PSY4003-03 Special Topics in Psychology: Serial Crime
Spring, 2021
Instructor: Dr. Travis Langley, Distinguished Professor of Psychology
Office: McBrien Hall, room 301-F (which does not matter in 2021)
Email: langlet@hsu.edu

Required textbook: Profiling and Serial Crime: Theoretical and Practical Issues (3rd. edition), by Wayne Petherick. Elsevier/Academic Press.

This course applies psychological methods, principles, and theories to serial crime. Topics of discussion include profiling and investigative methods, but course content focuses more on understanding the nature of serial crimes themselves.

ONLINE EXAMS

Each 40-point test will consist of multiple-choice items and essay questions — covering lecture notes, discussion, assigned readings, and online tasks.

Exams before the final, altogether = 30% of your course grade.

UNIT 1: Profiling                  TEST: Tuesday, February 2
Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, and part of chapter 18 (pp. 394-409, sections “Motive: A Pathways Perspective” and “The Motivational Typologies”),
Optional for bonus: chapter 5.

UNIT 2                                    TEST: Tuesday, March 2
Chapters 7-8, 10, plus other sources on serial killers.
Optional for bonus: chapter 6.

UNIT 3                                    TEST: Tuesday, March 30
Chapters 12-14.
Optional for bonus: chapter 9.

UNIT 4                                    TEST: Thursday, April 22
Chapters 15-17
Optional for bonus: 11

FINAL (25% of your course grade)
Cumulative plus chapter 18.  See spring schedule.

There will be NO makeup tests. There’s no such thing as a perfectly fair makeup test. Take each test when it’s scheduled. If funeral, jury duty, or medical event would keep you from using Internet at the time when a test is scheduled, contact your professor about that as early as you can.

Plan ahead of time for what your backup Internet access will be, though in case your Internet goes down, though. For example, you might use cellular data and complete your test by using your smartphone. If for some reason you tell the professor about a problem with a test while you’re trying to take it, do so immediately. Do not wait.

Once you start an online test, a timer will begin and will not stop even if you log out. Do not start the test until you are ready to complete it in one sitting. Because it’s online, you can’t simply look the test over and then come back hours later after looking up answers. For test security purposes, you will be required to download the Respondus lockdown browser and to have a functioning webcam in order to record you and track your eye movements while you’re taking at least some of the tests, although some tests may be open-book. One big problem with an open-book test is that too many students get lazy and aren’t prepared enough to answer most questions on their own. You need to know the material well enough to know where to search for the other information.

GRADING

Test questions range in difficulty to get an accurate idea of exactly how much you know and understand about the course material. They provide a very accurate indication of how much each person does and does not know compared to everybody else in the class. I do not feel it is right to establish a curve based on the highest grade in the class, in which case only one score would determine everyone’s grade. The scale on the 40‑point tests is simply this:

F <‑‑ 20.0          D 20.1 ‑ 25.0          C 25.1 ‑ 30.0          B 30.1 ‑ 35.0        A 35.1 ‑‑>

The professor also reserves the right to subtract any number of points from the grade of someone who disrupts class (whether online or while taking the final) or to assign a course grade of F to someone caught cheating. Anyone caught cheating will also be referred for University disciplinary measures. A single instance of plagiarism in any task counts as cheating.

The “total” or “average” shown in Canvas for the class can be misleading when it includes things that do not count as part of your grades and leaves out some things that do. Ignore that number.

PROJECT (25% of your course grade)

You will complete an original project examining one particular serial criminal in depth. No two students may analyze the same criminal. Throughout the semester, we’ll cover different parts of what this project entails.

DISCUSSION FORUM ASSIGNMENTS (20% of course grade)

To do your assignments, check the discussion forum on the MyHenderson page for this class several times each week. You will either do each assignment on that discussion forum or learn from the forum where to go to do each task. You will have several assignments every week. Each response you’re required to make counts as one point simply for following the instructions or minus one point (-1, negative credit) if you don’t do it. Because missing an assignment in an online class counts as missing class, anyone who fails to do three or more of the assignments may be dropped from the course without further notice.

Think of this as a MyHenderson class. Even though Canvas will be used for tests and practice quizzes, otherwise this is not a Canvas class. 

Do NOT email your work to your professor. Emailing it instead of posting it where it’s supposed to go counts as missing the assignment altogether, plus you’ll lose points from your overall grade.

DEADLINES

Assignments are due at the end of each week, indicated in the assignments’ subject headings. The week’s assignments are posted on the MyHenderson discussion forum by the end of each Wednesday, and they often appear earlier in the week. If you see no new assignments by Thursday, ask the professor in case of a MyHenderson error.

The deadline is 5 minutes until midnight at the end of each Saturday. For assignments that don’t lock you out at the end of Saturday, you get half credit for up to three assignments completed Sunday – only three, no more. No later work will be accepted. Meet the deadlines.

If you wait until that last day and something goes wrong that keeps you from doing the assignment, well, you should have done it earlier because you’ll have several days to complete each task. If your Internet is out all day, you are responsible for going somewhere with Internet access. If your wifi is out, you could use a phone to do the work or to create a hotspot for access. The Internet is all around us, the ways to access it are many, and you have chosen to take an online class. Accessing the Internet and keeping track of your schedule are your responsibilities.

ATTENDANCE

Because doing Internet assignments counts as attendance, missing an assignment counts as missing class. People who miss three assignments could be dropped from the class without notice. This is your notice.

COMPUTER TIPS

To make sure your computer can interact with our system, you may need (1) the most current version of your Internet browser, (2) Windows updates, and (3) Java updates. Some systems we use don’t work well with Safari.

Call the HSU Computer Help Desk at 230-5678 or email helpdesk@hsu.edu if you have non-Canvas account difficulties. They will not be able to answer questions about specific assignments.

Contact George Finkle at finkleg@hsu.edu about Canvas login or access problems. George has nothing to do with the course content.

COMMUNICATION

The best way to contact your professor is via email at langlet@hsu.edu.

Every time you email your professor, say who you are and which course and assignment you’re talking about at the beginning of your message (not just in your subject line because that doesn’t immediately show in some apps).

Syllabus Part II: Expected Learning Outcomes, Computer Tips, Disability Services
(not covered by syllabus quiz)

Any information in this syllabus may be subject to change, correction, or other revision.