Criminal Justice (B.S.): Restorative Justice Concentration - J (Hybrid)

Minimum required credits for this program: 48-51.

NVU Johnson students will take their CRJ courses via NVU Online offerings. There will not be campus-based CRJ offerings at NVU Johnson.

Program Description

The Criminal Justice major is comprised of 49 credits including a foundational core of sociology, psychology, and criminal justice and an advanced core of law enforcement, judicial process, criminology, law, punishment and corrections, ethics, theory, internship, and research design. Once accepted to this program, students will be assigned an advisor who will guide them in registering and selecting appropriate internships for their skills and interests. Students will also complete a senior thesis project and engage in community service learning.

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Demonstrate an understanding of-and encourage a deep critical engagement with-behavioral science theory, ethics, case law, law enforcement, the criminal court system, and corrections, and criminology. Students are required to write a two-to-three page essay, concerning the theoretical explanation of a particular crime or deviance phenomenon. The essay will be evaluated in conjunction with the Graduate Standards Exam for Writing.
2. Utilize basic social science and professional research methods associated with criminal justice, including design, data analysis, and interpretation of different official crime indexes. Students are required to write a 25-35 page research paper involving the fields of Criminal Justice and Social Science inquiry. This thesis will be commenced in SSC 3020 Research Design and Analysis, theoretically enhanced during SSC 4740 Social Science Seminar, and completed in SSC 4720 Senior Thesis.
3. Demonstrate an awareness of the myriad of factors and diversity of populations contributing to crime, its prevention, and its intervention and engage in community service in the pursuit of the greater common good. Students will be required to document some form of collaborative service work as a constructive member of a team designed to improve the lives of people in local, regional, federal, or international settings. Students will write up a brief (1 page) description of purpose, methods, and outcome of service efforts.
4. Experience fieldwork related to their pursuit of careers and undergraduate study in the field of criminal justice. Students are required to complete an internship project in any one of the many criminal justice fields-border patrol, law enforcement, forensics, game warden assistantship, corrections officer assistant, and so on.
5. Demonstrate effective oral and written communication skills within a liberal arts foundation to better prepare them for any career in the criminal justice system or graduate school. Students will present a 10-minute oral defense of their senior thesis research project at the end of their senior year. The student’s department faculty mentor will assign the score rating of the oral performance. A second department faculty will fill out a second rubric to provide a second opinion for the protection of the student, in conjunction with the requirements embodied in the NVU Graduate Standards Exam for Oral Presentation.