Criminology and Criminal Justice

Overview

The Criminology and Criminal Justice M.S. program at California State University Long Beach provides the requisite knowledge and opportunity for individuals:

• to be competitive for administrative positions in the courts, corrections, law enforcement, security, probation and parole
• to fill research positions in criminal justice agencies
• to pursue advanced degrees (J.D. or Ph.D.)
• and to fill community college teaching positions in criminal justice

Learning outcomes

The master’s degree program offered by the School of Criminology, Criminal Justice, and Emergency Management is designed to empower students as critical thinkers, ethical actors, and competent communicators concerning matters of crime and justice at the local, state, national, and international levels, to include, at degree-appropriate levels, the abilities to:

• Explain, connect, differentiate, apply, and critique theories of crime, criminal behavior, law, justice, and social control within social-cultural-political-racial contexts;
• Critically analyze and critique criminal justice policy, the operation of the criminal justice system, and their effects on individuals, communities, and societies, with particular attention to Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and other People of Color;
• Apply the scientific method and analytic tools to interpret research and data related to crime and the criminal justice system to assess effectiveness of theories and policies;
• Use jurisprudential and ethical theories to analyze the role of diversity, culture, power, white supremacy, and racism on national and global criminological and criminal justice issues;
• Integrate theories, methods, and statistics to construct research questions, examine literature and data, and deduce/extrapolate implications for theory, policy, and research; and
• Demonstrate the ability to effectively develop and communicate ideas and arguments through written work and oral presentations.