MS in Criminal Justice

The Master of Science, Criminal Justice degree at Brown Western University requires 36 graduate units. Specifically, students must take nine graduate education courses and four graduate education electives in order to earn the degree.

As with other Masters-degree programs at Brown Western, up to nine semester units of acceptable transfer graduate courses may be transferred into one’s Masters program (see “Transfer Policies” for more details).

The Master of Science, Criminal Justice degree is designed for working criminal justice professionals and others who wish to enter the mid-management level or instruction in the career. Unlike some other online learning course offerings, the Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice is a fully integrated part of our graduate program. When you enroll in the master’s program in criminal justice, you will be working with faculty who are leading scholars in their fields and have the practical experience to make your learning experience real. State-of-the art technology and a comprehensive support system guide students through every phase of the program.

The master’s degree in criminal justice is especially designed for highly motivated students who are looking toward leadership positions in law enforcement, juvenile justice, and elsewhere in the criminal justice system—in California, the nation as a whole, and overseas. From the growth of computer crime to the rise of international terrorism, the world that criminal justice leaders must deal with is changing rapidly. The Master’s in Criminal Justice is based on the idea that today’s—and tomorrow’s—leaders in criminal justice will need a broad array of high-level skills to successfully meet the evolving challenges of the field in the 21st century. To that end, our program offers a solid grounding in the fundamentals of the field—including theory, criminal law, research methods, and statistics—along with hands-on training in computer applications in criminal justice and a range of courses that deal with vital current issues, from race and ethnicity in criminal justice to the growth of transnational crime. Our goal is to build both fundamental technical skills and the ability to think critically and to use the findings of research to inform decision-making.

The master’s program aims to provide students with the best elements of the criminological tradition, but also to make that tradition relevant to the real-world needs of those working on the front lines of the justice system. Accordingly, we have developed our master’s program in consultation with a broad range of criminal justice professionals.

Units Required to Complete the Program ~ 36