Earn college credits for criminal justice courses - including topics such as Ethics in Criminal Justice, Crime Scene Investigation Basics, Police Studies, and more - with Penn Foster College.
Whether you want to get a jump-start on your college education or earn additional credits towards a degree, Penn Foster College is here to help. Study online, at your own time, and receive support when you need it from our expert faculty and staff.
Criminal Justice Courses
Featured Courses
This course examines the purpose and functions of the criminal justice system with attention paid to the police, courts, and corrections on the local, state, and federal levels.
Begins the study of ethics from the larger issues of morality and moral behavior; discusses the issues of ethics and specific aspects of criminal justice; and management; reviews the consideration of professionalism and of ethics for everyone in society.
Begins with a review of issues involving information, security, and the privacy of information; and proceeds to examine a broadening range of additional criminal threats, based upon actual cases.
All Courses
This course will focus on the most common agencies involved in running the criminal justice system on both the state and federal level. The organization of each agency will be examined with a detailed review of its function, administrative procedures, personnel, planning, budgeting, and record keeping.
Course Requirements3 credits
Requires Proctored Exam
Prerequisite: Criminology, Introduction to Public Policy, and Criminal Law
Textbook: Justice Administration
Computer Specifications: You will need high-speed internet access to begin your program. You will need access to a Microsoft® Windows® based computer running Windows 7® or later or an Apple® Mac® computer running OS X® or later, and an email account to complete your program with Penn Foster.
Begins with a review of issues involving information, security, and the privacy of information; and proceeds to examine a broadening range of additional criminal threats, based upon actual cases. Includes a consideration of cybercrime, systems abuse, and the hacker culture; looks to issues of prevention and information security, with an emphasis on the need to take immediate steps against this likely criminal activity.
Course Requirements3 credits
Computer Specifications: You will need high-speed internet access to begin your program. You will need access to a Microsoft® Windows® based computer running Windows 7® or later or an Apple® Mac® computer running OS X® or later, and an email account to complete your program with Penn Foster.
Looks at the relationship among the three main actors — the judiciary, the defense and the prosecution — involved in a prosecution. Starting from an overview of the basic structures of courts, the course will then look to the successive steps involved in prosecutions; covers plea bargains, trials, juries, sentencing, and appeals.
Course Requirements3 credits
Requires Proctored Exam
Computer Specifications: You will need high-speed internet access to begin your program. You will need access to a Microsoft® Windows® based computer running Windows 7® or later or an Apple® Mac® computer running OS X® or later, and an email account to complete your program with Penn Foster.
This course uses traditional educational methods and computer simulation to provide an understanding of the scientific theory as well as the actual practices and techniques used to process a crime scene. The student will learn how crime scene professionals protect themselves and the evidence at a crime scene and the different roles law enforcement professionals execute at the scene of a crime. The course also describes the many types of evidence and how evidence is collected and secured before it is processed by a crime lab.
Course Requirements3 credits
Requires Proctored Exam
Textbook: Practical Crime Scene Processing and Investigation
Computer Specifications: You will need high-speed internet access to begin your program. You will need access to a Microsoft® Windows® based computer running Windows 7® or later or an Apple® Mac® computer running OS X® or later, and an email account to complete your program with Penn Foster.
With this course, you’ll review the history of criminal law, from its start in the common law (and the principles of applying case law) to its contemporary forms of statutory and regulatory law. You’ll look at crimes and their underlying elements, consider what a prosecutor needs to show in order to secure a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt, examine the traditional form of criminal law as well as strict liability and victimless crimes, discuss a range of criminal offenses, such as inchoate and property-based crimes, crimes of violence and administrative crimes, and consider the excuses, justifications, and defenses to the prosecution of such activities.
Course Requirements3 credits
Computer Specifications: You will need high-speed internet access to begin your program. You will need access to a Microsoft® Windows® based computer running Windows 7® or later or an Apple® Mac® computer running OS X® or later, and an email account to complete your program with Penn Foster.
Discusses the most pressing topic for law enforcement: terrorism; reviews some of the theories advanced to account for acts of terror; considers history and how some groups have used acts of terror to accomplish their goals; looks at foreign and domestic acts of terror and the political agendas of those engaged in such acts; and looks to pressing issues, such as the forms that acts of terror can take.
Course Requirements3 credits
Requires Proctored Exam
Prerequisite: Introduction to Criminal Justice, Police Studies, Courts, Criminal Law
Textbook: Criminal Procedures; The Innocent Man
Computer Specifications: You will need high-speed internet access to begin your program. You will need access to a Microsoft® Windows® based computer running Windows 7® or later or an Apple® Mac® computer running OS X® or later, and an email account to complete your program with Penn Foster.
Following an introduction to criminology, the student will explore criminological theories, general types of crime, special types of crime, as well as the future of crime. The course covers property and white collar crime, in addition to organized crime and computer crime. Methods for predicting what the future holds for crime are also discussed.
Course Requirements3 credits
Computer Specifications: You will need high-speed internet access to begin your program. You will need access to a Microsoft® Windows® based computer running Windows 7® or later or an Apple® Mac® computer running OS X® or later, and an email account to complete your program with Penn Foster.
Begins the study of ethics from the larger issues of what constitutes morality and moral behavior; looks at how ethics develop; discusses the issues of ethics and specific aspects of criminal justice, including justice, law enforcement, courts, punishment and corrections, and management; reviews the consideration of professionalism and of ethics for everyone in society.
Course Requirements3 credits
Requires Proctored Exam
Textbook: Everyday Ethics for the Criminal Justice Professional
Computer Specifications: You will need high-speed internet access to begin your program. You will need access to a Microsoft® Windows® based computer running Windows 7® or later or an Apple® Mac® computer running OS X® or later, and an email account to complete your program with Penn Foster.
This course examines the fundamental rules of evidence from inception, preservation, and admission at trial. All types of evidence will be studied including the historical development of the hearsay and exclusionary rules, together with their permitted exceptions.
Course Requirements3 credits
Requires Proctored Exam
Prerequisite: Criminology, Criminal Law
Textbook: Criminal Evidence
Computer Specifications: You will need high-speed internet access to begin your program. You will need access to a Microsoft® Windows® based computer running Windows 7® or later or an Apple® Mac® computer running OS X® or later, and an email account to complete your program with Penn Foster.
This course examines the purpose and functions of the criminal justice system with attention paid to the police, courts, and corrections on the local, state, and federal levels. It explains the limitations of a system initially designed to respond to the needs of Colonial America. The course also focuses on individuals’ involvement in the criminal justice system, as citizens and as actors, and how that involvement affects the system.
Course Requirements3 credits
Computer Specifications: You will need high-speed internet access to begin your program. You will need access to a Microsoft® Windows® based computer running Windows 7® or later or an Apple® Mac® computer running OS X® or later, and an email account to complete your program with Penn Foster.
Examines the history and development of private security; reviews the state of private security today, including, but not limited to, liability and the relationship between public and private security; focuses on issues regarding prevention and loss control; looks at investigation and prosecution; discusses trends in security, including the contemporary development of security systems and approaches toward security in light of recent events.
Course Requirements3 credits
Requires Proctored Exam
Textbook: Introduction to Private Security: Theory Meets Practice
Computer Specifications: You will need high-speed internet access to begin your program. You will need access to a Microsoft® Windows® based computer running Windows 7® or later or an Apple® Mac® computer running OS X® or later, and an email account to complete your program with Penn Foster.
Course opens with a consideration of how organized crime has developed and the structure of organized crime; looks at the different types of criminal activity typical to organized crime; reviews international organized crime as the principles underlying organized crime would naturally lead to expansion. Course closes with a consideration of the tools and means available to law enforcement to battle organized crime. Each chapter includes links to Internet sites where students can go to find more information on the subject matter covered in the chapter.
Course Requirements3 credits
Computer Specifications: You will need high-speed internet access to begin your program. You will need access to a Microsoft® Windows® based computer running Windows 7® or later or an Apple® Mac® computer running OS X® or later, and an email account to complete your program with Penn Foster.
Considers the development of the police subculture and how that has shaped different strategies for police management; proceeds to examine those basic organizational concepts unique to policing; looks at the different responsibilities and how to satisfy those responsibilities within the context of policing; studies the image that collective bargaining has on management of police.
Course Requirements3 credits
Requires Proctored Exam
Prerequisite: Introduction to Criminal Justice, Ethics in Criminal Justice, Police Studies
Textbook: Organizational Behavior and Management in Law Enforcement
Computer Specifications: You will need high-speed internet access to begin your program. You will need access to a Microsoft® Windows® based computer running Windows 7® or later or an Apple® Mac® computer running OS X® or later, and an email account to complete your program with Penn Foster.
Looks at the role of policing in America; discusses the existence of a police subculture, the role of management and the nature of patrolling; considers different strategies for investigating and solving problems; includes a discussion about ethics, civil liability, and possible directions for policing in the future.
Course Requirements3 credits
Computer Specifications: You will need high-speed internet access to begin your program. You will need access to a Microsoft® Windows® based computer running Windows 7® or later or an Apple® Mac® computer running OS X® or later, and an email account to complete your program with Penn Foster.
This course uses traditional educational methods and computer simulation to provide an understanding of the scientific theory as well as the actual practices and techniques used to process a crime scene. The student will learn how crime scene professionals protect themselves and the evidence at a crime scene and the different roles law enforcement professionals execute at the scene of a crime. The course also describes the many types of evidence and how evidence is collected and secured before it is processed by a crime lab.
Course Requirements3 credits
Computer Specifications: You will need high-speed internet access to begin your program. You will need access to a Microsoft® Windows® based computer running Windows 7® or later or an Apple® Mac® computer running OS X® or later, and an email account to complete your program with Penn Foster.
Looks to how criminal justice has responded to the heightened interest of society paying more attention to the victims of crime in the last few decades; presents the laws designed to support victims, including but not limited to programs and services; examines the growing Victim Rights Movement; explores a range of kinds of victimization, its origins, and will consider what segments of society have been most vulnerable to certain crimes.
Course Requirements3 credits
Requires Proctored Exam
Prerequisite: Introduction to Criminal Justice, Ethics in Criminal Justice, Criminal Law
Textbook: Victimology
Computer Specifications: You will need high-speed internet access to begin your program. You will need access to a Microsoft® Windows® based computer running Windows 7® or later or an Apple® Mac® computer running OS X® or later, and an email account to complete your program with Penn Foster.
Your course includes:
Will credits from Penn Foster College transfer into another college degree program?
Penn Foster College credits have been accepted for transfer into colleges across the country. Students should check with a specific college to see if they accept our credits, as credit transfer can vary depending on the school. Also, the American Council on Education's College Credit Recommendation Service (ACE CREDIT) has evaluated and recommended college credit for many Penn Foster College courses. No form of accreditation guarantees that any learning institution will accept credits from any school as transfer credits. For more information on transferring credits, click here.
I live in Jamaica. Can I enroll in an individual college course?
Unfortunately, individual college courses are only available for individuals living in the United States. We do offer a variety of Bachelor, Associate and Undergraduate Certificate programs for non-U.S. residents through our sister school, Penn Foster College International.
What if I need a course that isn’t listed on your site?
Call our Admissions Specialists to discuss the specific course you are looking for. We may have a course that will meet your needs. You can reach them at 800-238-9554.
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