Course results for Griffith University Postgraduate Criminal justice Subjects

Examine the principal components of the criminal justice system and question the competing tensions of fairness, justice and effectiveness in a liberal-democracy. Identify emerging issues and analyse the response of allied systems to selected crimes.

Take a look at the logic behind research methodology in criminal justice and criminology. Use your skills in analysis and writing criminal justice policies and interventions to plan, develop and justify a research project.

Critically evaluate criminological theory and empirical research for crime policy and practice. Study crime and the urban environment, control and rational choice theories, inequality and opportunity, and social reactions to crime.

Gain an overview of the role of mental health and offending in the forensic mental health client population. Examine and evaluate psychiatric interventions that are useful in a forensic mental health system. 

Scrutinise the areas in which the criminal justice system and psychological theories of behaviour intersect. Study the roles of various actors in courts, such as judges, juries, expert witnesses, eyewitnesses, victims and defendants.

Draw on psychological principles and research to identify strategies to change behaviour within the correctional system. Probe specific rehabilitation programs used in both in community and institutional settings to question the rehabilitation ideal.

Understand the relationship between policy objectives and crime prevention programs to be able to apply criminological theories to research outcomes. You’ll design a prevention program within resource, funding and methodological limitations. 

Understand how risk assessment tools and management processes are applied to key offender populations. This subject focuses on the prediction of an individual's likelihood of being harmed or harming others due to developmental or environmental factors.

Research risk assessment approaches and evaluate their application. Gain the skills to articulate which tools and methods are appropriate for different situations. Learn how to use risk management strategies to inform decision your making.

Contemporary key thinkers present cutting-edge criminology questions on penal politics, policing, media and crime, restorative justice and state crime. Probe the relationship between research and  policy in linking knowledge to social change.