Program Overview

Program Overview

The Criminal Justice program leads to a Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice and supports the Bachelor of Applied Science Degree with courses applicable to criminal justice, community and mental health, and legal studies tracks.

Program Details

The program has two main objectives: to provide an advanced understanding of the criminal justice system and its components and to provide either a concentration of knowledge and application of skills in a specialized subfield of study or a broad exploration of the discipline based on individual student needs through the selection of disciplinary electives.

What Will I Learn

Within this program, students will demonstrate an understanding of the operation and purposes of the major components of the criminal justice system (police, courts, and corrections). They will also demonstrate the ability to critically analyze the criminal justice system and its aims and objectives. As part of this degree, students will develop the ability to critically analyze the criminal justice system and its aims and objectives.

What Classes Will I Take

The criminal justice major requires a minimum of 33 semester hours, 27 semester hours of which must be at the upper-division level. Supporting courses related to essential skills totaling 7 hours are also required.

• Criminal Justice majors are encouraged to take MATH 1442 to satisfy the Mathematics Core Curriculum Program requirement.
  • Students who do not take MATH 1442 in the Core Curriculum will be required to do so to fulfill the supporting coursework requirement for majors.
• Criminal Justice majors must complete the Systems Requirement in the Core, CRIJ 1301 or CRIJ 1313, within their first 12 credit hours of Criminal Justice courses.
• No more than 21 semester hours of lower-division criminal justice credit may be applied to fulfill baccalaureate degree requirements.
• The College of Liberal Arts also requires students in Criminal Justice to take at least 6 hours of a second language.

What Careers Can I Have

When students reach graduation, they will have the skills to take on careers that include:

• Lawyer
• Homeland Security
• Homicide Detective
• Forensic Accountant
• Forensic Psychologist
• Criminal Investigator
• DEA Agent
• Secret Service Agent
• FBI Agent
• Forensic Science Technician