May13, Response May 14 May 15-May 20 Module 2: Control & Chapters: 5 & 6 Discussion 2A. Initial post May 17, Response Learning Theories May 18 Discussion 2B. Initial post May 20, Response May 21 EXAM 1: Opens: 8:00am, Friday, May 20th Closes: 8:00pm, Sunday, May 22th May 22-May 28 Module 3: Strain theories Chapter 9 Discussion 3A. Initial post May 24, Response May 25 Discussion 3B. Initial post May 27, Response May 28 May 29-June 3 Module 4: Deterrence, Chapter 2 Discussion 4A. Initial post May 31, Response Rational Choice, & June 1 Routine Activities Discussion 4B. Initial post June 3, Response June 4 EXAM 2: Opens: 8:00am, Friday, June 3rd Closes: 8:00pm, Sunday, June 5th June 5-June 11 Module 5: Labeling & Chapters: 7 & 10 Discussion 5A. Initial post June 7, Response Conflict June 8 Discussion 5B. Initial post June 10, Response June 11 June 12-June 17 Module 6: Biological & Chapter 3 Discussion 6A. Initial post June 14, Response Life-course June 15 Discussion 6B. Initial post June 16, Response June 17 *Note these are different compared to past weeks EXAM 3: Opens: 12:01am, Friday, June 17th Closes: 11:59pm, Friday, June 17th *NOTE THIS IS ONLY ONE DAY