Criminal Justice, MCJ

The Master of Criminal Justice (MCJ) program is designed for students interested in comprehensive professional graduate education in the field of criminal justice. It is intended to develop in the student a fundamental understanding of the basic fields within criminal justice and of background material from supporting disciplines that would enable the student to adapt to many operational specializations. As an academic and professional field of study, this program is dedicated to preparing men and women not only to administer the system as it presently exists but also to evaluate, to analyze and to change—to become pioneers in accelerating the shaping of a rational and responsive criminal justice system.

To deal with this system effectively, research design capability must be developed along with the skills required for the ordering and analysis of empirical data. This course of study will also prepare the student to be an innovator in crime control and prevention through course work dealing with strategies and skills for promoting individual, organizational, and social change.

General Requirements

A minimum of 36 credit hours of appropriate graduate study, including a minimum of 27 credit hours in criminal justice. The remaining courses for the degree may be under the criminal justice heading or under another discipline, with prior written approval of the faculty advisor.
A grade point average of B (3.0 on a 4-point scale) or better is required for degree candidacy.
Grades of B- or better in all required courses. Credit will not be counted for any course in which a student earns a grade of C- or lower.
No more than six credit hours of independent study.

Course Requirements

Core Courses

Elective Courses

Students must complete 21 semester hours of electives. Elective courses include a mixture of specialized courses, workshops, and other formats. Students may choose to use these elective hours to build an area of concentration designed to meet individual needs. Where appropriate, students may include specialized courses offered by other departments and schools of the University, with prior written approval of the faculty advisor.

Field Study in Criminal Justice

Students who have not had experience in a criminal justice organization are required to complete CJ 6910 Field Study in Criminal Justice. A minimum of 240 hours of supervised work is required to earn three hours of credit. All required core courses must be completed before enrolling in CJ 6910.

Capstone Requirements: Advanced Seminar or Thesis

All MCJ students, except those pursuing the thesis option, are required to complete C J 5361, Advanced Seminar in Criminal Justice, in which they conduct, write, and present a client-based project. The Advanced Seminar is taken during the last semester of the student’s degree program. All core courses must be completed before taking the advanced seminar.

The Advanced Seminar course is the capstone course for the program. In it, students work with a client in a criminal justice agency to identify a problem and then, using the knowledge and skills they have gained in the program, carry out a project and write a paper to address the problem. The principle of the course is that it provides students with an opportunity to integrate what they have learned and apply their knowledge and skills to a real- world problem. Further, it provides the faculty with an opportunity to judge the student’s ability to perform such work.

The thesis option is available for MCJ students who are interested in undertaking a research project, pursuing careers in research, or entering the Ph.D. program. Students must select a thesis advisor from the faculty to oversee their work. A thesis may be completed in one semester, but often requires a two-semester, six-credit hour time frame. The student conducts a comprehensive review of the theoretical and research literature in the subject area of their thesis and collects original data or analyzes existing data in new ways.

Minimum eligibility requirements for pursuing a thesis include:

Matriculation in the MCJ program
Successful completion of all core courses and a minimum of 15 semester hours earned in approved criminal justice elective courses
Overall GPA of 3.75 or higher
Demonstrated ability to pursue empirically-based work, as evidenced by two submitted research papers developed in MCJ courses
Preliminary identification of a thesis topic or area of interest
Agreement of at least two MCJ faculty members to serve on a three-person thesis committee (one serving as thesis advisor)
The submission of a thesis prospectus developed under the supervision of a faculty advisor and approval of this document by the thesis committee

A student wishing to undertake the thesis option applies formally through her/his faculty academic advisor, first, to establish eligibility with respect to the above criteria, and second, to identify appropriate faculty members to serve on the student’s three-person thesis committee. The thesis committee will consist of two full-time MCJ faculty members, one of whom will serve as the thesis advisor and chair. The third member of the committee may be selected from any full-time or adjunct member of the SPA faculty. (NOTE: Although the formal procedures entail application through the academic advisor, the student is encouraged to make informal contacts with appropriate subject-matter faculty to determine interest and availability.) Before the student is allowed to enroll for thesis credit, the thesis committee must formally approve a written thesis prospectus or proposal, which includes a thesis plan, a preliminary literature review, problem statement, and a timetable for completion. Upon approval of the prospectus, the student will be allowed to enroll in C J 6950 Master’s Thesis.