Criminal Justice Studies Major, B.A./B.S.

Print Degree Planner (opens a new window) |

Students interested in criminal justice studies (CJS) may elect a major or minor as part of the liberal arts program leading to the Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree. The Bachelor of Arts degree requires 12 hours of non-English modern or classical language.

Criminal Justice Studies is a multi-disciplinary major with contributions from the fields of sociology, political science, and anthropology. Students will learn the basic four areas of the discipline, policing, law, corrections, and criminology in the introductory courses, and then will be able to specialize in their area of choice through upper division electives.

Several of the required and elective courses in the criminal justice studies major are listed under their respective disciplines such as sociology and political science. There are 27 hours of sociology designated criminal justice courses that can count toward both the criminal justice studies degree and the sociology major.

Criminal Justice Studies requires students to complete the precriminal justice requirements before being accepted as criminal justice studies majors. Students also must maintain a cumulative GPA of 2.50.

Pre-CJS program (33 hours)

University Core (21 hours)

ENG 101 - Rhetoric and Composition I: Literacy and the Self Credits: 3
CMST 101 - Introduction to Public Speaking Credits: 3 or
CMST 107 - Introduction to Interpersonal Communication Credits: 3
MATH 108 - Survey of Mathematics Credits: 4 (or higher)
PHIL 201 - Introduction to Ethics Credits: 3 or
PHIL 312 - Ethics in the Professions Credits: 3
SOC 121 - Principles of Sociology Credits: 3
POLS 102 - Introduction to American Politics Credits: 3
ANTH 111 - World Culture Credits: 3 or
ANTH 251 - Peoples of Latin America Credits: 3 or
ANTH 255 - The Cultures of Asia Credits: 3 or
CMST 317 - Intercultural Communication Credits: 3

CJS Required Courses (12 hours)

CRIM 234 - Introduction to Corrections Credits: 3
CRIM 244 - Police & Society Credits: 3
SOC 225 - Criminology Credits: 3
POLS 208 - Law, Courts, and Justice Credits: 3

Additional Information

Student must have a Cumulative GPA of 2.5 and a grade of C or better in each UCC required core and a C+ or better in each Pre-CJS required course to apply to CJS program.

CJS program (27 hours)

CRIM 371 - Criminological Theory Credits: 3
CRIM 475 - Analyzing CJ Issues with GIS Credits: 3
SOC 391 - Introduction to Sociological Research Credits: 3 and
SOC 392 - Statistics for Social Research Credits: 3
or
POLS 331 - Research Design and Data Collection Credits: 3 and
POLS 332 - Statistics and Data Analysis Credits: 3

One diversity course

CRIM 331 - Gender and Crime Credits: 3
CRIM 370 - Seminar in Criminal Justice Credits: 3 (Approved topics are: Race and Crime and Urban Crime)
CRIM 403 - Violence Against Women Credits: 3
SOC 421 - Race and Ethnicity Credits: 3
SOC 431 - Gender and Society Credits: 3
SOC 463 - Wealth and Poverty Credits: 3

CJS Electives

(Select four courses, three of which must be 300/400-level)

Criminal Justice Studies Major, B.A./B.S.

Pre-CJS program (33 hours)

University Core (21 hours)

CJS Required Courses (12 hours)

Additional Information

CJS program (27 hours)

One diversity course

CJS Electives

Policing

Law

Criminology

Corrections

General CJS & Cognates

Internships