Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice

The Department of Criminal Justice offers the Bachelor of Science degree and the Master of Science degree in Criminal Justice. The undergraduate program provides students with a broad foundation in the social sciences while emphasizing restorative justice, social and economic justice, fairness, community evolvement, and public safety. Students are encouraged to think critically about fundamental issues concerning crime and justice while preparing to become practitioners in the field. Upon graduation students are especially prepared for careers across the range of criminal justice including US Marshall, FBI agent, juvenile probation officer, parole officer, criminal investigator and more. Graduates are well prepared for law school as well as to continue their study of criminal justice in graduate school programs leading to the master's degree or Ph.D.

General Requirements

Students in the undergraduate program must complete a total of 120 semester hours: 39 hours of general education courses; 39 hours of criminal justice courses, 12 hours of required English cognate courses, and 30 hours of general electives. Students must earn a C or better in all courses required for the major and have an overall GPA of 2.5 for courses required for the major. At least 21 hours of criminal justice courses must be taken in residence at Chicago State University. And students must pass the state and federal constitution examination.

Specific Requirements

Students must complete 9 hours of required core courses including the following.

• CJ 1200: Introduction to Law
• CJ 2309: Survey of the Criminal Justice System
• CJ 2316: Introduction to Criminology

Students must complete 12 hours of required English cognate courses including the following.

• ENG 1360: Essentials of English Grammar
• ENG 2100: Editing Nonfiction
• ENG 2280: Critical Strategies in Research and Writing or ENG 2790: Business Writing
• CMAT 2030: Basic Speech Communication

Students must complete 12 hours of required elective courses. One course must be selected from each of the following four categories.

Law

• CJ 4318: Correctional Law and Prisoner Rights
• CJ 4343: Constitutional Criminal Procedure
• CJ 4344: Trial Practice
• CJ 4345: Law, Judicial Process, and Society
• CJ 4361: Elements of Substantive Criminal Law

Law Enforcement

• CJ 4325: Police Operation
• CJ 4326: Police Community Relations
• CJ 4334: Comparative Police Systems
• CJ 4335: Police Organization and Management
• CJ 4363: Criminal Investigation

Juvenile Justice

• CJ 4323: Youth Gangs and Violence
• CJ 4324: Youth Gang Intervention
• CJ 4352: Juvenile Institutions
• CJ 4357: Juvenile Delinquency and Juvenile Justice         

Corrections

• CJ 4318: Correctional Law and Prisoner Rights
• CJ 4321: The Correctional Organization
• CJ 4336: Sociology of Corrections
• CJ 4351: Probation and Parole
• CJ 4352: Juvenile Institutions
• CJ 4353: Adult Institutions
• CJ 4354: Community Based Corrections
• CJ 4356: Local Detention Facilities

And students must complete 15 hours of criminal justice electives through which one can focus on law, law enforcement, juvenile justice, or corrections. The program culminates with students completing an internship in criminal justice or a service learning practicum in criminal justice. Students who have six months or more work experience in the criminal justice field may elect to write a bachelor's paper on some topic in criminal justice.