Criminal Law for Law Enforcement
Criminal law for frontline officers in a two-year associate degree in criminal justice, built on the Ohio Revised Code, the Model Penal Code, federal law, the Constitution and leading decisions on mental states, self-defense, stand your ground and the castle doctrine, and allied offenses. The course covers felonies, misdemeanors and minor offenses by degree, following the fictional Port Ardent police service, a cohort of students and a prosecutor who reviews police charges every week: the sources of criminal law and how to read a statute, the classification of offenses, the prohibited act including voluntariness, omissions and possession, mental states and causation, parties, attempts and conspiracy, assault and offenses against the person, homicide and the first officer's duties at a death scene, sexual offenses and consent with a trauma-informed response, threats and stalking, theft, burglary, robbery, fraud and damage to property, weapons, firearms, drug, public order and administration of justice offenses, the defenses from self-defense to mental disorder, intoxication and entrapment, and a capstone that moves from a neutral timeline and an elements chart to a written charge synopsis, with runnable Python examples throughout.
LES-103 Year 1 3 credits 12 lessons · 4 h 16 min ▶ Video lessons coming soon
Offered by HSM University · Engineering Core
This is the American version of this course. See the Canadian version.
What you'll learn
- Identify the sources of American criminal law, including state penal codes, the Model Penal Code, federal law, the Constitution and case law, and read a provision of the Ohio Revised Code accurately.
- Classify crimes as felonies, misdemeanors and minor offenses by degree, and explain what the classification means for police and the accused.
- Break an offense into its elements and explain the prohibited act, including voluntariness, omissions, circumstances, consequences and possession.
- Explain the mental elements of offenses and the law of causation, and apply them to cases involving intent, knowledge, recklessness and negligence.
- Apply the law of complicity, attempt, solicitation and conspiracy to determine who can be charged and with what.
- Distinguish the levels of assault and related offenses against the person, including the role of consent, weapons and the seriousness of harm.
- Distinguish aggravated murder, murder, manslaughter and reckless and negligent homicide, and describe the first officer's duties at a death scene.
- Explain Ohio's sexual offenses, offenses involving children, menacing and menacing by stalking, and respond to reports in a trauma-informed way.
- Apply the law of theft, receiving stolen property, burglary, robbery, fraud-related offenses and criminal damaging, including how value grades the offense.
- Explain weapons, firearms, drug, public order and administration of justice offenses, including possession and the role of lawful police conduct.
- Recognize the defenses of self-defense, defense of property, necessity, duress, insanity, intoxication, automatism and entrapment, and gather the evidence that bears on them.
- Move from facts to charges using a neutral timeline and an elements chart, and write a charge synopsis that links every element to admissible evidence.
Course content
12 lessons · 4 h 16 min total · final exam
- 1 Sources of criminal law: penal codes, the Model Penal Code and the courts 23 min · quiz
- 2 Classifying crimes: felonies, misdemeanors and minor offenses 18 min · quiz
- 3 Elements of an offense: the prohibited act 22 min · quiz
- 4 Elements of an offense: the guilty mind and causation 21 min · quiz
- 5 Accomplices, attempts, solicitation and conspiracy 21 min · quiz
- 6 Assault and offenses against the person 21 min · quiz
- 7 Homicide: murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide 20 min · quiz
- 8 Sexual offenses, menacing and stalking 25 min · quiz
- 9 Property crimes: theft, burglary, robbery and fraud 23 min · quiz
- 10 Weapons, drug and public order offenses 21 min · quiz
- 11 Defenses: self-defense, necessity, duress, insanity and intoxication 20 min · quiz
- 12 Capstone: from facts to charges in a Port Ardent case file 21 min · quiz
- E Final exam 20 questions
Description
Criminal law for frontline officers in a two-year associate degree in criminal justice, built on the Ohio Revised Code, the Model Penal Code, federal law, the Constitution and leading decisions on mental states, self-defense, stand your ground and the castle doctrine, and allied offenses. The course covers felonies, misdemeanors and minor offenses by degree, following the fictional Port Ardent police service, a cohort of students and a prosecutor who reviews police charges every week: the sources of criminal law and how to read a statute, the classification of offenses, the prohibited act including voluntariness, omissions and possession, mental states and causation, parties, attempts and conspiracy, assault and offenses against the person, homicide and the first officer's duties at a death scene, sexual offenses and consent with a trauma-informed response, threats and stalking, theft, burglary, robbery, fraud and damage to property, weapons, firearms, drug, public order and administration of justice offenses, the defenses from self-defense to mental disorder, intoxication and entrapment, and a capstone that moves from a neutral timeline and an elements chart to a written charge synopsis, with runnable Python examples throughout.
Part of the Engineering stream, typically taken in year 1.