Turn evidence into answers with a crime scene investigation master's degree

This innovative approach to research describes best practices and data-driven solutions in criminal justice research including quantitative, qualitative, and program evaluation research. Students will be good consumers of research and will have the fundamental knowledge necessary to evaluate research studies, evaluate their value toward their field of interest, and evaluate their usefulness for making sound decisions in the field.

Within the scope of the foundations of justice and administration and social, financial, legal and political opportunities and challenges, students will apply strategic decision making strategies to analyze the communicative structures, practices, and performance of organizations in the administration of justice. Specific goals, challenges, and leadership theories will be holistically summarized and synthesized to develop solutions within the courts, law enforcement, and corrections, in both not-for-profit and for-profit organizations. Applied perspectives in ethical leadership functions that respond to organizational problems and objectives through best-practices will also be addressed. As future leaders, students will, moreover, demonstrate fluency in employee rights and issues and apply budgeting strategies to maximize agency goals. Additional outcomes will address program planning, implementation, and evaluation, as well as appraisal of new technological advancements utilizing articulated and relevant criteria.

As a student in this course, you will analyze complex and multi-systemic adult and juvenile systems of justice and social control mechanisms on both a micro and macro level. Attention will be given to innovative initiatives and best-practices from across the nation with a view toward positive social change. Technology for effective cross-system collaboration will also be addressed, as will the role of constitutional protections and constraints on arrest, prosecution, conviction, and incarceration.

Students will evaluate contemporary criminology theories and apply them to formulate prevention, treatment, and crime control models, within a framework of cultural diversity. Crime data relationships and patterns will also be integrated with biological, psychological, and sociological theories of criminal behavior in a critical evaluation of contemporary criminological theories. Policy formation and implementation will also be addressed.

In this culminating course, students demonstrate mastery of discipline-specific theories and practice by applying the knowledge and skills gained throughout their graduate program to an individualized policy analysis project.

This course provides an introductory overview of methods, concepts and current practices in the field of statistics and data analytics. Topics to be covered include data collection, data analysis and visualization as well as probability, statistical inference and regression methods for informed decision-making. Students will explore these topics with current statistical software. Some emphasis will also be given to ethical principles of data analytics.

This course focuses on collecting, preparing, and analyzing data to create visualizations, dashboards, and stories that can be used to communicate critical business insights. Students will learn how to structure and streamline data analysis projects and highlight their implications efficiently using the most popular visualization tools used by businesses today.

This course teaches data management from an applied perspective. The topics include fundamentals of database management systems, structured query language (SQL) for data analytics, relational database design, and data warehousing.

This course covers the fundamentals of security in the enterprise environment. Included are coverage of risks and vulnerabilities, threat modeling, policy formation, controls and protection methods, encryption and authentication technologies, network security, cryptography, personnel and physical security issues, as well as ethical and legal issues. This foundational course serves as an introduction to many of the subsequent topics discussed in depth in later security courses. Note, this course has proctored exam(s). This exam requires additional technology, if student uses online proctoring.

The prevalence of data breaches, identity theft, and the dark net today makes the study of digital cybercrime, ethics, and compliance highly relevant to information security. Laws related to intellectual property, privacy, and criminal and civil proceedings will be discussed. Ethical behavior and frameworks for navigating between customer and business concerns in the workplace are also emphasized.

As organizations have fallen victim to the proliferation of cyberattacks in recent years, many have responded reactively, thereby developing a posture that "wins the previous war." However, regulations and laws are now necessitating a more proactive stance. Organizations that can develop an effective security strategy stand to gain as they balance business with security. This course is about leading organizations in developing an effective information security program via policies, frameworks, architecture, standards, organizational hierarchies, controls and metrics with the end goal being a proactive security posture tailored to the specific business needs.

In order to effectively lead a criminal justice organization, one must understand the principles and practices of effective leadership. Having the ability to inspire, challenge, and encourage subordinates toward a shared mission and goal is a critical skill that criminal justice leaders must possess. Additionally, having the tools to assess, evaluate and make critical decisions in extreme situations is necessary for all criminal justice leaders. This criminal justice leadership course equips students with the skills necessary to ethically and effectively lead a criminal justice organization. They will also be challenged to create practical leadership policies for criminal justice organizations.

Students learn to think strategically about leading organizations operating in a public environment where collaboration is required to achieve organizational goals. The course focuses on using strategic and network management concepts and tools to improve organizational performance and advance the public interest. The importance of strategically managing organizational communication is also examined. Finally, students develop skills for effectively communicating strategic planning methods, approaches, and decisions with colleagues, elected officials, the media, and the public.

Students learn to think and act as ethical leaders within a public service context. The course focuses on putting administrative decisions and organizational plans into action. Students learn to use leadership concepts and tools and interpersonal skills for working with individuals and groups to effectively execute administrative plans and make decisions. Students also develop knowledge and skills for communicating and collaborating with internal and external stakeholders; particularly elected officials, the media, interest groups, and the public.

This course presents the fundamentals of crime scene investigation. During this course, students will learn about the identification, documentation, and collection of physical evidence at crime scenes. Students will assess techniques for crime scene documentation including note-taking, photography, fingerprinting, and sketching. They will also assess collection and packaging techniques for different types of evidence to ensure that evidence is protected for future examination and analysis. Students will be challenged to think critically about the management of crime scenes, evidence collection, analysis procedures, and evidence admissibility in court.

This course covers principles of photography in a digital format. During this course, students will be provided with a technical foundation of photography that can assist with the documentation and presentation of evidence in criminal investigations. Students will learn how to capture and analyze photographic evidence. Additionally, students will understand best practices for capturing and maintaining photographic evidence in crime scene investigations.

This course focuses on the processing, recovery, and photography of latent fingerprint evidence. During this course, students will learn techniques for processing latent fingerprints on various surface types, using both mechanical and chemical techniques. Students will learn how to analyze fingerprint types. They will learn the principles used in classifying and matching fingerprints. Additionally, students will learn how fingerprints are used in court and the extent to which fingerprint identification is sound and scientific.