Program Description

The Department of Criminal Justice offers graduate study leading to both a MS and a Ph.D. degree in Criminal Justice. The MS degree has two tracks; Applied Criminal Justice and Criminology. The program in Criminal Justice is designed to enhance student's skills in understanding, gathering, processing, and analyzing research in the areas of criminology and criminal justice. The topical curriculum is geared to understanding, critiquing, and analyzing the criminal justice system with an orientation toward urban issues as they impact crime and criminal justice. The curriculum consists of foundation courses in theory, policy, and research methods, plus three substantive areas: 1) criminology, 2) policing, and 3) corrections. Students have their choice of specializing in one of the three. Elective course work can include classes such as Violence, Gender and Justice, and crime commodities. Students also will be afforded course work in learning how to teach a college course.

Graduates will find an expanding and terrific academic job market available as well as professional employment in the criminal justice policy and research sector. There are currently less than 40 Criminal Justice Ph.D. programs operating on a national level, so students graduating with a Criminal Justice Ph.D. will be competitive for the 350 positions available annually in academic units.

Admission Requirements

Ph.D. in Criminal Justice

Students should enter the program with either a baccalaureate degree or with an approved master's degree. Students will be required to have had one course in research methods; and one course in statistics. Plus, students should have adequate background preparation or demonstrated potential in the field of Criminology or Criminal Justice.

Students will be required to take the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) and submit their undergraduate and/or graduate transcripts. For admission to full standing, students are required to attain a combined minimum score on the GRE of 1,000 (verbal and quantitative) and achieve a minimum grade point average of 3.0 over their last 60 credit hours. Students not meeting these standards will be evaluated and possibly admitted on conditional status.

A student entering the program with a master's degree would take a minimum of 60 credit hours. Students entering the program with a master's degree should submit their research thesis to the graduate committee for review. This committee would be charged with determining whether the research project is sufficient in scope and depth to warrant further supervised research.