NVCC COLLEGE WIDE COURSE CONTENT SUMMARY

ADJ 164 - CASE STUDIES IN MURDER/VIOLENT CRIME (3CR)

Course Description:

Introduces the student to the investigation of murder and other violent crimes by means of classic case studies and, to the extent feasible, local case files. Includes methodology, strategy and tactics, analysis, relevant law, and future trends. Covers evidentiary techniques and technologies with a primary focus on how critical thinking is applied to serious violent crime.

General Course Purpose:

The purpose of this course is to provide the student with an understanding of inductive and deductive criminal profiling techniques, as well as their strengths and weaknesses in applying them to criminal investigations.

Entry Level Competencies:

Basic understanding of criminal investigations through experience or ADJ 236.

Course Objectives/Educational Outcome:

• To examine inductive profiling methods
• To examine deductive profiling methods
• To compare and contrast profiling techniques of people/agencies engaged in the art of "criminal profiling" with specific review of organized/disorganized serial murder typology
• To familiarize the student with various methods of analyses used in profiling serial violent crimes
• To familiarize the student with crime scene behavior patterns and offender modus operandi
• To apply various profiling methods to cases in serial violent crimes

Major Topics to be Included:

• Terminologies used in criminal investigations
• Inductive profiling techniques (statistical data compilation methods)
• Deductive profiling techniques (investigative inferences from factual circumstances and evidence)
• Types of crime scenes
• Practical applications of inductive and deductive profiling techniques
• Critical thinking exercises in serial violent crime cases

Extra Topics - May be included:

Forensic and investigative supplemental material as appropriate to specific cases