Graduate Program
Master's Degree
The Department of Criminal Justice offers a multidisciplinary Master of Arts degree designed for students coming from a variety of bachelor degree programs or individuals currently working in criminal justice–related fields.
The master’s program is organized around four broad areas of inquiry:
The Nature of Crime and Delinquency
Law and Society
Criminal Justice Systems and Processes
Cross-Cultural Studies
Students seeking the M.A. in Criminal Justice may complete the requirements for the degree by writing either a thesis or two substantial papers in addition to the general course requirements.
The Nature of Crime and Delinquency
This area focuses on descriptive and explanatory frameworks for studying behaviors considered offensive to society.
Back to Top Law and Society
This area looks at the interactions of social forces and legal processes, investigating such broad questions as “What shapes the law?” and “In what ways do those institutions and systems we term legal differ from other institutions and systems?”
Back to Top Criminal Justice Systems and Processes
This area focuses on criminal justice administration. Research in this area examines the structural, organizational, and individual factors that influence criminal justice decision-making. Emphasis is on police, courts, and corrections in the adult and juvenile criminal justice systems.
Back to Top Cross-cultural Studies
Cross-cultural studies is concerned with roles culture plays in contexts where individual, group, and institutional identities and practices arise, remain static, and change. For example, hypotheses in this field may link how people view and characterize their experiences and environments – from interpersonal interactions to families, subgroups, state, nations, and international networks – to how they relate to or engage in behaviors that are considered criminal. Research in cross-cultural studies also considers the roles of criminal justice and legal systems in defining, controlling, and generating behaviors, identities, and groups, as well as relationships among them.
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