Criminal Law (JUS 241)
Distance Education Course Syllabus
Instructor: David Freeman
Office: W3-28 Office
hours: Wednesday 12-3, or by appt.
Telephone: 215-751-8744
E-mail: dfreeman@ccp.edu
Website: http://faculty.ccp.cc.pa.us/faculty/dfreeman/
Classroom:
N/A
No live meetings are anticipated. This may be changed at the discretion of the instructor.
Prerequisites: English
101, Justice 101 or permission of the Curriculum chairman
Course Objectives: The objectives of this course are as
follows:
1) To introduce students to the criminal justice system; and
2) To introduce students to a broad range
principles underlying our criminal laws; and
3) To introduce students to the developing trends in criminal law.
Textbook:
Samaha, Criminal Law, Eighth Edition , Thompson Publishing (ISBN 0-53462991-1)
Attendance: Students will be expected
to attend all classes and to comply with all college regulations. Attendance in a distance course is the process of logging
into the course website and participating in Forums and other course activities. Failure to comply with these rules may result
in grade reductions and/or being dropped from the course.
Disability Policy: If you require assistance with any condition
or disability you should consult the College catalog for direction. The Center on Disability is located at M1-22B and may
be reached by telephone at 215-751-8307. I urge you to consult with that office immediately. Unless you are working with the
Center, we may not be able to provide the assistance you need.
Counseling Department: The Counseling Department is
located in office W2-2. It is a great resource for students that may be struggling with problems of a personal nature. The
staff is highly trained and very helpful and is available on a walk-in basis.
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is a serious
offense which has been made easier by the World Wide Web. Very simply, it is a form of theft; that is, stealing someone’s
work and passing it off as your own. This theft does not require you to physically steal someone’s paper, but most commonly,
the offense is done using the World Wide Web. While searching, students find an article that covers their topic and then copy
it and use it as their own.
If you are discovered having plagiarized, you will: (1) fail the assignment; and (2) fail
the course; and (3) I will turn the matter over to the appropriate administrative official for disciplinary action. The College
and our program take this offense very seriously and so should you.
Evaluation:
Grades are broken into categories:
*Assignments 40%
There are four assignments.
The earliest assignment will be worth the fewest points, so you can see what I value and expect.
The assignments
will increasingly become more valuable in terms of points.
Assignments will be graded based upon responsiveness, content,
clarity and style.
*Responsiveness means that if you are asked a question concerning pancakes,
your answer actually addresses the topic of pancakes.
*Content means what level of knowledge your answer reflects. Does it show a grasp
of the important major and minor concepts? Does the answer reflect a grasp of the topic and connections to the other issues
of the course? Mentioning one or two of the terms and throwing in your own opinion does NOT reflect a sufficient knowledge
of the subject.
*Clarity involves whether the answer is able to be understood. Are the points able to be
grasped from simply reading the response? Many times this is not the case. Remember, especially in dealing with law, it is
not a question of what you meant, it is a question of what you have written. When we write something, we often are not there
when our audience reads our work product, so we cannot coach our reader by explaining answers more clearly.
*Style involves the completeness of your sentences, the organization of your paragraphs,
the correctness of your grammar and the appropriateness of your spelling and syntax. With spell-check features, there is very
little excuse for misspellings. Do your work in a Word document and spell-check it to avoid these mishaps. Take time to make
your work product perfect.
*Forums 30*
Each forum will be worth one point. Forums are very time-sensitive; that is, our discussions about a topic will
take place during that week. If you don’t post during the time, it will not be given credit, since we will have obviously
moved on. The forums will be valued on the basis of content, clarity and style. A common mistake about forums is that it is
like instant messaging and grammar and spelling are not important. This is an academic environment and it is expected that
these postings reflect the value of responsiveness, content, style and clarity. Answers like “I agree with you”
or “That’s certainly true” are not answers and will not be given credit. You will not be given credit for
an answer that is substantially similar to another answer.
Tests 30%
There will be seven tests in a multiple choice format. The first test will be worth only one point, since it is a practice
test.
The course schedule is always subject to modification based upon circumstances in the instructor’s discretion
