Department of Crime and Justice Studies

Department of Crime and Justice Studies Mission

The department of Crime and Justice Studies brings together the academic fields of criminology, criminal justice and justice studies while bridging the social sciences, humanities and sciences. We offer a multi-disciplinary program that specializes in the study of the “crime” and “justice” policies and procedures to analyze the nature of structural, institutional, and transnational violence while providing students with the critical histories and skills they need to transform unjust conditions and improve society and their communities.

CJS provides teachings and research on the context, history, media, politics, policy, powers and accountabilities of the criminal justice system and the multiple agencies that engage with its work throughout society. The multi-disciplinary nature of the CJS program engages students with various alternative models of justice including restorative and transformative justice, conflict resolution and mediation, and abolitionism. Starting in our classrooms, students learn cross-agency skills and teachings that allow them to work within and across various ideologies and applications of criminal justice, law enforcement, and the legal system. Our students have graduated to work in the fields of law enforcement, courts, corrections, public administration, social services, youth services, non-profits agencies, corporate settings, education, and community organizations. CJS students also have gone on to complete their graduate degrees in law, master’s, and various doctoral programs.

Admission into the Major

Students seeking admission to Crime and Justice Studies must have a minimum overall GPA of 2.0.

Students interested in majoring in Crime and Justice Studies should contact the Chair of the Crime and Justice Studies Program for questions about the program, to discuss the program requirements and to arrange for a CJS faculty advisor.

Minimum Requirements for Graduation:

To successfully complete the program for graduation, all students must:

Maintain a minimum of a 2.75 GPA in the major
Maintain a minimum of a 2.0 GPA overall
Meet the CJS major requirements listed below here: https://catalog.umassd.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=73&poid=10557&returnto=5911
Complete 30 credits at 300/400 level (including all courses in the major except Experiential Learning)
Complete a minimum of 120 credits with at least 45 at UMass Dartmouth
Complete the University Studies requirements
Complete the distribution requirements of the College of Arts and Sciences
All courses counting for the major must be completed with a C- or higher
Complete all required CJS core courses, 4 CJS electives within the Crime and Justice Studies department.

Teacher Preparation Program Option:

Enrollment in the 4+1 (BA/BS-MAT) Teacher Preparation program allows undergraduate students to explore teaching as a profession through completion of graduate-level education coursework and field experiences within local public school settings. Students pursing teacher preparation at UMass Dartmouth graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in their chosen major, a Master’s degree in Teaching, and a Sheltered English Immersion endorsement. In order to develop a plan towards a license to teach, students should indicate their interest to both their biology major advisor and the Coordinator of Teacher Preparation Programs. Students may enroll in the 4+1 program once they have earned 30 credits with a 3.0 GPA or above.

Student Learning Goals

Discipline-specific:

Identify and contextualize core theories, methods, and texts in the field;
Application of Crime and Justice concepts to personal, community, and global experience;
Present and communicate organized and coherent arguments in written and oral forms;
Demonstrate historical and contemporary understanding of systems of injustice, institutionalized violence, and structural oppression;
Distinguish and make connections between structures of power (e.g., racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, ageism, etc.); and
Evaluate the utility of justice frameworks.

General skills:

Learn how to construct cogent and critical arguments through the development of academic writing and presentation skills;
Develop an understanding of, and critically evaluate, multi-disciplinary research and its implementation into practice; and
Identify historical and contemporary frameworks of inequality, violence, and justice.

Administrative Assistant

Tonya Casey

Faculty

Lisa Marie Alatorre (Lecturer)

Tammi Arford (Associate Professor) Punishment and social control, Cultural criminology, Critical carceral studies, Penal Tourism, Transformative justice and pedagogy

Aneesa Baboolal (Assistant Professor) Gender, Race/Ethnicity and Immigration, Qualitative Methodology, Intersectionality, Violence against women, Inclusivity In Higher Education

Erin Katie Krafft (Assistant Professor) Translation Feminisms, Gender and the State, Feminist Translation Studies, Totalitarianism and Authoritarianism

Susan Krumholz (Professor Emeritus) Women in Law, Intimate Personal Violence, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Law of Higher Education

C. Lipou Laliemthavisay, Esq. (Lecturer)

Eric Larson (Department Chairperson and Associate Professor) Hemispheric American Studies, Comparative Race & Ethnicity, Neoliberalism, Labor, Transnational Social Movements

Vanessa Lovelace (Assistant Professor) Black Geographies, Critical Race Theory, Postcolonial and Transnational Black Feminism, Transnational Justice

Nicolas Maloof (Lecturer)

Toniqua Mikell (Assistant Professor) Intersectional criminology, Black feminist theory, Queer criminology, Female sex offenders, Racial justice

Kaden Paulson-Smith (Assistant Teaching Professor) Critical carceral studies, Law and society, African politics, Feminist and postcolonial studies

Martin Powell (Lecturer)

Viviane Saleh-Hanna (Professor)

Heather Turcotte (Associate Professor) Abolitionism and Transnational Justice, Africana and Critical Ethnic Studies, Community Herbalism and Environments of Justice, Feminist Studies and Critical Geopolitics, Transdisciplinary Research Methods

Tryon Woods (Associate Professor) Black studies