From the director

The School of Criminology and Criminal Justice has experienced dramatic growth over the past few years.  We hired several new faculty members and lecturers and doubled our advising staff.  This fall, we have more than 2,300 undergraduate majors, which is an increase of 127% since 2009.  We also have 500 online students in the Master of Arts in Criminal Justice (MACJ) program, and our Master of Science in Criminology and Criminal Justice (MSCCJ) and doctoral programs continue to grow as well.  We are literally bursting at the seams!

Faculty and staff in the School are committed to ensuring the success of our undergraduate and graduate students.  Our goals are to develop state-of-the-art, academically rigorous curricula that challenge students and teach them to think critically about crime, criminal involvement, and criminal justice policies and practices, and to prepare the next generation of criminal justice professionals and academicians.  We are developing a new undergraduate certificate in criminal investigation, expanding our study abroad programs, and developing new courses designed to meet the needs of our students and their potential employers.  Last year, 468 students earned undergraduate degrees in criminology and criminal justice.  We also awarded 163 MACJ degrees, 5 MSCCJ degrees, and 8 PhD degrees.

Faculty members in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice are involved in important and policy relevant research on issues such as police-community relations, use of technology by the police, mass incarceration and its consequences, racial profiling by criminal justice agencies, the response of the criminal justice system to the crime of sexual assault, neighborhoods and crime, and gangs and crime. The results of these research projects inform policy and practice at the local, state, national and international levels.

We look forward to another successful year.  Please stop by and see us on the 6th floor of the UCENT Building.  Our doors are always open!