SEMESTER COURSES

4 credits
60 hours

Principles of Criminology

Shankey Verma

Over the past few decades, crime has become an increasingly prevalent phenomena in our society, with every year the number of crimes committed rising steadily. As the society evolved, so did the methods and manner in which crimes are committed. This indicates the need to study crime and criminal behaviour, its causes, preventive measures, the impact it creates and how the society responds to it. Criminology is a discipline that studies these aspects by drawing from various other related disciplines such as psychology, sociology, law, history, philosophy, science etc. This course, The Principles of Criminology, aims to familiarize the students with how explanations of criminal behaviour has evolved from primitive (spiritual and demonological) to more scientific understanding through, various biological, psychological and social factors and their relation to criminal behaviour. Through the course, we will also introduce the students to the philosophical and methodological debates and criticisms about various theories of crime causation and prevention. There will be special emphasis on the evolution and impact of various criminological theories and how they have impacted policy making and the criminal justice system. It will also explore how various movements such as Positivism, Marxism, Feminism, Globalization etc. contributed towards the understanding of offending behaviour. The course, in a nutshell, will look at crime and criminal behaviour in the backdrop of a changing and evolving society.

2 credits
30 hours

Financial Criminology

Vipin Vijay Nair

Psychology, as we all know is the scientific study of human behavior. For the community at large, it is important to recognize that criminal science is larger than criminal law. As a one semester elective course, this module focuses on understanding the criminal behavior and what causes such behavior from a psychological perspective. Starting with an introduction to basic theoretical concepts in psychology, the course moves on exploring various mental and psychological conditions and their relationship with the propensity to commit crime. We critically examine ideas and theories and build an inclusive understanding towards the complex nature of criminal behavior. This course also looks at psychology in the courtroom, police psychology, and in prevention and rehabilitation. This course imparts an understanding of what makes an individual a ‘criminal’ and the methods used to identify offenders through psychological profiling, detection of deceit and eye witness testimony. More contemporary topics like white collar crime, technology and crime, terrorism and others are also discussed. The idea is to look derive at certain indicators for crime causation, and recommendations for the protection of witnesses and victims and rehabilitation of offenders through discussions, debates and directed thinking.

4 credits
60 hours

Financial Crimes and Fraud Examination

Vipin Vijay Nair

According to the estimate by Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, global losses to organisations from fraud may total nearly $4 trillion each year. If we consider various confidence schemes, identity theft, and secureties swindles perpetrated against individuals very year, the total likely runs even higher. As devastating like Enron, Worldcom, Satyam, Olympus, and Bernie Madoff frauds were, they are only the microcosm of the problem. One of the difficuly aspect of fraud and white-collar crime is that it is hidden- we only get to know about those , which are on the surface. Due to the often-complex nature of financial services, detecting and preventing fraud within the financial sector poses an almost insurmountable challenge and initiate the need to understand fraud examination. The threats are both domestic and international. They may come from within the organization or outside it. Increasingly, internal and external fraudsters combine to commit significant fraudulent acts. The victims may be the financial sector firms themselves or the customers of those firms. The proceeds of fraud are rarely generated in cash. The funds that are the target of the fraud are generally already within the financial system but will undoubtedly need to be moved in order to confuse the audit trail. Due to heightened awareness and growing intolerance of fraudulent activity, demand for Financial Criminologists and Fraud Examiners are rapidly increasing. Thus, detection, investigation and analysis in financial crime are one of the fastest growing areas of economic offences, and there is an increasing global demand for specialists with financial fraud knowledge and skills. The course will help you develop an understanding of the need for an holistic approach in the investigatory models applied as well as focusing on an appreciation and understanding of the wide variety of financial crime and how the current regulatory framework and crime control statutes have developed to deal with them.

4 credits
60 hours

Introduction to Cyber Criminology

Rukhshana Siddhiqua

This course) will provide an introduction to Cyber Criminology. Cyber Criminology is ʺthe study of causation of crimes that occur in the cyberspace and its impact in the physical space”. As an academic discipline, cyber criminology encompasses multidisciplinary field of inquiry - criminology, sociology, psychology, victimology, information technology and computer / internet sciences. “At its core, cyber criminology involves the examination of criminal behavior and victimization in cyber space from a criminological or behavioral theoretical perspective”. Now, the discipline of cyber criminology is more than ten years old and it has successfully entered the portals of academia in the form of courses starting from minor courses (University of Alabama, Regis University, and Purdue University, USA offer a minor in Cyber Criminology) to Associates in Arts (A.A) Degree (at Arizona Western College, USA). The course will introduce the participants to history of cyber-crime and cyber criminology, forms of cybercrime (Machine and Human Oriented), theories of cyber criminology and cyber laws. This will be a theoretical course and can be understood without deep technical knowledge of computers.

4 credits
60 hours

Cyber Psychology

Dr. Sanjeev P Sahni, Garima Jain & Kriti Ranjan

Have you ever wonder about the impact of technology on the overall development of children and adolescent? CyberPsychology is among one of the latest genres of Applied Psychology which deals with human interaction with technology. Approximately 58% of the world’s 7 billion people use the internet. There is a complicated relationship between the online environment, personality characteristics and online behaviour. Due to the anonymous, asynchronous and accessible nature of the internet, ‘cyber self often does not resonate with the real self. This course will allow students to reflect on how cyberspace impacts behaviour, relationships, mental health, child development. Therefore, this course applies an evolutionary perspective to the study of “Online Behavior” in four relevant domains: Online Behavior and Personality, Child development and technology, Internet Gaming, Drug Use and Internet, Online relationships and Cybercrime & Cyberbullying

4 credits
60 hours

Policing & Law Enforcement

Dr. Sanjeev P Sahni & Dr. Vibha Hetu