Honors Opportunities in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice

The School of Criminology and Criminal Justice is honored to partner with Barrett, The Honors College at ASU, to provide a range of opportunities for Barrett students majoring or minoring in criminology and criminal justice.

For more information, contact Dr. Alyssa Chamberlain the Faculty Honors Advisor (FHA) for the School.

Honors Only Courses

During some semesters, the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice offers course sections that are open only to Barrett Honors students. These courses count directly towards the number of honors credit hours required to graduate with honors. The goal of these courses is to provide a course experience tailored to Honors students and to help prepare them to complete their thesis. Course offerings are listed below: 

Fall Semester Honors-Only Courses

• CRJ 100: Introduction to Criminal Justice (periodically)
• CRJ 302: Research Methods (periodically)
• CRJ 309: Criminology (periodically)

Spring Semester Honors-Only Courses

• CRJ 303: Statistical Analysis (periodically)
• One upper-division, honors-only elective course (periodically)

Honors Contracts 

Barrett, The Honors College, requires honors students to complete a contract for at least one class per semester. These contracts involve additional work designed to deepen your engagement with the course material. While each honors contract is guided by your course instructor, Barrett also recommends that schools provide students with clear and consistent options to choose from. The School of Criminology and Criminal Justice has developed a set of standardized honors contract options for CCJ courses. These options are designed to ensure fairness across classes and to help you find meaningful and manageable ways to earn honors credit. All full- and part-time faculty can supervise honors contracts.

Below are six approved options for honors contracts in CCJ:

Option A: Observational Learning Assignment
Spend 4–6 hours observing the criminal justice system in action—this could be a police ride-along, a court observation, a jail or prison tour, or another relevant field experience. You’ll then write an 8–10 page paper comparing your observations with course material, including analysis from your textbook and academic sources.

Option B: Leading a Class Session
Work with your instructor to plan and teach a full class session (at least 60 minutes). This should demonstrate your mastery of course content and may include multimedia, lecture, discussion, or interactive activities. You’ll be expected to apply what you’ve learned to engage your classmates in a meaningful way.

Option C: Media Analysis Project
Analyze how the media presents crime or justice-related issues. This could be a case study comparing how different news outlets covered the same story, or a content analysis of multiple stories on a single topic (e.g., coverage of gang crime across Arizona newspapers). Your project must follow a research method (e.g., case study, content analysis) and result in a formal 10-page paper.

Option D: Public Opinion Critique
Select one or more public opinion polls or surveys related to crime or justice and write a critique of their methods. You’ll evaluate how the research was conducted (sampling, question wording, etc.) and assess the reliability and validity of the results. Your critique should be presented in a 10-page formal paper.

Option E: Small Research Project
Design and complete a small-scale research project, ideally using data (quantitative or qualitative) to answer a criminology- or justice-related question. This option is best for juniors or seniors who have taken research methods or statistics. You’ll work closely with your instructor to access data and write up your findings in a 10-page research paper.

Option F: Custom Honors Contract
If you have an idea for a different type of honors contract, we welcome creative approaches! You’ll need to submit a short written proposal (about a paragraph) describing your plan. Email your proposal to Dr. Alyssa Chamberlain ([email protected]), Faculty Honors Advisor, who will share it with the Undergraduate Committee for approval.

Undergraduate Research

The School of Criminology and Criminal Justice encourages its top tier performing students to participate in undergraduate research. Our faculty is listed number three in the nation for productivity. Together, this outstanding group of professors and scholars has written more than 40 books, including best-selling texts in policing, corrections, courts, criminal law, criminal procedure, and a variety of specialty areas including mental illness and crime; sex, sexuality, law, and justice; gangs; and victimology. The faculty includes award winning teachers, scholars, and mentors. Our faculty consistently works on a variety of research areas including, but not limited to, criminal law and procedure, gangs, drug use, court processes, prisoner reentry and reintegration, immigration, crime and social justice, and many others. As a high performing student, you could work side-by-side conducting research with one of our nationally ranked faculty members as an undergraduate!

The Honors Thesis/Creative Project

The Honors Thesis/Creative Project is an opportunity for Barrett students to work closely with Criminology and Criminal Justice faculty. Students conduct research in an area of interest with greater intensity than is possible in a single course. The thesis/creative project should be on a topic about which students are passionate. 

Types of Theses/Creative Projects

The School of Criminology and Criminal Justice is open to a wide range of thesis and creative projects for Barrett students. They may involve quantitative, qualitative, or legal research projects that result in a traditional scholarly paper that may be suitable for presentation at academic conferences and even for publication in scholarly journals. Alternatively, honors theses/creative projects may involve nontraditional forms of scholarly inquiry, such as working in a justice-related community service setting that allows the student to write a participant-observation research paper; creating something that a justice-related agency or organization might use to disseminate important information; or even participating in some performance of scholarly value like a mock trial or community service that draws upon the student’s knowledge and expertise. Honors theses/creative projects may be researched and written as individual ventures or may be created with other Barrett students as part of a group project.

Thesis/Creative Project Supervision

The School of Criminology and Criminal Justice requires two-person committees who supervise honors theses/creative projects, one of whom serves as the Chairperson/Director of the Thesis Committee and the other of whom serves as a secondary member. Secondary committee members can be anyone who possesses expertise in the thesis topic. They may be ASU employees or they may work elsewhere in a relevant field. By contrast, chairs/directors of Criminology and Criminal Justice thesis committees must be full-time members of the School’s tenured/tenure-track faculty (i.e., people who hold the rank of Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor, Foundation Professor, President’s Professor, or Regents Professor) or members of School’s full-time, career-track (i.e., people who hold the rank of Instructor, Assistant Teaching Professor, Associate Teaching Professor, Clinical Assistant Professor, Clinical Associate Professor, Clinical Professor, Teaching Professor, or Professor of Practice). Conversely, faculty members who hold the rank of Faculty Associate or Academic Associate may not serve as the chair/director of an honors thesis/creative project committee. Contact the School's FHA for more information. 

Academic Preparation for Theses/Creative Projects

To successfully complete a thesis in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, students should have completed all of the following courses: 

• CRJ 100: Introduction to Criminal Justice
• CRJ 201: Crime Control Policies
• CRJ 302: Research Methods
• CRJ 303: Statistical Analysis
• CRJ 309: Criminology
• At least one course that deals with the subject matter of the proposed thesis/create project. 

Thus, for example, someone wishing to complete a thesis/creative project concerning some aspect of policing should take CRJ 230 (Introduction to Policing) and would be even better served by then taking some upper-division electives relevant to policing, such as CRJ 315 (Police Organization and Management) or CRJ 409 (Police Accountability). Similarly, someone interested in completing a thesis/creative project in corrections should take CRJ 240 (Introduction to Corrections) and would be even better served by then taking some upper-division electives relevant to corrections, such as CRJ 317 (Inside/Out Prison Exchange), CRJ 443 (Community Corrections), or CRJ 444 (Institutional Corrections).  And someone interested in completing a thesis/creative project having to do with the legal aspects of criminal justice should take CRJ 203 (Courts and Sentencing) and CRJ 260 (Substantive Criminal Law) and would be even better served by then taking an upper-division electives relevant to the intersection of law and criminal justice such as CRJ 350 (Law and Social Control) or CRJ 410 (Criminal Procedure 1: The Law of Investigations). 

Students interested in specialty areas should take at least one elective course in that specialty area before embarking on a thesis. Thus, students interested in completing a thesis/creative project in sex crimes should take CRJ 406 (Sex Crimes); students interested in completing a thesis/creative project in something related to drugs and criminal justice should take CRJ 408 (Drugs and Crimes) or CRJ 434 (Drug of Abuse); students interested in completing a thesis/creative project in something related to terrorism should take CRJ 412 (International Terrorism), CRJ 417 (Cyber-Terrorism), or CRJ 419 (Domestic Terrorism). This list is not exhaustive. Students should consult the full list of our courses in the Course Catalog and take whatever courses they can that are related to the area in which they intend to complete an honors thesis or creative project. 

Recommended Timeline

Students should meet with the School’s FHA at the end of their sophomore year or the start of their junior year (i.e. no later than four semesters in advance of the intended graduate date). 

During the fall semester of their junior year, Barrett students majoring in Criminology and Criminal Justice should enroll in the honors-only section of CRJ 302 (Research Methods) (if available). This course will help students formulate a thesis plan. Then, in the spring semester of the junior year, honors students should enroll in the honors-only section of CRJ 303 (Statistical Analysis) (if available). Students should be taking other electives relevant to their intended thesis/creative project area in preparation for assembling a thesis committee during their junior year. 

Assuming a traditional four-year path to degree completion, the students should prepare a thesis prospectus and have it approved by the members of the thesis committee no later than the second semester of the student’s junior year. Then, students should take CRJ 492 (Honors Directed Study) in the first semester of the senior year and CRJ 493 (Honors Thesis) in the second semester of the senior year.  

Internships

Students in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice are highly encouraged to participate in internships. We partner with community businesses and criminal justice organizations to provide undergraduate internships in corrections, courts, federal agencies, human services, and law enforcement. We have a dedicated internship coordinator who is available to assist students in locating internships in their area of interest, as well as act as a liaison between the student and the internship provider once the internship has begun. By participating in an internship, students can earn college credit, gain professional work experience, and network with professionals in their field. For more information, visit this link.

Study Abroad

The School of Criminology and Criminal Justice offers Barrett students the opportunity to earn honors credit for participating in a variety of study abroad experiences. For more information, visit the Global Education Office page for CCJ. For more information, visit the Global Education Office page for CCJ.