About

~Undergoing curriculum changes in 2023-2024; Check back in Spring 2024 for new requirements. 

Welcome. Thank you for your interest in the Master’s program in Criminal Justice and the Crime Analysis Certificate. If you have any questions about the programs, please contact Dr. Lori Elis, the graduate coordinator, at 540-831-6775 or lelis@radford.edu or Dr. Roberto Santos, the Crime Analysis Certificate coordinator, at rsantos4@radford.edu.

Click here for information about the department's current faculty

Mission

The mission of the criminal justice graduate program is to stimulate, encourage and support students as they pursue the Master of Science degrees. The program will be academically rigorous, serving those students: who will go on to pursue a Ph.D.; who are criminal justice and social science professionals seeking further study and analysis of the field; who are seeking academic preparation for leadership positions in criminal justice; and who are seeking preparation for community college teaching positions. The Criminal Justice Department maintains its commitment to providing excellence in graduate-level teaching, learning and scholarship that is also characterized by increasing contributions to the professional and technological needs of the state and region. 

Goals

  1. Provide students with an academically rigorous learning experience that provides an advanced understanding of criminal justice as an area of inquiry and as an academic discipline.
  2. Provide students with the advanced knowledge, skills and abilities required for leadership positions, highly specialized criminal justice positions, pursuit of further education in doctoral or law school and/or community college teaching positions.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Students should have a thorough and advanced understanding of the American criminal justice system and the legal, theoretical, and public policy issues that are relevant to it.
  2. Students should be able to articulate an understanding of diversity (including, but not limited to, ethnicity, culture, issues pertaining to gender, religion, and other universals that link all humans) and effects of diversity on the lives of people within the context of contemporary issues of justice.
  3. Students should appreciate and utilize ethical decision making in criminal justice.
  4. Students should be able to construct a research design that would either evaluate an agency program or investigate an empirical or theoretical issue relating to the criminal justice system.
  5. Students should have opportunities to acquire experience with the criminal justice professional community through internships, service learning activities, research collaborations and/or experiential learning activities.