Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice

Degree Completion Program

Personnel trends in law enforcement over the past 15 years have stressed the importance of education in addition to time in service when considering candidates for promotion. In addition, candidates seeking entry into state police forces or federal law enforcement agencies are much more competitive if they possess a bachelor's degree. Aspen's Bachelor Degree Completion Program provides you with the critical and current knowledge needed in today's law enforcement community. Dramatically increase your potential (without setting foot on a campus) through our degree completion program.

The objectives of the program are to provide students with the ability to: Explain the scientific study of crime, criminals, the law-making process, the criminal justice system, and the treatment of offenders. Develop critical thinking, analytical, and interpersonal skills applicable to real-world problems. Implement innovative solutions for law enforcement, criminal investigation, and management and administration of criminal justice related activities. Achieve career goals and rapid advancement in criminal justice and related fields.

Bachelor Degree Completion Program Admission Requirements: This program is designed to benefit junior law-enforcement professionals who have yet to complete an undergraduate degree, and who now seek to transfer accumulated undergraduate credits, or an Associate Degree into an accredited and widely recognized college degree. Aspen University's degree requirement is the equivalent of 120 credit hours of earned credit. The degree program is designed for students who have successfully completed a minimum 60 credit hours of undergraduate studies including general education requirements, or earned an Associate Degree from an accredited institution. A minimum GPA of 2.0 is required for transfer credits. The 60 credits offered by Aspen include 39 credits of major courses and 21 credits in electives. All candidates must submit a completed application. In addition, candidates must submit the following: - Evidence of an Associate's Degree or completion of a minimum 60 credit hours of undergraduate studies including general education requirements. This must be in the form of official transcripts from accredited colleges or universities, or an equivalent certified degree from a recognized foreign college or university. - Official transcripts of all previous baccalaureate study must be sent directly to Aspen University by the granting institution(s). - A resume, curriculum vita, or list of professional accomplishments. Personal Attention from Instructors Students receive valuable, personalized instructor-time when they need it. Our faculty is remarkably qualified. All instructors hold advanced degrees and many have terminal degrees within their disciplines, and they are highly skilled in sharing information through distance learning channels. One other important quality we look for in our faculty: caring. That's why you'll find they're there when you need them, to answer questions, clarify concepts, or to just help work out a problem.

Visit the FAQ page to learn more about our course delivery methods.

Please contact our admissions office if you have any questions about your ability to enroll in the Bachelor's Completion Program.

Course Listing

Two Proctored Exams will be required for this program. The first will be given half way through and the second will be given at the end.

Major Courses and Capstone Course (39 credits)

Elective Courses (21 credits - required from the following)

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Students that complete the following six undergraduate upper-divisional three credit courses will receive a specialization noted on their transcripts and diploma in: "Major Crime Investigative Procedures".

CJ420 Criminalistics and Forensic Investigation
CJ425 Criminal Investigation I
CJ426 Criminal Investigation II
CJ430 Criminal Evidence
CJ450 Homicide Investigation I
CJ451 Homicide Investigation II

Course Descriptions:

Major Courses

Effective Professional Communications
This course provides an understanding of research and communications in a professional environment. It familiarizes students with the techniques, strategies, and forms of writing used in the professional world. Through library research and online information gathering, this course will increase students' knowledge of organizational writing and communications including case analysis, data interpretation, problem solving, and report writing. Students will also learn presentation techniques using Microsoft PowerPoint.

Ethics in Law Enforcement
This course explores ethical standards and codes in criminal justice professions. The scope of the course covers the Law Enforcement Code of Ethics, American Bar Association' Standards of Professional Responsibility, the American Jail Association Code of Ethics, and the American Correctional Association Code of Ethics. It also explores roles of professional organizations and agencies, ethics and community relations, and civil liability in law enforcement and correctional environments. The students will study cases presented to illustrate ethical issues and derive solutions to ethical dilemmas using critical thinking.

Community Policing
This course focuses on an innovative and topical model of policing being adopted in many communities throughout the country. Community policing is not merely a means of better addressing community needs, but a philosophy that turns traditional policing on its head by empowering the community rather than dictating to the community. Community policing requires a new breed of police officers who not only serve as law enforcers, but also play the important roles of advisors, facilitators, and supporters of new community-based initiatives. As the community's conduit for positive change, community policing enlists citizens in the process of policing themselves.

Police Management
This course is designed to be an introduction to a wide variety of issues that confront today's modern police manager. The complex nature of policing in modern society mandate a thorough understanding of such issues as organizational culture, leadership styles, transactional analysis, problem identification and decision making, management by objectives, productivity, fiscal management, civil liability, accreditation, and ethics, to name but a few. This course will explore these issues.

Supervision of Police
This course explores what a modern police supervisor is and what that person should know and do, as well as when and how to do it. The course addresses the issue of role conflict that someone typically experiences when in the situation of having to meet the expectations of numerous sets of constituencies. This course will provide an understanding of the group behaviors and organizational dynamics necessary to understand the fundamentals of police administration.

Criminalistics and Forensic Investigation
This is an introductory course to criminalistics which explores the history and scope of forensic science. Criminalistics, or forensic science is the application of science to those criminal and civil laws that are enforced by police agencies in a criminal justice system. The scope of this course includes discovery at a crime scene, the most important location of evidence; physical evidence; analytical techniques for organic and inorganic materials; forensic toxicology; and firearms, ammunition, unique tool marks, and various impressions (e.g., shoe prints, fabric properties, and bloodstains).

Criminal Investigation I
This course presents the fundamentals of criminal investigation and their application to the more important felonies. It will also help the student to understand how detective work should be performed and to demystify the investigative process. Since criminal investigation must be conducted within the framework of our democratic system, those U.S. Supreme Court decisions that affect the investigative function are quoted extensively. In this course you will find that the ability to conduct any type of inquiry can be honed by studying the investigative process.

Criminal Investigation II
This course builds on the fundamentals of criminal investigation that were studied in Criminal Investigation I, and illustrates their application to some of the special issues presently plaguing law enforcement worldwide--such as terrorism and enterprise crime. In this course you will find that the ability to conduct any type of inquiry can be honed by studying the investigative process so Case Studies are illustrated.

Criminal Evidence
This course builds on the foundations laid in Criminal Law by exploring the principles and rules associated with the management of criminal evidence. Topics covered include the collection of evidence, how to handle evidence to prevent contamination, chain of custody, and preparation of evidence for presentation in the courtroom to attain criminal convictions. The rules of evidence are thoroughly discussed. The scope of the course encompasses physical evidence, witness testimony, polygraphs and technical evidence.

Kinesic Interviewing
Of all the topics taught in law enforcement academies and criminal justice training centers throughout the United States, one of the critical topics that always seem to little or no attention is the principles of interview and interrogation. For that reason, this course on Kinesic Interviewing equips the criminal justice student with a complete and practical set of procedures and techniques needed for interviewing and interrogation. It is vital to any case that investigators obtain essential information from victims, witnesses, informants, and confessions from suspects in such a way as to stand up to court scrutiny.

Juvenile Justice
This course provides an orientation to the area of juvenile delinquency, including the origins, causes, and course of development of delinquent behavior. The course outlines problems facing modern juveniles, and compares adult and juvenile justice systems. Topics include intervention, apprehension, referral, and preventive techniques. Juvenile problems addressed include chemical dependency, mental illness, and compulsive and habitual offenders. Finally the course outlines the problems inherent in the police handling of juveniles and the function of juvenile courts.

Corrections
This course provides an introduction to the corrections system. The growing population of persons in prisons constitutes a management challenge for all law enforcement communities and a potential source of governmental liability. This course will discuss the historical development of corrections, and examine the goals of criminal sentencing, the management of jails and prisons, the concept of alternative sentencing, guidelines on prisoner rights, and issues associated with parole and probation.

Senior Capstone
The capstone project allows students to apply the knowledge and skills acquired in their courses to the work environment. The Senior Capstone emphasizes the student initiative in defining and investigating problems or projects focusing on integration and application of theory through research. This project is completely individualized; students are encouraged to select work-related projects that are of particular interest to them and that will result in professional growth and benefit the organization. Recommended final course for Business Administration majors.

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Electives

Homicide Investigation I
The purpose of this course is to equip the criminal justice student with a complete and practical set of methods for processing a homicide investigation. This course guides the student on what to do upon arriving on the scene of a violent and sudden death. Guidelines are provided on how to manage the scene and analyze the evidence to determine the likely cause of death and initiate the process of identifying the perpetrator. Techniques that were introduced in the major courses are applied to the specific purpose of homicide investigation to provide a sound foundation of effective police work.

Homicide Investigation II
This course is the second part of homicide investigation with CJ590 Homicide Investigation I as the prerequisite course. The purpose of this course is to equip the criminal justice student with a complete and practical set of procedures and techniques that are needed after the homicide scene has been processed. The student proceeds through the follow-on work necessary to prepare a solid case for presentation in court and the attainment of a homicide conviction.

Investigation of Organized Crime
This course explores the origins and development of organized crime in the United States. It described the types of criminal organizations looking at their goals, structures, and activities. The history of the major investigations into organized crime syndicates is discussed and the effective legal and law enforcement strategies are outlined to combat various types of criminal organizations.

Investigation of Terrorism
The Global War on Terror has posed new challenges for law enforcement organizations to contribute, along with military forces, to the homeland security of the United States. The purpose of this course is to offer the latest information on the technology, weapons (including weapons of mass destruction), transportation modes of terrorists, and profiles of terrorists themselves. Likely trends in 21st Century terrorism and the law enforcement response are also discussed.

Investigation of Sex Crimes
Recent statistics reveal that just slightly more than half of reported rape cases result in the arrest of a suspect. These statistics become even more troubling when realizing that less than half of all rapes believed to occur are reported to law enforcement officials. Concurrent with the increasing numbers of rape victims, there has been a burgeoning of research into myriad factors interwoven with sexual violence and its aftermath. This course will provide an understanding of the latest research and guidelines concerning the investigation of sex crimes.

Investigation of Arson
In terms of property values destroyed, arson is one of the most serious crimes in the United States today. Yet a surprisingly small percentage of arson crimes are ever solved, meaning that a large number of arsonists are never brought to justice. This course explores the nature of this crime, to include motives such as insurance fraud, methods and techniques of setting deliberate fires, the pathology of serial arsonists, and effective cooperation between police and fire departments along with other agencies.

Investigation of Computer Crime
The purpose of this course is to equip the criminal justice student with a complete and practical set of technological procedures and techniques for digital crime. This course will covers the challenging process of seeking scientific truth through objective and thorough analysis of digital evidence. As computer criminals grow more clever, digital forensics must keep pace in order to pierce the veil of deception that makes such crimes as identity theft more common. This course will prepare the criminal justice student to develop in this field as a forensic science discipline.

Traffic Accident Investigation
Each year in the United States traffic accidents result in thousands of men, women and children killed or maimed and millions of dollars in insurance payouts. Law enforcement professionals play a critical role in the investigation of traffic accidents to ensure that criminal culpability is properly assigned and liability claims are fairly processed. This course teaches the techniques of traffic accident investigation including determination of which motorists are at fault, the impact of environmental factors such as weather or illumination, and the impact of impairments such as alcohol or drugs.

The Investigation of White Collar Crime
The illegal appropriation of corporate funds every year costs share-holders and investors millions of dollars. This course provides an overview of the forensics of accounting, so that investigators can trace paper trails of white collar crimes to put together solid cases which lead to convictions. The course includes an overview of this criminal endeavor, common scams used by executive criminals, investigative techniques, and guidelines for the collection and presentation of evidence.

Security Systems, Procedures, and Developments
This course covers the various, diverse components which make up an effective security system, to include such areas as the relationship between private security and policing, technology, and structure of security operations. Security issues discussed range from security equipment and design theory to security management practice. In light of the industry changes since the 9-11-01 World Trade Center attacks, this course discusses the ramifications of Homeland Security in the United States as it relates to cargo and travel security, potential areas of attack and target hardening techniques, and the use of current technologies to combat new threats. Traditional physical and guard security is covered in addition to the advances in the electronic and computer security areas including biometric security, access control, CCTV surveillance advances.

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