Graduate Handbook | Criminal Justice | College of Liberal Arts

Degree Requirements

Graduate School academic requirements

All graduate students must maintain a cumulative graduate GPA of 3.0. If their GPA drops below 3.0, they are either placed on probation or dismissed (undergraduate courses will not count towards graduate GPA). The MA program in criminal justice has high standards for their graduate students. As such, each graduate course must be completed with a grade of “B” or better for the credit to be acceptable toward their advanced degree. The MA program, however, is understanding that students may face challenges either in their coursework and/or outside the classroom. To account for these challenges, the M.A. program will accept one grade letter ranging from “C” to “B-” toward their advanced degree.

Probation: students whose cumulative graduate GPA is .1 to .6 points below that needed for a 3.0 GPA are placed on a one semester probation. If they fail to raise their cumulative GPA to 3.0 by the end of one semester, they are dismissed from their graduate program. Thesis, dissertation, S/U graded credits, and transfer credits have no impact on a student’s GPA.

Dismissal: students whose cumulative graduate GPA is .7 or more grade points below that needed for a 3.0 GPA are dismissed. Dismissed students are no longer in a graduate program but may take graduate-level courses as a Grad Special. Students wishing to complete their degree must obtain approval to take graduate-level courses, raise their graduate GPA to at least 3.0, and then re-apply to a graduate program. Any courses taken to raise their GPA will be included in the graduate special/transfer credit limitation (9 credits for master’s degrees).

Students engaging in academic dishonesty may receive academic and disciplinary sanctions for cheating, plagiarism, or other attempts to obtain or earn grades under false pretenses. Depending on the type and level of academic dishonesty, the academic sanctions for graduate students may include: filing a final grade of “F”, reducing the student’s final course grade one or two full grade points; giving a reduced grade or zero on the coursework; or requiring the student to retake or resubmit the coursework. The academic sanction is to be determined by the extent of the dishonesty, following the Chart in Subsection C of 6,502: Academic Standards. Students engaging in egregious acts of academic dishonesty or “Academic Dishonesty Level C” will receive a final grade of “F” in the corresponding course, which is not eligible for the grade replacement or grade appeal policies. If the student engages in such academic dishonesty in a Core course, the student will be removed from the MA program because the student no longer meets the academic requirements outlined in this section.

Credits

For both the thesis and non-thesis tracks, 33 credits are required. For thesis students, this includes six credits of CRJ 797 (Thesis). Non-thesis students also must complete two credits of CRJ 795 (Comprehensive Exam) in addition to the 33 credits. Students complete both required and elective courses. At least one three-credit elective class must be an in-person class (i.e., not independent study) with a CRJ or SRJS prefix. For more detailed information on courses, please review the course catalog.

Required courses

Research Methods

Generally, this will be SRJS 725, which is a research methods course designed specifically for students in the School of Social Research and Justice Studies (e.g., criminal justice, sociology, communications). However, advisors may allow substitution of research methods based on the student’s interests, abilities and career goals.

Statistics

Based on the student’s interests, abilities, and career goals, a statistics class will be selected by the student and his or her advisor. The current graduate-level statistics course offered in the College of Liberal Arts is SOC 706.

CRJ 740: Crime and Criminal Justice

CRJ 740 serves the dual purposes of enhancing the understanding and knowledge of those already acquainted with criminal justice as an academic discipline, while familiarizing those outside the field with the structure, operations, and nuances of the justice system. As one of the six core classes in the program, CRJ 740 students are exposed to a combination of classic and current readings, they discuss several of the most provocative and troubling aspects of the system, and they complete writing assignments designed to show a deeper understanding of the problems faced by the justice system.

CRJ 750: Planned Change in Criminal Justice

CRJ 750 examines the internal and external forces that influence complex criminal justice organizations including management and motivation, bureaucracy, laws and statutes, administrative and organizational policies, finances, procedures, and criminal justice personnel.

CRJ 785: Criminal Justice Policy Analysis

Through class discussions, weekly summary papers and a comprehensive analysis paper, students will acquire a rich understanding of the state of, empirical research on, and ideological and political sources of American crime control policy.

CRJ 788: Ethics, Law, and Justice Policy

The formulation of law and policy is an inherently moral activity that requires ethical introspection in order to “do” justice. Those who create, influence, or implement law or policy must be capable of examining information, processes, and decisions from a variety of epistemological traditions because what is legal is not necessarily ethical and justice is an oft-abused word. Multiple ethical systems and strengths and weaknesses of each as foundations for law and policy will be discussed. A variety of historic and contemporary criminal justice policies, practices, and issues will also be discussed in relation to these ethical systems.

Electives

There are six required courses, and the rest of the credits are taken as electives or thesis. Student’s electives are required to be approved by the student’s advisor. The student’s advisor will help pick classes that are relevant and appropriate for the student’s readiness and trajectory in the MA program. All students must take at least one 3 credit 600 or 700 level CRJ or SRJS elective in-person.

Internships

Internships are available throughout the course of the program. CRJ 791 and SRJS 792 are both internship courses and the student’s advisor or the program director can advise on which internship class is the appropriate one to enroll in. Typically, agencies want students to take some classes before doing an internship so the students are prepared to contribute to the agency. The advisor will be responsible for enrolling the student, providing a syllabus, monitoring progress, and grading. The student’s advisor or other professors might have information about particular internships, but students can also seek out agencies or organizations that will take internships.

Thesis

It is essential that students follow the timeline (which is listed under “Timeline for Degree Completion”) to ensure timely graduation. First, a faculty member must agree to advise a student and serve as the thesis committee chair. Thesis advisement requires a significant amount of work by the advisor/chair faculty member, and so s/he might not have time. Because the thesis is generally an extension of the advisor’s work, the advisor/chair and student will develop general ideas about topics and methodologies. The student will develop a research proposal and often must complete multiple drafts to produce a proposal that is methodologically sound and polished. Once the chair approves the proposal, the student will send the proposal to the committee. It is essential that the committee is allowed to provide their expertise to the proposal as early as possible.

The student will then complete the thesis research with advising from the chair faculty member. The student may be required to revise the thesis numerous times until the chair deems it is complete. The complete thesis needs to be sent to the committee at least two weeks prior to the scheduled oral defense. The defense by the student includes a brief oral presentation about the thesis to demonstrate that s/he can orally discuss what s/he did and what the findings mean. The committee will ask questions of the student and challenge the student to defend the thesis research.

After the defense, the committee discusses recommendations and changes that may need to be made to the thesis before it is considered a “pass.” Once the required changes are complete, the advisor awards the thesis credit. Finally, the chair and the student will typically publish the findings and/or present them at a conference.

Non-Thesis

Students who choose not to do a thesis take a comprehensive exam designed to test their competency in criminal justice. The non-thesis track involves a 2 credit “comprehensive exam” course after they have completed and passed (with a grade of at least a C) all the required courses. The comprehensive exam course does not count towards the program’s 33 credits, but is required for non-thesis students. Students in the comprehensive exam course will work on skills including professional writing, citation, organization, time management, and studying. Students will also develop a “study guide” which will be the only outside material allowed in the room during the comprehensive exam. The exam consists of three questions. One question relates to research methods and statistics and is answered by every student. The remaining three questions come from the core CRJ courses and each student answers two of the three questions. The exam is typed and requires 3-6 pages per question. It is graded by the faculty of those core classes. Each question is graded as Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory. To pass, all three questions need to be graded as Satisfactory. Students who do not pass must retake the comprehensive exam the next semester. The student must be continuously enrolled in at least 3 credits during this semester. If the exam is not retaken the following semester, the student will have to reregister and pay for the comprehensive exam course and retake the course. Students who fail the retake of the exam will be dismissed from the program and the university.