Monash University Handbook 2010 Undergraduate - Course

The Bachelor Arts (Criminal Justice) degree provides students with the knowledge and skills needed to understand the complexity of crime, to identify and evaluate the effectiveness or otherwise of the criminal justice process, and to consider new and radical alternatives for dealing with crime.

Students will compare and contrast regional, rural and urban crime and evaluate policies which are supposed to prevent crime. They will also study public safety, forensic psychology, causes of deviant behaviour, and security-related issues.

The course provides students with the knowledge and skills needed to better understand crime, crime prevention and the criminal justice process, and to analyse and evaluate traditional, innovative and radical alternatives for dealing with crime.

This course consists of a criminal justice major, a prescribed sequence from Australian Indigenous studies, a compuslory research studies unit and an arts minor, with additional studies chosen from a variety of arts disciplines.

Areas of study

In addition to the criminal justice major, minors can be taken in:

• Australian Indigenous studies
• communications
• history-politics
• psychological studies
• psychology
• public relations
• social and community welfare
• sociology
• writing.

For information on the minors offered, refer to the 'Areas of study' section in this Handbook at http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/handbooks/aos/index-ug-byfaculty-arts.html.

Students must complete the following:

(a.) a criminal justice major (48 points) incorporating:

• CRJ1001 Crime: Theory and practice
• CRJ1002 The criminal justice process
• CRJ2001/CRJ3001 Comparative criminal justice*
• CRJ2002/CRJ3002 Crime and violence: Rural, regional and urban communities*
• PSS3718 Forensic psychology
• SCY2805/SCY3805 Sociology of deviance*

plus two of:

• CRJ2003/CRJ3003 Criminal profiling*
• CRJ2004/CRJ3004 Justice? Sentencing and punishment*
• CRJ2005/CRJ3005 Public safety and security*
• SCY2811/SCY3811 Social justice*

(b.) two compulsory Australian Indigenous studies core units (12 points):

• AIS2025/AIS3025 Activism, politics and Indigenous Australia*
• AIS2808/AIS3808 Human rights and the Indigenous Australian experience*

(c.) an arts minor (24 points) selected form one of the available areas of study

(d.) another 12 points in arts sequence at first-year level

(e.) SCY2817 Quantitative social research

(f.) a further 42 points at first, second or third-year level

No more than 10 units (60 points) are to be completed at a first-year level.

Students must complete a minimum of 36 points at third-year level (across the duration of the degree).

* These units can only be undertaken at either level two or level three, eg students cannot study both SCY3805 and SCY2805.

Bachelor of Arts (Criminal Justice)