Courses and Curriculum

Fall and spring

Becoming an effective leader in policing requires more than just experience in the organization. It requires understanding the political and social context of policing, as well as the dynamics of community engagement. It needs a leader to be able to understand and work with a diverse range of stakeholders to move policing forward in evidence-based, effective, and equitable ways. This series brings leaders and real-world examples to the classroom to help students develop these competencies.

Fall

What is evidence-based policing and how is it done? This course provides an answer to both questions, offering an introduction and hands-on guide for police officers wanting to know how to put principles into practice. It serves as an introduction to the terminology, ideas, and scientific methods associated with evidence-based policy, and outlines some of the existing policing applications. On completion of the course, students will be better informed about this important policing innovation and equipped to research existing topics in law enforcement practice.

Spring

This course introduces students to eight key concepts that can explain offender behavior, effectiveness of policing strategies and tactics, crime prevention principles, and theories of organizations. Discussion seminars address applying these principles to the decisions police leaders make across the range of professional environments in which they move.

Summer boot camp

This course is designed to help students learn how to make evidence-based decisions in the context of policing. The course introduces basic data analysis skills and concepts to help students understand crime patterns, evaluate the quality of studies that measure the impact of public policies, and evaluate their own crime reduction programs.

Fall and spring

Change within the criminal justice system can be notoriously challenging. Competing priorities at both the local and national level often conflict with on-the-ground experience in cities like Philadelphia. Leaders in criminal justice need an appreciation for these dynamics to be able to navigate ideas and projects sourced from research evidence and theory to implementation. This series brings leaders and real-world examples to the classroom to help students develop these competencies and be able to articulate the tools necessary to achieve success.

Fall and spring

This course explores research methods used to undertake program evaluation in policing and criminal justice. Students learn about the design and delivery of data collection instruments across a range of policy environments. These include quantitative data analysis, qualitative analysis, survey design. On completion of the course, students will be able to explain the pros and cons of various methodologies and identify appropriate research choices for different policy problems.

Fall and spring

The capstone project allows students to undertake and complete a real-world project, ideally in their professional environment. During the fall semester students work through principles learned in the evidence-based policing class of project identification and conceptualization, planning, and research design. The spring semester includes conducting analysis, writing, and creating and presenting deliverables.

Summer boot camp

Implementation is one of the key challenges within the law enforcement environment. Not just the implementation of research studies, but also the cultural and organizational change necessary to take findings from the research literature and incorporate them into agency good practice. This course goes behind some of the more famous, as well as more recent, experiments in criminology and policing to learn how the studies were implemented successfully, and how the findings can be cemented into operational practice.