Criminal Justice, M.A.

Program Chair: Traci Dingle, Ph.D

The Master’s Program in Criminal Justice seeks to provide skills necessary for future leaders and command staff in the criminal justice field through organizational analysis, police intelligence, and academic research while incorporating diversity, ethics, and constitutional law to make best practice decisions.

Student Learning Outcomes:  

1. Students will assess the value of interagency collaboration in solving crimes.
2. Students will investigate, analyze, and apply various leadership styles, theories, and/or approaches for effectively running a criminal justice agency.
3. Students will examine the strengths and weaknesses in a criminal justice organization and will develop an implementation plan for improvement.
4. Students will examine the importance and value of diversity and inclusion in criminal justice.  
5. Students will evaluate data to answer a research question. 

Policy on Writing and Research Standards

Columbia College takes seriously its commitments to academic integrity and to academic excellence. The Graduate School expects its students to demonstrate high standards of scholarship and to possess accurate, articulate communication skills. To this end, the Master of Arts in Criminal Justice program will maintain the following policy on research and writing standards:

1. A significant writing component shall be present in every course for which graduate credit is earned.
2. A research component shall be present in every course.
3. Instructors will inform the faculty advisor of any serious deficiencies they note in a student’s performance of the writing and research components.
4. Faculty advisors will assist students to develop a plan for addressing any such serious deficiencies. Such a plan might include remedial writing or undergraduate research courses in their home communities for which students would not be given graduate credit.
5. If a student is unable to address serious deficiencies, the advisor may recommend that she/he withdraw from the program. If serious deficiencies persist, and the student refuses to withdraw, the program director may recommend to the Provost that the student be dismissed. The student may choose to challenge such a decision to the Graduate Council.