Hello everyone, my name is Tom Dirks. I'll be your professor the next eight weeks for violent crimes against juveniles. I'd like to take this opportunity to go ahead and introduce myself, and also touch base on some of the things involving the course and what to expect. 

First of all, I'm 41-years-old. I'm currently employed with the Hillsborough County Sheriffs office, where I've been employed for just over 20 years-- coming up on 21 years. During that time, I've been employed with the detention department and also the law enforcement side involving the agency. I've been assigned to the patrol section involving the university area, which is this location. I've also been employed with the school resource department at the youth and family bureau. And currently I've been assigned to the homicide section for almost seven years. 

During this course of study, you'll be learning about the maltreatment involving juveniles. We'll touch base on the different classifications and different crimes involving juveniles. And also touch base on the offenders-- the individuals who are actually committing these heinous crimes against our young victims. 

You'll notice right off the bat, as soon as you start going through the syllabus, that this is not a practical course, this is more of a research-based course. But during that research, you're actually going to see the different types of investigations. And we're also going to touch base on two case studies that are high profile in nature. 

You'll actually see the Amanda Brown case in which the prosecution had a hard time to convict Willie Crane Junior. The second case study that we'll actually be looking at that you will be responsible for doing the legal analytical research paper for is the Casey Anthony case. The Casey Anthony case is well known throughout not only the local community, but also the international community, because of the popularity of the case not only by the defendant, but also the fact that the prosecution had so many hurdles to overcome. 

And what I hope to actually bring to the course, as I want you to see through the eyes of the practitioner-- I want you to see how they approach these investigations, I want you to see how they deal with the psychological effects that not only does it have on the victim, but it also has on the practitioner during the course of these investigations. I want everyone to have a great time with this course. I hope you guys have a great semester. And I look forward to reaching out and discussing everything with you guys, and look forward to your introductions.