Criminal Justice M.S.

Overview

A master’s in criminal justice from Saint Joseph’s University will help you advance a career in the fields of law enforcement, intelligence, behavior management and more. This program can be taken online or on campus.

Whether you’d like to concentrate on the theoretical knowledge needed to pursue a degree beyond a master's or you are focused on getting the management skills to succeed as a decision-maker, the M.S. in Criminal Justice at Saint Joseph’s University is right for you. Start today and take classes on campus, online or both. Our online program has been recognized as one of the nation's best in U.S. News & World Report's online education rankings for 2021.

Learn from Experts, Fight for Justice

In the criminal justice program, you’ll enhance your foundational knowledge, develop written and oral communications skills and expand your critical thinking, reasoning and research abilities. Our faculty are experts — criminal justice practitioners and scholars — who take an active role in mentoring their students. In the classroom, you’ll be challenged to apply ethical principles to complex social and legal issues. Outside of the classroom, you’ll have opportunities to gain professional experience through credit-bearing internships in criminal justice.

Choose from Six Criminal Justice Tracks

General Track - Choose six electives from across the tracks in addition to the four core courses.

Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging - Learn to develop partnerships, facilitate inclusive conversations, create change within an institution, and understand methods for researching, implementing and evaluating diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. - become fluent in the languages of social identity, the impact of social context and group dynamics and psychological and neuropsychological constructs that result in implicit bias, discrimination and marginalization.

Behavior Analysis - Become skilled a behavior management practitioner.  A minimum of one year of applied behavior analysis work experience is expected for candidates applying to and enrolled in this concentration.

Behavior Management  - Take courses on addiction, mental health and youth culture and deviance and learn how to manage these issues in the context of criminal justice. 

Federal Law Enforcement  - Dig into topics like forensic financial analysis, white collar crime and federal justice with this track.

Intelligence and Crime Analysis - Explore the intelligence area of criminal justice at a variety of levels, including intelligence policy and process.

Homeland Security - Classes on terrorism threats and strategy, risk assessment and the sociology of disaster are covered in this track.