Upper Level Courses: 4000-Level
CJ-4105 Seminar in Youth and the Criminal Justice System:
This course will include an overview and critical examination of the important systemic and policy issues pertaining to youth and the criminal justice system. The key theme of the course is to evaluate the effectiveness of current youth justice strategies, interventions, and legal reforms and to develop informed strategies for change. Specific topics include an examination of public discourse on youth crime and justice both in a historical and current context, the subjective social constructions of adolescents involved with the youth justice system, empirical research on the nature and extent of youth crime and a comparative analysis of the policy choices made in developing frameworks for responding to youth justice.
Restrictions:Honours Form Required
Prerequisite: CJ-1002 or the former CJ-1101
CJ-4105 Course Syllabus [PDF]
CJ-4116 Program & Policy Evaluation:
This course examines methodologies for the formal assessment of social programs using quantitative and qualitative methods of inquiry including survey, interview, observation and case study techniques. The political and social processes framing evaluation research are also discussed. The course requires a student project to apply lessons learned.
Restrictions:Honours Form Required
Prerequisites: CJ-2101/3 or permission of the Instructor.
CJ-4116 Course Syllabus [PDF]
Note: There is a lab component to this course, CJ-4116L - Program Evaluation - Lab
CJ-4122 Capstone:
The course traces the intellectual history of the discipline and evlauates key issues and debates in its theoretical and philosophical development broader questions about the nature and scope of justice and criminal justice are also explored. The course orients students to the major areas of advanced criminal justice inquiry including criminal justice theory; law andthe courts process; policing; and punishment and corrections.
Restrictions:Honours Form Required
Prerequisite: CJ-1002 or the former CJ-1101
CJ-4123 Honours Thesis in Criminal Justice:
The Honours Thesis provides students the opportunity to complete an extensive research paper or conduct a research project on a subject of interest relevant to the discipline. In addition to completing the project, students in this course are expected to meet with a faculty supervisor on a regular schedule throughout the academic year. Presentation of their reseach results verbally and in thesis form to the Criminal Justice Department are integral to the course.
Restrictions:Honours Form Required
Prerequisite: CJ-4122
CJ-4130 Advanced Criminal Law:
This course examines Canadian criminal law in depth with a particular emphasis on the constitutional issues affecting the disposition of the criminal trial. In addition, complex substantive areas are also surveyed. The course focuses on conceptually advanced criminal law areas including inchoate offences, advanced issues in defences, sexual offences, public order offences, offences against the state and against the administration of justice, and offences pertaining to group responsibility. Students are introduced to the fundamentals of legal research and reasoning through course assignments.
Restrictions:Honours Form Required
Prerequisite: CJ-2130/3 and CJ-3130/3.
CJ-4130 Course Syllabus [PDF]
CJ-4300 Critical Criminal Justice Theory:
This course examines some of the major critical theoretical perspectives of the social sciences. The course is intended of to offer an advanced discussion of Marxist, Foucaultian, and newly emerging critical realist perspectives as they are used to make sense of criminal justice.
Restrictions:Honours Form Required
Prerequisite: CJ-2100/3
CJ-4400 Selected Topics in Criminal Justice:
This course studies specific topics in Criminal Justice at an advanced level. Students should consult the department regarding potential offerings in a given year.
Restrictions:Honours Form Required
Note: This course may be taken more then once so long as the topic has changed.
CJ-4401Criminal Justice Directed Reading:
In this course, criminal justice readings and assignments are arranged between an individual student and department faculty member. Topics may not duplicate regular course offerings in criminal justice or other departments. A course outline with assignments, meeting schedule between the instructor and student, written assignments and course weights must be approved in advance, with written permission of the instructor and Honours Program Chair.
Additionalrequirements: A minimum of 3.0 GPA in Criminal Justice courses, and completion of at least one 3000-level Criminal Justice course.
Restrictions: Honours Form Required
CJ-4500 Colonialism and Criminal Justice in Canada:
This seminar explores the relationship between settler colonialism and the Criminal Justice system in Canada. The criminal justice system is considered as one among many interlocking systems that shape the life chances of Indigenous peoples in the present, and continues to be shaped by Indigenous peoples' resistance to attempted domination. Topics may include: Indigenous legal systems; deaths in custody; policing; murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls; social work; resistance and resurgence movements; and restorative justice. Emphasis is placed on reading Indigenous scholars from across Turtle Island and cultivating tools to critically engage with hegemonic narratives about Indigenous criminalization.
Restrictions: Honours Form Required.
Requisite Courses: CJ-1002(3) or the former CJ-1101(6), or permisison of the instructor.
CJ-4656 Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Preventing Wrongful Convictions:
This course uses an interdisciplinary lens to examine the issue of wrongful convictions in Canada. A combination of legal and social-science perspectives and readings will be used to identify how and why wrongful convictions take place and to discuss evidence-based remedies to reduce their likelihood. Topics may include the roles of: eyewitness memory; false confessions; plea bargaining; forensic biases; prosecutors and defense counsel; misleading scientific evidence; and unsavoury Crown witnesses. This course may be co-taught between the UW Criminal Justice Department and UM Faculty of Law.
Restrictions:Honours Form Required.
Requisite Courses:CJ-2130(3) and CJ-3130(3)
CJ-4800 Research Field Practicum:
This applied course will give students the opportunity for service based learning. Students will spend eight hours per week at a previously arranged field site and engage in service.
Restrictions:Honours Form Required.
Students may not hold credit for this course and SOC-4800.
Requisite Courses: CJ-2101
More information can be found here.