The Criminology major requires a total of 14 courses. 12 out of 14 courses must be taken at Penn. Students may double count no more than one course toward the Criminology major and College Sector requirements. Criminology majors must have at least 34 CUs overall to graduate.
Successful completion of the Criminology major requires a cumulative GPA of at least 2.0, and satisfactory performance in CRIM 4000, which students must take in the fall semester of their Senior year.
1. Core Courses (3 c.u.): Topics in core courses constitute fundamental knowledge about criminology and criminal justice that are necessary for criminology majors. CRIM 1000 and CRIM 1100 are survey courses that cover theories of crime and how the criminal justice system responds to crime in society. These courses should ideally be taken in a student's freshman or sophomore years. CRIM 4000 is a senior year capstone courses on applied research.
CRIM 1000 - Introduction to Criminology -- Note: This course is mandatory within the first year of entering the Criminology major.
CRIM 1100 - Introduction to Criminal Justice
CRIM 4000 - Research Capstone -- Note: This course is mandatory with no substitutions and must be taken senior year.
2. Socio-Political Context of Crime (3 c.u.): Socio-Political Context of Crime courses teach students to think critically about crime and criminal justice topics from a social science, legal, and/or humanities perspective. Any course with the ACRS tag satisfy this requirement.
Recommended Courses:
CRIM 2040 Forensic Analysis
CRIM 2050 The Use and Impact of Technology in the Criminal Justice System
CRIM 2060 Crime and Human Development
CRIM 2080 Neighborhood Dynamics of Crime
CRIM 2090 Wrongful Convictions
CRIM 4022 Juvenile Justice in the United States
AFRC 1060 Race and Ethnic Relations
ECON 4440 Law and Economics
HIST 1169 History of American Law Since 1877
PHIL 2450 Justice, Law, and Morality
SOCI 1120 Law and Society
STSC 4326 Medicine and the Criminal Justice System
3. Bio-Psychological-Social Analysis of Crime (3 c.u.): Bio-Psychological-Social Analysis of Crime courses introduce students to scientific approaches that can hep understand and address crime. Through these courses, students build expertise in biological or psychological sciences, including hands-on laboratory work. Any course with the ACRB tag satisfy this requirement.
Recommended Courses:
PSYC 0001 Introduction to Experimental Psychology
PSYC 1210 Introduction to Brain and Behavior
PSYC 1333 Introduction to Cognitive Science
PSYC 1440 Social Psychology
PSYC 1462 Abnormal Psychology
PSYC 2280 Neuroscience and Society
PSYC 2250/NRSC 2270 Drugs, Brain, and Mind
PSYC 2737 Judgement and Decisions
PSYC 2463 Seminar in Abnormal Psychology: Developmental
NRSC 0050 Forensic Neuroscience
NRSC 1110 Introduction to Brain and Behavior
4. Criminal Justice Research (2 c.u.): Criminal Justice Research courses train students to conduct and critically evaluate quantitative research on crime and criminal justice, covering data collection, management, and analysis. Any course with the ACRC tag satisfy this requirement.
Recommended Courses:
CRIM 1200 Statistics for the Social Sciences I
CRIM 4002 Data Analytics in R
CRIM 4012 Machine Learning for Social Science
CRIM 4013 Social Network Analysis
PSCI 1800 Introduction to Data Science
PSCI 3800 Applied Data Science
SOCI 2000 Sociological Research Methods
SOCI 2010 Social Statistics
SOCI 3200 Qualitative Methods
5. Criminology Electives (3 c.u.): Any ACRB, ACRS, and ACRC courses can count.
Honors Option: Students pursuing Departmental Honors can count CRIM 4001 Senior Research Thesis as one of the Criminology Electives.
Elective Track Options: Students can fulfill part of their criminology major by choosing an elective track, which involves completing a minor in either computer science, math, or psychology only. By doing so, they can count two of the minor courses towards the three required criminology electives. This means students who pursue an elective track need only one upper-level criminology elective to meet this part of their major requirements.
Students still need a total of 14 cu to count toward the criminology major. Some minors might restrict the number of courses that can be double counted towards both the minor and major requirements. Regardless, students must ensure they have 14 approved courses counting toward the criminology major to graduate.