Master of Science in Law Enforcement Intelligence and Analysis: Curriculum

Gain analytical skills to set yourself apart in law enforcement.

In this 10-course, 30-credit-hour program, you’ll learn the latest intelligence tactics and develop a functional knowledge of critical data analysis tools. In two years, graduate ready to apply the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to better protect communities both large and small.

Course abstracts are meant to provide a high-level course overview and are subject to change based on term, faculty, and/or institutional requirements. View the official course descriptions as written in the Michigan State University Academic Catalog and in adherence to institutional accreditation standards.

Courses

Core

CJ 802 Proseminar in Law Enforcement Intelligence and Analysis

Explore law enforcement intelligence as an analytic tool for case development and resource allocation. Examine historical, ethical, legal and operational issues affecting current practice.

CJ 811 Design and Analysis in Criminal Justice Research

Acquire advanced knowledge of social science research methods and apply these skills to criminal justice research. You’ll explore various methodologies, design elements for data collection and sampling, and ethical issues involved in the research process. You’ll also be introduced to the basics of statistical analysis and learn to make evidence-based decisions about criminal justice policy and issues.

CJ 837 The Intelligence Process and Counterterrorism

Examine the meaning and concepts of domestic and international terrorism. You’ll study law enforcement intelligence and an integration of intelligence and terrorism to gain a deeper understanding of counterterrorism.

CJ 870 Introduction to Crime Analysis

Gain an understanding of the theoretical foundations of crime analysis. You’ll learn about the techniques and processes used by law enforcement agencies to document and respond to patterns of crime and gain an appreciation of the complex and evolving world of crime and intelligence analysis work. Complete this course ready to explain the historical evolution of law enforcement practices that led to the varying roles of analysts and analysis in law enforcement and apply modern analysis techniques.

CJ 897 Comprehensive Threat Assessment

Learn the methods of conducting a comprehensive threat assessment in criminal justice settings. Using these methods, you’ll explore the formulation, adoption and implementation of prevention and intervention practices.

Elective

CJ 801 Crime Causation, Prevention and Control

Experience an in-depth review of theoretical perspectives on crime and examine the link between these theories and crime prevention and control in the United States. You’ll gain a mastery of the major criminological theories and learn to apply them to criminal justice policy and real-life scenarios.

CJ 803 Foundations in Homeland Security

Gain a broad, up-to-date, multidisciplinary understanding of homeland security. Explore a variety of issues through multiple sources, themes, methodologies and learning activities. Examine topics like public policy, public administration, law, criminal justice, and the social/behavioral impacts of terrorism and homeland security.

CJ 810 Proseminar in Criminal Justice

Gain an in-depth understanding of the criminal justice topics that interest you most. You’ll review and critique academic articles, review non-academic literature and media, and author a semester paper on your criminal justice topic of choice.

CJ 822 Comparative Criminal Justice

Achieve a deeper understanding of the criminal justice system in the United States by exploring how similar systems operate in other countries. Through this comparative lens, you’ll examine common law, civil law, socialist law and Islamic law, then focus on the nature of policing, courts and corrections around the world.

CJ 823 Globalization of Crime

Explore comparative criminology and its relevance in the context of the global world. Examining issues like human trafficking, firearm violence and money laundering, you’ll assess the challenges of applying criminology to understand crime, victimization and crime control in the global context.

CJ 838 Terrorism

Explore the origins, history and mutable definitions of terrorism. Through an examination of influential contemporary and historical terrorist movements, you’ll study ideologies, organizational features and state responses. Other topics include terrorist target selection, motivations for political violence and geo-political dynamics, and how these factors explain and perpetuate terrorist violence.

CJ 839 Analytic Thinking and Intelligence

Explore how analytic processes, tools, applications and contemporary issues are used in law enforcement intelligence processes.

CJ 856 Advanced Topics in Policing (topics vary)

Special topics on policing such as crime analysis, problem solving, police recruitment, retention and development, police behavior and ethics. Spring, 3 credits.

CJ 871 Advanced Crime Analysis

Learn to apply advanced intelligence and crime analysis skills and techniques. You’ll complete this course able to apply these techniques to common issues faced by law enforcement agencies and demonstrate an understanding of how advances in modern crime analysis affect the future of the field.

CJ 872 Open-Source Information Analysis

Apply modern intelligence techniques to collect and analyze open-source information. You’ll complete this course with an ability to validate data sources, as well as knowledge of the history of open-source data collection and an understanding of the ethical issues surrounding collecting data from public sources.

CJ 894 Practicum/Internship

Observation, study, and work in selected criminal justice agencies. Participation in domestic and foreign criminal justice systems. Fall, Spring, Summer, maximum of 6 credits for CJ students and 3 credits for LEIA students.

GEO 802 Geospatial Technology

Gain a comprehensive introduction to geotechnologies. You’ll explore concepts and theories of remote sensing to include image interpretation and processing, Global Positioning Systems, spatial data structures and geographic information systems.

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