Course Description

Students will be introduced to criminal investigation procedures including theory of an investigation, conduct at crime scenes, collection and preservation of physical evidence, methods used in police science laboratory, fingerprints, ballistics, documents, serology, photography, and related forensic sciences. Student must be registered with LWE coordinator prior to class enrollment. Group 2 course.

Credit Hours

3

Contact Hours

3

Lecture Hours

3

Required Prerequisites

Must be approved by MCOLES and registered with the Director of the Police Academy prior to enrollment.

General Education Outcomes supported by this course

Critical Thinking - Direct

Course Learning Outcomes

Knowledge:

• Articulate key concepts, terms, relationships and relative to criminal investigations.
• Students will describe the role of a criminal investigation in the criminal justice system.

Application:

• Articulate the legal procedural issue in a given factual crime scene scenario.

Integration:

• Use problem solving to make decisions relative to investigations based on course concepts.
• Evaluate whether a legal issue in investigating a crime would impact the verdict in the legal process.

Human Dimension:

• Articulate how their Interaction with victims and their families during the investigation will impact the outcome of the case.
• Articulate how applying the relevant law appropriately will obtain the best outcome for a situation.
• See him/herself as an officer.

Caring - Civic Learning:

• Describe how criminal jurisprudence develops based on the evolution of United States Supreme Court decisions.
• Describe ethical implications to completing an unbiased criminal investigation.

Knowledge:

• Identify their best learning modality.

Learning How to Learn:

• Critique real-life situations based on course concepts.