PhD in Criminology & Justice Policy

A research-oriented and practice-oriented doctoral program.

The doctoral program in Criminology and Justice Policy is student-centered with the goal of preparing students for academic careers as well as careers in research and policy development. Students of this full-time, fully-funded Ph.D. program complete the degree in five years on average. Through our curriculum, students learn the process of research from the ground-up. Our courses teach students to construct viable research questions through qualitative and quantitative analysis, write scholarly research articles, and create technical reports appropriate for policy consumption.

Additionally, Ph.D. students are offered several benefits throughout their studies, including:

Possibilities for generous, full-year funding packages
Extensive summer research opportunities
Flex fellowship: one semester off from graduate assistantship responsibilities
Experiential and dissertation completion fellowships

Recent Career Outcomes

Doctoral students secure prestigious positions after graduation, including tenure-track professorships at Tier 1 research universities, post-doctoral fellowships, and research-and-policy-relevant agency employment.

Recent career outcomes:

Florida State University, Assistant Professor
University of Rhode Island, Assistant Professor
Booz Allen Hamilton, Senior Research Associate
NYPD Office of the Inspector General
Council of State Governments Justice Center, Senior Policy Analyst
Year Up, Senior Director of R&E
Boston Police Department, Deputy Director of R&D

Learning Outcomes

Apply acquired foundational knowledge in the field of criminology and justice policy to answer questions in the realm of criminology and justice policy.
Identify and describe the role of systemic racism and intersecting dimensions of oppression in the development of policies and practices across the criminal justice system, as well as in crime and justice theory and research.
Critique the knowledge base in a specific domain within the field of criminology and justice policy to demonstrate advanced mastery of theoretical explanations for crime, its causes and consequences.
Design and carry out original research using methodological tools acquired to develop new theoretical or empirical insights and expand the knowledge base in the field of criminology and justice policy.

I find “critique the knowledge base . . .” a little confusing as formulated and wonder if it’s actually two separate LOs. that is, is the purpose of critiquing the knowledge base really “to demonstrate advanced mastery”? Doesn’t critique also have a more knowledge-producing or -correcting aim? [GL1]