Legal Basics

10-504-201 LEGAL BASICS ...In this course students will learn the structure of the criminal justice system, including criminal procedure. Students will learn about the Constitutional Amendments and legal basis for law enforcement action such as reasonable suspicion, probable cause, arrest, use of force, search, seizure and Miranda, as well as limits on law enforcement activity. Students will learn the differences between criminal and civil cases, the classifications of offenses as felonies, misdemeanors, and ordinance violations, and the common elements in criminal offenses. Students will also learn about party to a crime liability and circumstances that enhance the penalty for crimes, various states of the criminal mind and basic defenses to criminal liability. Lastly, students will learn how to write a wide variety of law enforcement reports to accurately and fairly convey necessary information for use by investigators, prosecutors, and the public. This will include who reads law enforcement reports, how to take field notes and how to turn those field notes into a narrative. Students will focus on how to organize narratives, writing in first person with an active versus passive voice. (Prerequisite: 10-504-191, LEAD Employment Strategies; Corequisite: All 10-504-XXX courses in the current semester)