Forensic Services Certificate

Course Descriptions

COUNSL604 Foundations of Mental Health Counseling
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Units
The intent of this course is to provide students with basic information on the principles and practices of mental health counseling. Topics include the history and philosophy of mental health counseling, professional identity, the roles of the mental health counselor, professional ethics, managed care, various contexts of practice and organizational structures, mandated clients, crisis intervention services, prevention, consultation, and an understanding of how diversity influences the practice of mental health counseling. Particular attention is given to the practice of mental health counseling in a range of such urban settings as homeless shelters and outpatient centers.
PSYCH614 Forensic Psychology
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Units
This course examines the intersection of criminal law and clinical psychology. Topics include those that are frequently the concern of forensic mental health clinicians, namely recidivism, violence risk assessment, insanity, legal competence, and false memory. These topics are studied from cultural and developmental (childhood, adolescence, adult) perspectives.
SOCIOL598 Field Experience Project
1 Unit
This course includes site visits and observation time spent in the field at state or social service agencies.
SOCIOL618 Psychiatric Epidemiology and Forensic Services
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Units
This course provides necessary professional skills and help students understand forensic evidence and its use in courts.
SOCIOL621 Social Psychiatry>
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Units
Sociological analysis of psychiatric theories and practices; examination of the effect of social structure on the construction, diagnosis, and treatment of mental disorders.
Prerequisite: Graduate degree student in Applied Sociology.
SOCIOL623 Alcohol, Drugs & Crime
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Units
This course focuses on the multifaceted associations among alcohol, drug use, and crime in America. It distinguishes legal and policy issues from competing paradigms and contrasts criminal justice and public health models. State-of-the-art etiology, epidemiology, prevention, and treatment studies correlating criminality and substance misuse are assessed and evaluated in historical and sociocultural contexts. The course highlights social service systems in relation to current practices and institutionalized definitions of health and illness, crime and criminals.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing or permission of instructor.
SOCIOL667 Sociology of Law
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Units
A general analysis of the social origins and consequences of law and legal process; special emphasis on law as a method of conflict resolution and as a social control structure, and on law and social change. Attention also given to law in other societies, including non-literate societies, to the evolution and development of legal structures, and to patterns of due process and criminal law.
SOCIOL682 Sociology of Health and Illness
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Units
This course highlights the role of the social sciences in dealing with problems of health care practice, focusing on research contributions to health maintenance, prevention, treatment, and quality of care. Topics include the nature and goals of client-practitioner relationships, health education, behavioral and psychosomatic medicine, and the linkages between social problems and medical problems.
Prerequisite: Graduate degree student in Applied Sociology.
SOCIOL690 Classic and Contemporary Views of the Nature of Crime
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Units
This course examines the social nature of crime. It explores a variety of theoretical perspectives, including anomie/strain theory, social disorganization theory, social control theory, social learning theories, opportunity theory, deterrence theory, and conflict theory. The various theories are examined through an extensive review of recent empirical studies. Special attention is given to methodological problems in specifying theories for empirical study. Discussion topics also include the adaptability of these theories to social policy and their varying political and social acceptability during particular historical periods.
SOCIOL691 Contemporary Issues in Responding to Crime
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Units
This seminar focuses on responses to crime. As individual citizens and as a community, we respond to crime in a variety of ways. The issues covered in this course may therefore include anything from informal responses - such as fear of crime, the reporting of crime to the police, and the organizing of neighborhood watch groups and crime stopper programs - to formal responses, which include police decisions to arrest or handle informally, bail decisions, issues of sentencing, the use of imprisonment, community corrections, parole and probation, and the death penalty. The course emphasizes the social nature of responses to crime and generally focuses on one or a few of these topics each semester.
Prerequisite: Graduate degree student in Applied Sociology.