Department of Criminal Justice

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The Department of Criminal Justice offers a graduate course of study leading to the degree of Master of Science in Criminal Justice. The program of study is designed to produce graduates who have the research skills and theoretical knowledge to obtain professional, managerial and research positions in a variety of justice-related fields and/or pursue doctoral degrees in criminal justice or criminology. The program requires a minimum of 33 semester hours of graduate study in criminal justice.

The department also offers a Graduate Certificate in Criminal Justice. The certificate program requires 18 credit hours. Students in the certificate program can apply to the Master of Science in Criminal Justice (MSCJ) Program at any time.

Learning Outcomes

• Critical thinking – Use and analyze evidence to guide problem analysis, problem solving, and decision making by differentiating between misconceptions and sound empirical knowledge.
• Communication skills – Express, interpret and prioritize thoughts, ideas, and knowledge in a clear, concise manner in both written and oral form.
• Technology and computing skills – Demonstrate the ability to use word processing, library resources, editing tools, and basic statistical programs to research complex criminal justice issues.
• Quantitative Reasoning – Build on the knowledge of applied and scholarly research to generate research questions, compute statistical analyses of data and/or demonstrate the ability to meaningfully interpret outcomes.
• Ethical decision making – Apply analytical skills to criminal justice problems and identify the ethical implications within such problems in the appropriate legal and substantive settings, along with proposing potential solutions that are realistic options in public policy settings.
• Understanding diversity – Identify, discuss, and propose action in response to the complex differential effects of treatment of people by and/or within the criminal justice system based on racial, ethnic, sexual orientation, sex, gender, and age characteristics.

Programs

• Criminal Justice, Comprehensive Exam Option, M.S.
• Criminal Justice, Enhanced Coursework Option, M.S.
• Criminal Justice, Thesis Option, M.S.

• Criminal Justice Graduate Certificate

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