Program Overview

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice

Program Overview

The Master of Arts in Criminal Justice program at the University at Albany is designed to provide students with an advanced understanding of the criminal justice system and criminology. The program prepares students for leadership roles in law enforcement, public policy, and research, with a focus on areas such as policing, law, crime analysis, and research.

Program of Study

The program consists of:

• Foundation Courses:
  • Theories of Crime
  • Theoretical Foundations of Criminal Justice
• Support Sequence of Statistics and Research Design:
  • Applied Statistics or equivalent
  • MA Research Design or equivalent
• Elective Credits:
  • 18 credits from any Criminal Justice graduate-level courses
• Capstone Experience Seminar:
  • CRJ799, which provides the opportunity to demonstrate special field competency by synthesizing and refining graduate experiences around a set of related activities

Concentrations

The program offers four concentration areas:

• Information Technology (currently unavailable)
• Crime Causation, Prevention, and Intervention
• Justice Systems
• Problem Solving and Analysis

Each concentration requires 9 credits of coursework.

MA with JD Option

The program offers a collaborative agreement with Albany Law School, allowing students to pursue a Juris Doctor in Law while completing their Master of Arts in Criminal Justice.

Career Paths

Graduates of the program can pursue a diverse range of career paths, including:

• Crime analyst
• Policy analyst
• Police officer
• State trooper
• Crime victim specialist
• Special agent
• Community/outreach organizer
• Residential/case manager
• Community support director

Admissions Requirements

• Deadlines:
  • Fall: August 1
  • Spring: January 1
  • Summer: Not Available
• Required Application Materials:
  • Transcripts from all schools attended
  • Three letters of recommendation
  • Statement of Goals
  • Resume

Student Learning Objectives

The program aims to help students develop the following skills:

• Develop a research question and a plan to answer it using pre-existing data sets
• Evaluate the validity of research conclusions drawn from a given data set
• Apply basic statistical analyses to practical criminological problems
• Identify gaps in current research on a given topic and propose a plan for filling those gaps
• Assess the application of criminal justice theories in the explanation of criminal justice outcomes
• Assess the validity of criminological theories as applied to current questions

Supplemental Degree Programs

Graduate students can request a supplemental degree in one or more subordinate degrees without needing to go through the full admissions process again. Available supplemental programs include:

• Africana Studies CGS
• Community College Leadership CGS
• Data Science for Public Affairs CGS
• Demography CGS
• Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity CGS
• Geospatial Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Analytics CGS
• International Education Management CGS
• Nonprofit Management and Leadership CGS
• Public Sector Management CGS
• Women and Public Policy CGS