Justice Studies (JUST)

This course is designed to help justice studies majors explore opportunities for internships, careers, graduate and professional education, and civic and community engagement. The course focuses on developing skills in resume writing, interviewing and networking techniques, job and internship search skills, and investigating graduate and law school opportunities.

This course introduces students to the justice studies major and the interdisciplinary field of justice studies. Students will explore classical and contemporary conceptions and theories of justice and their application to public issues as well as broad and holistic approaches to justice including social, global and criminal justice.

This course provides an introduction to the nature of the crime problem in the United States, including patterns of victimization and offending and the ways in which the criminal justice system responds to these behaviors.

This course provides an in-depth exploration of theoretical perspectives pertaining to the two central realms of criminological inquiry: crime and the response to crime (criminal justice). Both classic and contemporary perspectives are examined. The course will examine why people commit crime, why crime occurs, why it differs across groups and the objectives underlying crime control policy.

This course serves as a theoretical introduction to the social justice track of the Justice Studies major. It includes an examination of the major concepts regarding inequality. How do we define and create inequality? Can we rid ourselves of inequality or should we accept it as a necessary element in society?

This course is an introduction to the study and practice of social justice. Students will learn to identify and analyze historical and contemporary forms of oppression as well as a diverse range of social justice interventions, including policymaking, community development, collective action and other approaches that aim to end oppression and further social justice.

This course introduces the student to the concept and reality of justice in the United States. It is a broad-based, interdisciplinary consideration of justice: What it is, what it means, and how it intersects with society and social institutions in the United States. Philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of the notion of justice and the historical context of justice in American society will be considered. May be used for general education credit. May not be used for major credit.

A survey of different definitions of justice relating to the operation and development of a global community in international affairs.

This course applies the concepts and frameworks of global justice to examine a selection of the world's greatest challenges, placing global affairs in historical, geographical and political contexts.

This course provides an overview of the various systems of justice existent in different cultures throughout the globe. The emphasis here is on legal systems and the ways in which they are used to promote--or not promote--justice. The course also includes a discussion of such topics as war, peace, terrorism, political and social oppression and the ways in which these phenomena are either created by or ameliorated by justice systems.

This course provides an examination of topics which are of current interest in the field of justice studies. The class may be repeated for credit when course content changes.

The purpose of this course is to provide a critical and interdisciplinary examination of the relationship between justice and criminal behavior. Drawing from social psychology and criminology, this course will examine various conceptions of justice, the implications that (in)justice has for the perpetration of crime and how principles of justice operate in the criminal justice system. In addition, this course will briefly investigate miscarriages of justice and the implications they have for offending behavior.

This course examines various pressing social problems including, but not limited to, lethal policing, hate crimes, racial profiling and prejudice to illustrate how social psychology affects our understanding of justice. Students will examine how others - ranging from small friendship groups to entire societies - affect an individual and how the individual affects others by learning about various social psychological concepts, such as attributions of blame, stereotypes, attitudes, conformity and altruism. Throughout the course, students will identify the implications individual perceptions and interactions with others have for justice, crime, criminal justice and social justice.

This course explores crimes of the powerful from a global criminological perspective by examining historical and current cases of governmental, corporate and political crime. The complex relationships that will be investigated include how the interests of states, corporations and international financial institutions intersect in the commission of different types of global crimes.

This class provides an overview of the ways in which women are involved in the phenomenon of crime: as victims, as offenders and as employees in the criminal justice system.

This course will critically examine the phenomenon of multicide in society, including mass, serial and spree murder. This course will include: analyzing historical and contemporary examples of multicide; investigating the biological, psychological and sociological correlates of multicide offending; and examining media constructions and assessing their impact on public perceptions.

This course examines how psychological research and theory shed light on the development of criminal careers, the factors that protect children and adolescents from becoming criminals, how being a victim of crime influences well-being, and the efficacy of rehabilitation. Special attention will be paid to the knowledge base on delinquency and childhood/adolescent victimization.

This course provides an overview of patterns, causes and remedies for the various victimizations of children in the United States and throughout the world (abductions, child abuse, sexual exploitation, etc.).

This course is designed to introduce students to the issue of sex offenders in society. Students will consider sexual values in American society and how they relate to the development, thought patterns and behavior of individuals who sexually violate others. Students will learn about theories of sex offending, the effects of sex offending on victims and society, and strategies for treating and managing sex offenders.

This course is designed to give an overview of issues associated with Organized Crime. Organized Crime is an increasingly global phenomenon, and as such the class focuses not only on the situation in the United States, but the rest of the world as well. Attention is also given to the 'businesses' of organized crime (e.g., drug trafficking, counterfeiting), the law enforcement responses to Organized Crime, and the role/depiction of Organized Crime in popular culture.

A comparative study of criminal justice systems derived from the major world legal systems. The relevant background factors, government, laws, law enforcement, courts, corrections and youthful offenders are examined in each representative country studied. Multinational criminal justice organizations and special issues are addressed.

This course provides students with a broad survey of the death penalty as penal sanction and the controversies and issues which surround it. Key topical areas covered are history and foundations, legal landscape, execution and death penalty processes, contemporary issues including innocence, cost, discrimination and deterrence, and perspectives and voices surrounding the death penalty.

This course provides an overview of various perspectives (social, psychological, legal, etc.) on the experience of victimization. Explanations of the phenomenon are discussed in the context of responses to various types of victimization.

Study of substantive criminal law including common law sources and elements of various criminal offenses, justification and defenses.

This course provides students with an overview of contemporary justice issues in a comparative perspective. It includes an introduction to case-studies, comparative research methods and cross-national comparisons of justice issues concerning race and class.

In this course, a broad array of perspectives on law and legal processes in the United States are examined. Students will examine perspectives from the realms of jurisprudence, philosophy, sociology, psychology, economics, anthropology and literature, among others, and will consider the intersection of these realms with law, legal processes, legal evolution and development, and the legal professions.

This course examines the history, philosophy, policies and problems of the treatment of violators by the police, courts and correctional institutions.

This course will explore the nature and value of human rights by investigating some major debates over their status and meaning, and by examining some of the ways people have tried to secure human rights in practice.

This course immerses students in procedures and processes at the local Circuit and General District Courts on Court Square in Harrisonburg. Students gather information and evidence on contemporary legal proceedings and outcomes in these spaces while investigating Circuit Court archives for contextual connections. Simultaneously, at a macro level, students examine the complex relationships between community safety, individual rights, court actors, community members and multifaceted conceptualizations of justice. Students' time is split between courses on campus and in local courtrooms observing and collecting data from court proceedings and engaging with the local judiciary.

This course will examine media constructions of justice. Students will be required to critically analyze the portrayal of justice issues in various media forms including television, internet and film. Attention will be given to the accuracy of such portrayals and whether they have any broader social implications in regards to how we view complex justice issues.

This course examines maps and practices of mapping to analyze distributions of justice and injustice across space. Using case studies, multimedia content and hands-on exercises spanning the fields of criminal, global and social justice, students learn the fundamentals of geospatial analysis while designing their own digital maps and interactive web sites.

This course is an interdisciplinary examination of the causes, structure and consequences of gender oppression. Consistent with the social justice track of the major, notions of fairness, justice, and equality with respect to gendered social, political and economic relations will be examined.

This course focuses on the various intra- and interpersonal processes that underlie situations related to (in)justice at the individual and group levels. Theories, empirical research and real-world examples of social perception (e.g., prejudice and discrimination), social influence (e.g., attitudes, conformity) and social relations (e.g., altruism, aggression) related to (in)justice will be examined.

In this course, the restorative justice paradigm will be examined at multiple levels including consideration in the international, local community and criminal justice contexts. Both the underlying principles and practical applications of restorative justice will be explored. The related concept of community justice will also be addressed.

Globalization is the phenomenon of interconnectedness of economic, political and cultural activities across different parts of the globe. The class will survey several aspects of globalization through the lens of justice and injustice. Class time will be devoted to discussion and student presentations.

This course will review historic and modern transitions to democracy, explore democracy as a 'just' form of government, examine correlates with its strengths and weaknesses, and provide an overview on how to build a quality democracy.

This course surveys human migration across the Earth, throughout history, and in relation to justice. Students analyze interdisciplinary academic literature on migration, settlement and diasporas while studying flows of people across various historical, geographical and political contexts, from prehistoric to contemporary and from global to local.

This course examines introduces the concept of justice as a standard for evaluating strategies for political, economic and social development in the contemporary international system.

This course covers a wide array of topics relevant to the world's indigenous peoples including shared injustices and grievances, methods indigenous groups have taken to overcome justice inequalities, complexities of dual justice systems and the decolonization of legal and social systems.

This course will analyze the root causes of global poverty and critically examine a range of approaches designed to improve conditions for the world's poor. Topics include nutrition and agriculture, healthcare, education, gender equality, water and sanitation, environmental management, and microfinance. Throughout the course, students will read policy documents, work with poverty-related data and analyze a variety of real-world case studies to illustrate key ideas.

This course will examine the practical and ethical challenges facing refugees and humanitarian actors in the contemporary world. We will survey the causes of forced migration, explore global trends in displacement and humanitarian aid and analyze the laws and institutions that facilitate (or inhibit) refugee protection. We will consider the challenges that refugees face throughout their journey, from border crossings, to refugee camps, to resettlement communities, as well as the practical and ethical tradeoffs that humanitarian actors must weigh in providing assistance and protection. The course will include a community engagement component related to refugee resettlement in Harrisonburg.

This course provides students with an interdisciplinary introduction to environmental justice. Emphasizing how contemporary environmental issues are profoundly rooted in social, political, and economic conditions, students will apply principles and conceptions of justice to ecological challenges and sustainability efforts in local, national, and global contexts.

This course is a survey of the evolution of the phenomenon of terrorism and an analysis of its causes, strategies and forms. This course also discusses the consequences of terrorism in terms of government responses to terrorist threats (homeland security and counter-terrorism) and the economic and political costs of such responses. An interdisciplinary approach linking history, sociology, criminology and political science is used to make sense of this multifaceted phenomenon.

This class provides an opportunity for students to consider the ways in which issues related to the Justice fields are expressed in literature, film, and/or art and the ways in which such media may influence or create our conceptions of justice.

This course investigates the significance of ethical questions in the theory and practice of contemporary international politics, introducing a variety of normative approaches that shape the issues of peace and conflict, morality and justice in global affairs. Practical case studies will also be used to address issues of policy relevance, with particular attention paid to the American experience.

This course examines the social, economic, security and political problems faced in rebuilding societies that are emerging from a period of intense and prolonged conflict. This course presents an overview of the scope of this multidimensional challenge as well as strategies that have been used to address them. In the course of doing so, evaluation standards are discussed that can be used to measure the success, failure and justness of the newly emerging political system.

This course is an empirical and normative investigation of the relationship between war and justice. Empirically, it examines the causes of war and the ways in which wars end. From a normative perspective it raises the questions of when are wars just; how should a just war be fought; and what is a just peace.

This course is an interdisciplinary examination of the various definitions, causes, structure and consequences of genocide. We will study some of the major 20th century genocides (Indigenous peoples, Armenia, USSR, Jewish Holocaust, Cambodia, Bosnia/Kosovo, Rwanda, and Darfur) using the following conceptual schemes: social death, structural violence, oppression, and mass murder.

This course introduces justice studies students to the origins, development and outcomes of global social movements. It involves a comprehensive approach, which entails an in-depth examination of the main theories explaining the rise of social movements, as well as an empirical focus on global dynamics of popular mobilization. Special attention will be devoted to the examination of the global justice movement.

Explores possible future directions that the global system may take in selected issue areas such as energy, democratization, food supplies, and infectious diseases. Emphasis is on active learning strategies, introducing the analytical tools used for analysis of international trends and addressing questions of how to respond in a manner that promotes global justice.

An interdisciplinary exploration of justice and disability which examines issues such as the historical and theoretical contexts of disability, the social and rhetorical construction of disability, disability legislation and public policy, disability and the criminal justice system, and disability rights movements and inclusion as they relate to larger civil and human rights movements in the US & globally. The course highlights the importance of disability in broader conversations about justice.

This course explores considerations of justice in shaping law and policy related to sexual orientation. The concept of sexual orientation is a relatively recent development in academic, legal, medical and other policy contexts in the United States and globally. Topics addressed in the course include the dehumanization, criminalization, medicalization and oppression of sexual orientation minorities, and legal and regulatory interventions and movements for social justice, criminal justice reform and human rights.

This course explores considerations of justice in shaping law and policy related to gender identity. The concept of gender identity is a relatively recent development in academic, legal, medical, and other policy contexts in the United States and globally. Topics addressed in the course include the dehumanization, criminalization, medicalization, and oppression of transgender, non-binary, and gender-expansive populations and legal and regulatory interventions and movements for gender self-determination, social justice, criminal justice reform, and human rights.

A study of the evolution, theory and practice of peace studies. The course focuses on how we wage and resolve conflict, how we effect social change, and how we provide for security through nonviolent means.

This course will provide a thorough insight into how to study law. Students will acquire fundamental legal skills such as how to read a case and identify and differentiate ratio decidendi and obiter dicta, understand the codification of law in a common law jurisdiction, and learn how to accurately research legal topics utilizing and citing primary and secondary legal sources. The course will focus on domestic (U.S.) legal research, involving both state and federal jurisdictions, in addition to investigating international examples and legal instruments.

This course provides students with the tools necessary for conducting independent research in the area of Justice Studies. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are covered. A term project, in which the skills covered in the course are applied, is a significant part of the class.

This is the capstone course of the Justice Studies major. Students are expected to enter JUST 400 with a proposed area of study, and will spend the semester in developing a thesis. Class discussion and review of individual projects, along with oral presentation of work, are integral parts of the course. Students are expected to produce a piece of original scholarship related to their study in the major.

In this course, students integrate professional experiences as interns with justice studies coursework. In addition to working with an agency or organization, students will produce academic work which examines the connections between their area of study and the context of the internship. By application only.

This course is designed to give students a context in which to pursue advanced research in a Justice Studies context. It is especially appropriate for students interested in graduate study in the field.

Students enrolled in this course will be assigned to consider a contemporary problem Justice Studies. Working individually and in teams, students will first study the problem, and then propose workable solutions.

This course provides students with an intensive, collaborative community-based research experience working in partnership with a community organization or group. Students will integrate and apply principles and conceptions of justice and methods of scholarly inquiry to a community-identified problem. This course may be taken only once for credit.

Students will work as research assistants under faculty supervision. Students may take this course only by invitation from a faculty member in justice studies and may register for this course only through departmental approval. No student may take more than three credits of JUST 405.

Year course. An independent research topic initiated and completed by qualified majors wishing to graduate with distinction.