Crime and Justice Studies Major

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.

Bachelor’s of Arts in Crime and Justice Studies (CJS)

Students can choose from two types of Bachelor’s of Arts degree in CJS: an in-person/day school format OR a fully online format in the CJS online program.  CJS Majors and CJS Online Majors have the same program requirements and the same 39 credit course requirements listed below.  CJS faculty teach courses in both the in-person/day school program and in the fully online program. CJS Majors and CJS Online Majors receive CJS advising with CJS faculty.

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.

 

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.