2009-2010 University Catalog 
  
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2009-2010 University Catalog

Justice, Law, and Crime Policy, MA

Banner Code: LA-MA-JLCP

The Justice, Law and Crime Policy (JCLP) MA Program brings cutting edge social science methods to the disciplines of criminology and law and society. Students coming to this program seek to make a difference in the development and evaluation of policy in these fields. The Masters program aims to train individuals seeking to enhance analytical and policy evaluation skills to further career development or prepare for competitive, sought-after positions.

The program draws from a multidisciplinary faculty in the Administration of Justice Program for required core courses and electives. It also makes available a wide range of other electives from many different university programs, including those in computational social science, conflict analysis and resolution, economics, government, law, philosophy, psychology, public administration, sociology, and statistics.

The program takes advantage of the university’s proximity to many justice organizations at the federal, state, and local levels in the capital region. The curriculum is structured to give students the skills to do policy-relevant research and work with justice and security agencies in the region to exercise those skills and serve the needs of those agencies.

This program of study is offered by the Department of Administration of Justice .

For policies governing all graduate degrees, see the Academic Policies  chapter of the catalog.
 

Transfer Credits

Students may request to transfer a maximum of 12 credits for prior graduate course work not resulting in a degree in a relevant area, subject to approval by the graduate director and dean and in accordance with university policies.

Satisfactory Progress

Each new student is assigned a faculty advisor who helps develop a program of study. The advisor and JLCP faculty assess the progress of all students annually. Students who fail to make satisfactory progress may be terminated from the program. Satisfactory progress in the JLCP Program is defined as maintaining a GPA of at least a 3.00 and all course work must result in grades of B- or above. An academic warning will be issued at the first grade below B-, and dismissal will be initiated at the second grade below B-.

Application Requirements

See the Application for Graduate Study for admissions deadlines for the Spring and Fall semesters. Late applications will be considered on a space available basis. There is no required background or preferred experience, but students should demonstrate interest in and aptitude for graduate study in justice, law, and crime policy. In addition to meeting all requirements for graduate study, applicants should submit three letters of recommendation from faculty members or individuals with first-hand knowledge of academic or professional capabilities; a statement of purpose of study no longer than 500 words; official verbal, quantitative, and analytical GRE scores on tests taken within five years of application submission; and a writing sample of a recent sole-authored work of at least 2,500 words. An interview may be required.

Degree Requirements

Four core courses (12 credits) in three fields:

Justice and Law:

Justice organizations, administration, and leadership:

Crime and crime policy:

Three courses (9 credits) of analytic methods:

Thesis (3 to 6 credits):

Note:

A maximum of 6 credits of thesis may be applied to the degree. A thesis proposal form must be submitted to the graduate  program director prior to enrollment in thesis credits. The master’s thesis must be defended orally before a committee of three faculty appointed by the JLCP graduate director.

One to two elective courses (3 to 6 credits):

  • Chosen from courses in one or more substantive fields of study listed below

Substantive Fields of Study

Master’s students are required to take one or two of the offered electives within the substantive fields of study (depending upon how many thesis credits are taken). Master’s students may take one non-JLCP elective course. Students may use other courses offered by JLCP or other programs as elective credit for a substantive field with prior written approval of the student’s advisor, director of the JLCP program, and sponsoring program.

Justice and Law

Justice-related electives:

Law-related electives:

  • Any selected LAW courses*

Note:

*Successful completion of JLCP 720 and 721 is a prerequisite for enrollment in LAW courses, which also requires preapproval from the JLCP coordinator, law school instructor, and associate dean for student academic affairs of the Law School.

Justice Organizations, Administration, and Leadership

Crime and Crime Policy

Note:

Students may use other courses offered by JLCP or other programs as elective credit for a substantive field with prior written approval of the student’s advisor, director of the JLCP program, and sponsoring program.