Master of Arts with a Major in Criminal Justice

Dr. Doris Chu
Program Director
E-mail: dchu@astate.edu

About the M.A. in Criminal Justice
The Master of Arts in Criminal Justice is quickly becoming the path to both employment and promotion in the Criminal Justice system as processes are becoming exceedingly complex. This is particularly true in state agencies (e.g., Probation and Parole which requires the BA at a minimum) and federal agencies (e.g. US Marshall Service).

This program is intended to be a Masters degree that conforms to the nationally accepted standard in the field as indicated by the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. The core courses and elective concentrations most closely resemble a mix between the MA programs in criminal justice at Washington State University and SUNY, Albany, the number 6 and number 1 schools in the field respectively. It is intended to 1) develop additional analytical skills for in-service practitioners in the field or a closely related field; 2) to provide practitioners in this region with access to graduate education in their field to make them competitive for promotion within state agencies; 3) to provide our undergraduates who wish to pursue a degree regional access to one in their field of choice; and 4) to provide or undergraduate students who are considering a Ph.D. in the field a good foundation for further graduate studies.

Admissions Requirements
Admissions Deadlines: Fall - July 1, Spring - November 15 

• BA or BS in Criminal Justice, Criminology, Political Science, Psychology, or Sociology.
• Two letters of recommendation
• A statement of purpose
  A 3.00 GPA in the final 60 hours of undergraduate work, OR prior graduate degree, OR at least 6 hours of graduate credit with a B or better in all courses attempted, OR an LSAT score of 139 or better, OR a combined GRE score of 900 (quantitative and verbal).

Degree Requirements
Students are required to take at least 33 hours of course work for the MA in Criminal Justice. The degree checklist may be viewed here.

Core Courses (12 hours)
SOC 6223  Criminal Justice Systems (3 hours)
SOC 6133  Police & Society (3 hours)
SOC 6513  Seminar in Community/Institutional Corrections (3 hours)
SOC 6523  Seminar in Criminal Behavior (3 hours) OR SOC 6403  Seminar in Juvenile Delinquency (3 hours)

Methods Course (3 hours, select from the following courses)
SOC 6343  Methods of Social Research (3 hours)
SOC 6253  Qualitative Research Methods (3 hours)
SOC 5343  Geographic Information Systems (3 hours)
SOC 5323  Applied Research (3 hours)
POSC 6573 Grant Writing and Administration (3 hours)
POSC 6533 Public Policy and Evaluation (3 hours)

Electives (18 hours, select from the following courses)
POSC 6553 Public Budgeting and Finance (3 hours)
POSC 6533 Seminar in Human Resource Management (3 hours)
POSC 6503 Managing Local Government (3 hours)
POSC 6523 Decision Making (3 hours)
SOC 5243 Social Organization (3 hours)
SOC 6203 Social Psychology (3 hours)
SOC 6523 Seminar in Criminal Behavior (3 hours)*
SOC 6403 Seminar in Juvenile Delinquency (3 hours)*
SOC 6423 Seminar in Race, Class and Gender (3 hours)
SOC 6123 Aging, Law and Social Issues (3 hours)
SOC 6603 Internship
*Whichever course is not taken as above requirement
NOTE: Any of the above-listed methods courses not taken to satisfy methods requirement may be taken as an elective

Other Requirements
Degree Plan: No later than the second semester after a student enters the program, the student shall select a graduate committee of at least three faculty members from the graduate faculty, at least two of whom must be from the department of Criminology, Sociology, and Geography. The chair of the committee must be from the department of Criminology, Sociology and Geography. Before the end of the second semester the student shall submit a graduate plan to the committee for consideration, which shall indicate the courses the student plans to take to fulfill the degree requirements. At least two members of the committee must approve the plan.

Professional Paper: The student must write and defend a professional paper, one the student’s graduate committee unanimously agrees is worthy of presentation at a professional conference or submission to a refereed journal. The defense shall be open to all members of the graduate faculty of the University and shall be considered both an oral and written comprehensive examination. The defense shall occur during or after the student’s last semester of course work.

The student must also comply with all existing Graduate School policies at the time of admission.