The Criminology major requires a total of 14 courses. Students may double count no more than one course toward the Criminology major and College Sector requirements.
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. A "D" grade is not considered satisfactory performance.
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 course 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 in the fall of senior year.
2. Socio-Political Context of Crime (3 c.u.): Students in Socio-Political Context courses learn to think critically about crime and criminal justice topics from a social science, legal, and/or humanities perspective.
Students may fulfill this requirement outside of the department if the undergraduate chair determines that a substantial component of the course is devoted to crime, criminal justice, or social science content important understanding crime or criminal justice institutions.
Recommended Courses:
* Course content varies by semester and requires special approval from Undergrad Chair
CRIM 2080 Neighborhood Dynamics of Crime
CRIM 2090 Wrongful Convictions
CRIM 2030 Law and Criminal Justice
CRIM 2010 American Death Penalty in Theory and Practice
AFRC 1060 Race and Ethnic Relations
AFRC/LGST 2180 Diversity and the Law
AFRC 2293 Race and Criminal Justice
ECON 0100 Introduction to Micro Economics
ECON 0410 Public Policy Analysis
ECON 0430 Labor Economics
ECON 0440 Law and Economics
HIST 1119 History of American Law Since 1877
HIST 1169 History of American Law
HIST 1201 Foundation of Law
LAW 6060 Refugee Law
LGST 1010 Law and Social Values
PHIL 1433 The Social Contract
PHIL 1450 Philosophy of Law
PHIL 2450 Justice, Law and Morality
PSCI 0200 Introduction to American Politics
PSCI 1401 International Security
PSCI 1201 Public Opinion and American Democracy
PSCI 1290 Race and Ethnic Politics
PSCI 1200 Public Policy Process
PSCI 1205 Constitutional Law: Public Power & Civil Rights to 1912
PSCI 3401 International Law
SOCI 2420 Social Problems and Public Policy
SOCI 1030 Deviance and Social Control
SOCI 3000 Classical Sociological Theory
SOCI 1120 Law and Society
URBS 0210 The City
URBS 2810 The U.S. Criminal Justice System
URBS 4200 Perspectives on Ubran Poverty
3. Bio-Psychological-Social Analysis of Crime (3 c.u.) Bio-Psychological-Social Analysis of Crime courses exposes students to an important form of scientific analysis that can help address crime and criminal justice. In these courses, students develop expertise in biological or psychological sciences and can undertake laboratory-based analyses.
Students may fulfill this requirement outside of the department if the undergraduate chair determines that a substantial part of the course curriculum is devoted to biological or psychological content directly applicable to understanding crime or criminal justice institutions.
Recommended Courses:
* Course content varies by semester and requires special approval from Undergrad Chair
CRIM 2060 Crime and Human Development
CRIM 2070 Biopsychosocial Criminology
NRSC 1110 Introduction to Brain and Behavior
PSYC 0001 Introduction to Experimental Psychology
PSYC 1230 Cognitive Neuroscience
PSYC 1450 Personality and Individual Differences
PSYC 1462 Abnormal Psychology
PSYC 1440 Social Psychology
PSYC 2737 Introduction to Judgment and Decision Making
PSYC 2477 Development Psychology: Social and Emotional Development
4. Criminal Justice Research (2 c.u.): Criminal Justice Research courses train students to undertake and critically evaluate quantitative research on crime and criminal justice. Data collection, data management, and data analysis are included.
Students may fulfill this requirement outside of the department if the undergraduate chair determines that a substantial part of the course curriculum is sufficiently methodological and rigorous.
Recommended Courses:
CRIM 2040 Forensic Analysis
CRIM 1200 Statistics for the Social Sciences I
CRIM 4002 Data Analytics in R
CIS 1050 Computational Data Exploration
ECON 2300 Statistics for Economists
MATH 1080 Mathematics of Change, Part II
PSCI 1800 Introduction to Data Science
PSCI 3800 Applied Data Science
SOCI 2000 Introduction to Sociological Research
SOCI 2010 Social Statistics
SOCI 3210 Sample Survey Methods
STAT 1010 Introductory Business Statistics
STAT 1020 Introductory Business Statistics
STAT 1110 Introductory Statistics
STAT 1120 Introductory Statistics
STAT 4220 Predictive Analytics for Business
STAT 4240 Text Analytics
STAT 4320 Mathematical Statistics
5. Criminology Electives (3 c.u.): In addition to completing the distributional requirements, students are able to take upper-level (2000+) criminology electives to deepen their understanding of any of the three central components of the criminology curriculum. Students meeting the eligibility requirements for graduating with honors may take CRIM 4001 as one of their upper-level electives.
Recommended Courses
Any upper division (2000+) CRIM course.
Any non-CRIM course that meets the Bio-Psych-Social, Socio-Political, or Research distributional requirements.
Honors Option: Students pursuing Departmental Honors will count CRIM 4001 Senior Research Thesis as one of the Criminology Electives.
Elective Track Option: 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. 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. This option is designed to:
- Enhance students' readiness for graduate studies or research roles by integrating relevant skills from their chosen minor
- Offer an incentive to complete a minor that enhances the knowledge gained in the criminology major, making students more versatile
- Allow students to meet part of their Criminology major requirements through their minor, requiring them to complete only one, instead of three, upper-level criminology elective
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.
Since these tracks are aimed at encouraging students to develop additional expertise in a subject area, individual courses may count for either the elective tracks or the distributional requirements. For example, PSYC 1450 may be used to fulfill either the Criminology Elective as part of a psychology minor track or the Bio-Psychological-Social distributional requirement, but not both.
Minors Fulfilling an Elective Track:
- Psychology
- Math
- Computer Science