Social Sciences

This course will provide a contemporary analysis of applied issues in criminal justice.  The course is designed to provide criminal justice majors with a capstone experience emphasizing integration of knowledge and skills acquired in previous courses, particularly focusing on ethics, institutions, policies, and practices of the criminal justice system.  Students will reflect on how criminal justice course work, experiences, and research will influence their professional activities and how they will serve their communities.  Topics related to professional development will also be covered in this course.  Prerequisites: Junior or Senior standing or permission of instructor.  

This course serves to introduce the study of public policy in the United States. It will examine the role of government in the policy process, the structure and process of policymaking, and the evaluation of policies. Cases studies will focus on several current issues, e.g., the budget, welfare, and defense policy. Students will have an opportunity to apply their knowledge through a lobbying visit to our state’s capital in Columbus.

Students will examine recent and historical social science research to become better acquainted with their chosen discipline’s areas of concentration, approaches, and methods. Some of the humanistic and scientific methods used in the social sciences that will be included are analysis of existing data, content analysis, participant observation, experimental research design, case study, interview, and survey. Students will be expected to understand each method and select one that will help them develop a research paper on a topic of interest. Students will prepare a research proposal starting with an original question, a scholarly literature review, hypothesis generation, and a proposed research method to answer their question. In addition, students will calculate descriptive statistics (using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) that they may utilize in making decisions about their project proposal as well as adjustments about the social world. 

During this course, students will complete the original research project proposed in the SS380 course as approved by the professor and faculty within the student's major discipline. This will involve completing an approved Institutional Review Board application (if human subjects are used), data collection, quantitative and/or qualitative data analysis, discussion, and limitations and suggestions for future research. The completed project will consist of a written scholarly paper and a formal oral poster presentation. In additions, students will also learn how to calculate and interpret inferential statistics (using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences) including: chi square, t-test, ANOVA, correlation, and regression analysis.