Sapphire Harper’s Profile

This is an in­tro­duc­tory and foun­da­tional course in the study of crime and jus­tice. It is de­signed to in­tro­duce stu­dents to the var­i­ous his­tor­i­cal and con­tem­po­rary the­o­ries and em­pir­i­cal re­search used to un­der­stand de­viant and crim­i­nal be­hav­ior. This course takes a crit­i­cal ap­proach to the study of the de­f­i­n­i­tion and mea­sure­ment of crime, as well as ap­pli­ca­tions of these the­o­ries to prac­tice and in pol­icy. Of­fend­ing and vic­tim­iza­tion, as these re­late to spe­cific crime types (i.e., white col­lar crime, vi­o­lent crime, sex crime, drug re­lated crimes, etc.) will be ex­plored.

This is an introductory and foundational course in the study of crime and justice. It is designed to introduce students to the various historical and contemporary theories and empirical research used to understand deviant and criminal behavior. This course takes a critical approach to the study of the definition and measurement of crime, as well as applications of these theories to practice and in policy. Offending and victimization, as these relate to specific crime types (i.e., white collar crime, violent crime, sex crime, drug related crimes, etc.) will be explored.