Criminal Justice
15 courses · Palo Verde College · 2026-2027 Catalog
Classes: Fall 2026 · Spring 2027
CRJ 081 Law Enforcement Responder Skills
- Units
- 0.25-24
- Hours
- 10-698, 0.27-18.66, 0.27-20.11
This course is designed to ensure a basic and predictable level of safety, skills and abilities among those individuals destined for assignment by a local, state, federal, volunteer or industrial law enforcement department, as well as those seeking to become members of a combined local, state or federal task force.
CRJ 085 Police Explorer Academy I
- Units
- 2
- Hours
- 70 hours total, 1.1 hours lecture weekly, 2.77 hours lab weekly
This course is designed to provide the student with an overview of the career in Law Enforcement. This portion of the program focuses on physical fitness, laws of arrest, review of the legal system, criminal law, crime scene searches, search and seizure, protection and collection of evidence.
CRJ 103 Criminal Law
- Units
- 3
- Hours
- 54 hours total, 3 hours lecture weekly
- Prerequisite
- CRJ 115
- Transfers to
- CSU, UC
Introduction to Law Enforcement/Corrections. This course offers an analysis of the doctrines of criminal liability in the United States and the classification of crimes against persons, property, morals, and public welfare. Special emphasis is placed on the classification of crime, the general elements of crime, the definitions of common and statutory law, and the nature of acceptable evidence. This course utilizes case law and case studies to introduce students to criminal law. The completion of this course offers a foundation upon which upper-division criminal justice course will build. The course will also include some limited discussion of prosecution and defense decision making, criminal culpability, and defenses to crimes.
CRJ 104 Criminal Investigation
- Units
- 3
- Hours
- 54 hours total, 3 hours lecture weekly
- Transfers to
- CSU
This course addresses the techniques, procedures, and ethical issues in the investigation of crime, including organization of the investigative process, crime scene searches, interviewing and interrogating, surveillance, source of information, utility of evidence, scientific analysis of evidence and the role of the investigator in the trial process.
CRJ 115 Introduction to Law Enforcement/Corrections
- Units
- 3
- Hours
- 54 hours total, 3 hours lecture weekly
- Transfers to
- CSU
This course introduces students to the characteristics of the criminal justice system in the United States. Focus is placed on examining crime measurement, theoretical explanations of crime, responses to crime, components of the system, and current challenges to the system. The course examines the evolution of the principles and approaches utilized by the justice system and the evolving forces which have shaped those principals and approaches. Although justice structure and process is examined in a cross cultural context, emphasis is placed on the US justice system, particularly the structure and function of US police, courts, and corrections. Students are introduced to the origins and development of criminal law, legal process, and sentencing and incarceration policies.
CRJ 120 Community Relations
- Units
- 3
- Hours
- 54 hours total, 3 hours lecture weekly
- Transfers to
- CSU, UC
This course examines the complex, dynamic relationship between communities and the justice system in addressing crime and conflict with an emphasis on the challenges and prospects of administering justice within a diverse multicultural population. Topics may include the consensus and conflicting values in Cultural, Religion, and Law. Additionally, the course considers the responses to mass media, community action, and political pressure that are available to law enforcement officials and employees of the criminal justice system at large.
CRJ 125 Report Writing
- Units
- 3
- Hours
- 54 hours total, 3 hours lecture weekly
- Transfers to
- CSU
This course covers methods of law enforcement reporting, principles of effective report writing, organizing reports, and writing operational law enforcement reports based on case studies. The course emphasizes writing the narrative portion of reports used in most aspects of law enforcement work. The basis of the course is police and corrections reports, but the principles taught apply to security, loss prevention, and other aspects of law enforcement, including courtroom testimony.
CRJ 130 Alcohol, Narcotics and Drug Abuse
- Units
- 3
- Hours
- 54 hours total, 3 hours lecture weekly
- Transfers to
- CSU
Introduction to the problems of substance abuse. History and classification of drugs and abuse. Designed to equip human service workers and the general public to gain knowledge of the issues involved in drug abuse.
CRJ 155 Crime Scene Investigation
- Units
- 3
- Hours
- 54 hours total, 3 hours lecture weekly
- Transfers to
- CSU
This course is designed to instruct the student in the principles of physical evidence, crime scene preliminary examination, latent fingerprint recovery, recording the scene, trace evidence, and collection and packaging of biological evidence.
CRJ 161 PC 832 Firearms
- Units
- 0.5
- Hours
- 24 hours total, 4 hours lecture weekly, 20 hours lab weekly
- Prerequisite
- Proof of DOJ clearance (Live Scan fingerprinting)
- Transfers to
- CSU
This course is designed to provide the student employed or seeking employment in public agencies with the skills and information necessary to satisfy state requirements for this course which covers firearms safety, care, cleaning, shooting and qualification. This course can be taken alone or in combination with PC 832 Arrest to satisfy varying agency requirements. The curriculum follows that recommended as refresher training by the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training.
CRJ 162 PC 832 Arrest
- Units
- 1.75
- Hours
- 40 hours total, 28 hours lecture weekly, 12 hours lab weekly
- Transfers to
- CSU
This course is designed to provide the student, employed or seeking employment in public agencies, with the skills and information necessary to satisfy the state requirements for this course which covers the California justice system, professional behavior, law, evidence and discretionary decision making. This course can be taken alone or in combination with PC 832 Firearms to satisfy varying agency requirements.
CRJ 164 Laws of Arrest, Search and Seizures
- Units
- 2
- Hours
- 40 hours total, 2.2 hours lecture weekly
- Transfers to
- CSU
This course covers professional orientation, laws of arrest, search, evidence, preliminary investigations, and communication and arrest techniques. It satisfies PC 832 requirements for anyone having limited peace officer status or as a requirement for employment. It does not include firearms training.
CRJ 165 Arrest and Firearms
- Units
- 3
- Hours
- 78 hours total, 3 hours lecture weekly, 1.33 hours clinical
- Transfers to
- CSU
Arrest and Firearms is designed primarily to meet the requirements of penal Code 832 establishing a minimum mandatory standard of training for peace officers in California. This is a training course covering basic regulations and skills in exercising the powers of arrest and the carrying and use of firearms. Topics include ethics, law, force, evidence, and investigation in additional to arrent and control, and the use and care of firearms.
CRJ 206 Legal Aspects of Evidence
- Units
- 3
- Hours
- 54 hours total, 3 hours lecture weekly
- Transfers to
- CSU
This course examines categories of evidence and legal rules governing its admission and exclusion in the criminal process. (AJ 124)
CRJ 220 Interviewing and Counseling
- Units
- 3
- Hours
- 54 hours total, 3 hours lecture weekly
- Transfers to
- CSU
This course provides an overview of the interviewing and counseling techniques available to practitioners in law enforcement. The student will learn the use of appropriate techniques and theories in confidence building which may be used by law enforcement employees in interviews and counseling. CRJ 220 is a basic course for students planning to enter or already employed within the criminal justice field.