SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
Crime, Psychology, and Public Policy (CRIMBC)
Description of the Certificate Program:
The political science and psychology programs at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, have faculty highly qualified to teach in five areas relevant to the study of criminal justice. The programs have taken advantage of their strengths in those areas to offer the certificate program in crime, psychology, and public policy. Students are required to complete one course from each of those areas to obtain the certificate.
With the first area of Abnormal Psychology, some social science studies have suggested that there might be more people with mental illnesses in prison in modern times than are in treatment centers. Many people with severe mental illness are left untreated, which can diminish or eliminate one's ability to make good decisions and in some cases to tell right from wrong. Yet the legal definition of insanity is different from modern definitions of mental illness. Abnormal psychology will teach students about the signs, symptoms and treatment of psychopathology and help students to understand these disorders in the context of the criminal justice system.
In the area of Crime and Psychology, students will be exposed to research and theory and practical applications of basic human behavior as it relates to crime and justice. For example, in cognitive psychology, human memory and decision making are studied and the implications for the validity of eye-witness testimony in children and adults is explored. Forensic psychology is a new course that focuses specifically on applications of all areas of psychology to the law and legal system, including the ethics of expert testimony, jury decision making, and criminal profiling.
In courses about Crime and Society, students will learn the commonly studied social causes of crime and the various factors in society that might promote or diminish criminal behavior. Recent research in social science has found that the situation is an even more important factor in criminal behavior than the person, and in this area students will learn about the cultural and social contexts that can increase and reduce the likelihood of violence, crime, and terrorism.
The Crime and Public Policy area will include the study of government alternatives and solutions for the prevention or punishment of crime at the federal, state, and local level in the United States. Subject matter in courses from this area will include the determination of what actions should be labeled as a crime, the use of punishment, deterrence, or rehabilitation to prevent crime, and the growth of police and security agencies at the federal, state, and local level.
Crime and Law courses will discuss the legal processes and court systems as well as key court decisions and laws which play a key role in the criminal justice system. Topics covered in courses found in this area will include rules of evidence in criminal proceedings, due process procedures and rights, the balance between civil liberties and prevention of crime, how judges and juries reach decisions, how legislators make decisions on how to fight and prevent crime, and the application of criminal law in international relations.
A strong understanding of each of these areas will enable students who complete the certificate program to have a social science background in the causes of crime, the solutions that have been offered to help prevent crime, and the administrative and legal consequences of criminal behavior
The psychology and political science major programs at Penn State Behrend have full-time and part-time faculty who teach about topics such as the causes and treatment of abnormal behavior in children and adults, personal social development, cognitive psychology, behavioral and pharmacological treatments for psychopathology, forensic psychology, the legal process, public policy toward crime, constitutional rights, court procedures, the role of race in the criminal justice system, and crime from an international perspective. Behrend's School of Humanities and Social Sciences also employs part-time instructors in sociology who offer supporting courses in that field.