Criminal Justice

Professional Studies Building, Room 220
201-200-3492

The Criminal Justice Department, a diverse, urban learning community of educators and students, is dedicated to a multidisciplinary education, merging theory and practice in service to society and the dynamic nature of criminal justice. The Department sponsors a Chapter of the American Criminal Justice Association’s Lambda Alpha Epsilon for its students and has a very active Criminal/ Social justice club.. The Department seeks academic excellence, whereby it develops the latest and most expedient assessment tools, develops new courses, promotes faculty development, enhances community outreach goals, increases its access to a diverse range of incoming students, and boosts retention.

Distinguished faculty and students are deeply involved in all aspects of criminal justice, and work and conduct research in the areas of policing, corrections, the courts, law, international criminal justice, white collar crime, community justice, restorative justice, victimiology, and constitutional and human rights. We are all fully committed to deepening our understanding of crime, criminal justice policy, and social justice and are actively involved in a full range of community outreach activities as well. Our program emphasizes inter-disciplinary and multi-method inquiries that make a very real difference to day-to-day and long-term policy and practice. Our faculty and students pursue research and engage in practices that explore a wide variety of critical issues in the New Jersey, the NJ-NY metropolitan area, and across the United States in the context of global criminal justice developments and issues.

All Criminal Justice majors who qualify are eligible for NJCU’s Cooperative Education Program. A major objective of the program is to combine classroom education with practical experience and to provide a realistic, in-the-field environment for skills and knowledge, skills, and abilities that supplement classroom learning. Students can earn up to 12 credits, with a maximum of 6 credits in any one experience.

David Chiabi, Chairperson
Professor of Criminal Justice
University of Yaounde, L.L.B.; Columbia University, L.L.M; City University of New York, Ph.D.

Jay S. Berman
Professor of Criminal Justice
Northeastern University, B.S.; Michigan State University, M.S.; Rutgers University, Ph.D.

William Calathes
Professor of Criminal Justice
CUNY, B.A.; John Jay College of Criminal Justice, M.A.; CUNY Law School, J.D.; CUNY/John Jay College, Ph.D.

Venessa Garcia
Associate Professor of Criminal Justice
SUNY Buffalo State College, B.A.; SUNY University at Buffalo, M.A., Ph.D.

Aaron Ho
Associate Professor of Criminal Justice
John Jay College, B.A.; Rutgers University, M.A., Ph.D.

Esther Nir
Associate Professor of Criminal Justice
Queens College, B.A.; Fordham University, J.D.; Rutgers University, Ph.D.

Konstantinos Papazoglou
Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice 
Hellenic Police Academy, B.A.; University of Athens, B.S.; New York University, M.A.; University of Toronto, Ph.D.

Criminal Justice (CJ)

CJ 501 Crime in a Global Context (3 Credits)

Crime in a global context is examined through an investigation of transnational and international crimes. The basic relationship between crimes and international law is studied, with particular emphasis on terrorism, genocide, and human rights violations. Mechanisms for dealing with such crimes, including international proceedings, conventions and treaties are discussed, as are relevant current issues.

CJ 600 The Criminal Justice System and Urban Communities (3 Credits)

This course offers an overview of the processes and components of the criminal justice system as it operates within the context of the contemporary urban community. Typically urban phenomena, such as overburdened court calendars, crowded and explosive jail conditions, pervasive citizen fear of crime, minority relations and crime, understaffed police departments, and other issues are surveyed.

CJ 601 Grant Proposal Writing (3 Credits)

This elective graduate course prepares students to: 1) identify government agencies and private organizations funding research, technical assistance, training, and other programs or projects; 2) write grant proposals; 3) properly manage the grant after it is awarded; 4) write interim and final reports to the funding agency; and 5) use the success of the completed grant to obtain additional grants. This course is taught online.

CJ 602 Crime in the Global Context (3 Credits)

Crime in Global context is examined through an investigation of transnational and international crimes. The basic relationship between crimes and international law is studied, with particular emphasis on terrorism, genocide, and human rights violations. Mechanisms for dealing with such crimes are discussed, as are relevant current issues.

CJ 603 Restorative Justice (3 Credits)

Course identifies the principles and applications in various contexts of restorative justice (RJ). An analysis of victim offender dialogue, circles, reentry programs, and other RJ techniques, as well as the application of RJ throughout the criminal justice system is addressed, evaluating from the perspective of the victim, offender, and community.

CJ 605 Criminal Justice Research (3 Credits)

Intended for students with no previous training in social science research methods, this course introduces the logic and skills of social scientific research and the effective use of criminal justice information sources. The student is provided with research methodology as a means of conducting graduate level criminal justice research.

CJ 606 Criminal Justice Research II (3 Credits)

This course examines the uses of statistics in research in crime and justice, with an emphasis on comprehension and not computation. The student will be provided with an accessible but sophisticated understanding of statistics that can be used to examine real-life criminal justice problems. After introducing the basic concepts of measurement, the course will examine descriptive statistics, inferential or inductive statistics, and multivariate statistics.

CJ 610 The Criminal Justice Professional (3 Credits)

This course explores the nature of criminal justice as an emerging profession and of the many roles of the criminal justice professional--manager, educator, communicator, and change agent. Ethical problems and influences are examined. The potential of an educated criminal justice professional to impact crime and to affect change is examined.

CJ 611 Graduate Seminar in Criminal Justice (3 Credits)

This advanced seminar focuses on selected issues and problems confronting the various components of the criminal justice system. Topics covered within this course (or sections thereof) may change each term.

CJ 614 Women, Crime and Criminal Justice (3 Credits)

Course focuses on how women affect and are affected by crime and the criminal justice system. Women will be discussed as offenders, victims and professionals. Major emphases will be placed on theoretical and practical perspectives established in the discipline of criminal justice regarding women. Selected global comparisons will be considered.

CJ 615 Theory and Practice Police Administration (3 Credits)

This course offers an examination of the conceptual foundations and historical antecedents of contemporary law enforcement theory and practice. The writing of prominent figures in the development of American police administration is surveyed and analyzed.

CJ 616 Elite Deviance (3 Credits)

Course examines criminal and deviant acts by corporations and powerful political organizations, and by doing so, details the ramifications of political economy that lead to this type of behavior. Solutions to elite deviance are also identified and assessed.

CJ 620 Operational Strategy in Police Administration (3 Credits)

This course critically explores the operational methods employed in American police agencies. Problems addressed include allocation and distribution of resources, patrol alternatives, and management of criminal investigations.

CJ 625 Contemporary Corrections (3 Credits)

This course provides a broad analysis of the major structures and scope of the American corrections system. The various elements of corrections, including: probation, parole, jails, prisons, community corrections and other alternatives to incarceration are discussed in relation to both adults and juveniles. Selected current reforms, issues, and problems are discussed along with cross-cultural references.

CJ 630 The Judicial System (3 Credits)

This course explores critical issues facing the courts on the federal, state, and local levels. Contemporary problems encountered in the administration of the courts are surveyed to help assess current operational methods.

CJ 631 Crime Analysis: From Theory to Practice in Law Enforcement (3 Credits)

This course provides an introduction into the relationship between risk and crime, and will instruct students on the theoretical underpinnings underlying crime analysis and some popular quantitative methods used by law enforcement agencies. Quantitative methods to be examined include the calculation of offender, temporal and spatial risk in crime.

CJ 632 Environmental Crime (3 Credits)

This graduate course explores the uneven distribution of environmental hazards and benefits across numerous social settings. Concentration is placed on criminal injurious actions and other forms of deviance that affect current environmental conditions, as well as legal and activist approaches designed to protect the quality of the environment.

CJ 635 Seminar on Community Corrections (3 Credits)

This seminar studies contemporary theories and practices of supervising non–institutionalized offenders. Issues to be surveyed include alternative strategies, case load management, prediction of success, and inter-agency cooperation.

CJ 640 The Juvenile Justice System (3 Credits)

This course offers a critical evaluation of the juvenile justice system, the goals and processes within the system and how they operate in the management, control, and treatment of children adjudicated as juveniles. The nature and extent of juvenile offenses, theories of causation, current trends and issues, and selected cross-cultural systems are discussed.

CJ 645 The Nature of Crime (3 Credits)

This course studies the scope, distribution, and pattern of crime, including an examination of various measures of criminal activity. Biological, political, cultural, psychological, and sociological theories of crime causation are evaluated.

CJ 650 Legal Issues in Criminal Justice (3 Credits)

This course provides the student with current and critical information regarding legal issues in criminal justice with a focus on constitutional criminal procedure. The course explores accepted issues and draws them into new perspectives by taking into account new appellate cases, new events, and new debates over important legal controversies in the criminal justice world.

CJ 655 Community Crime Prevention (3 Credits)

Viewing the police as a major agency of social control, this course examines the role played by law enforcement agencies in the prevention and repression of crime. Emphasis is on the police officer as crime prevention practitioner and specialist. Advanced methods and techniques of community organization and prevention programming are presented.

CJ 657 Qualitative Research Methods for Program and Policy Analysis (3 Credits)

The course will instruct students on qualitative methods for the purpose of program and policy evaluation. Interpretive policy analysis will be used to examine program or policy effectiveness. Qualitative research methodologies to be examined include case study, content analysis, ethnomethodology, focus groups, interviewing, and action research.

CJ 660 Critical Issues in Policing (3 Credits)

This course surveys the major current issues in the field of law enforcement. Specific topics to be discussed vary each semester according to current problems and concerns facing the police profession. Among subjects to be discussed are: management issues and strategies, discretion, professionalism, ethics, and police-community relations.

CJ 670 Supervised Professional Placement (3 Credits)

Under faculty and practitioner supervision, this offering integrates the concepts of the classroom with the pragmatic realities of a work setting. Placement is by mutual agreement of the student, supervising faculty member, and cooperating agency.

CJ 671 Master's Project (3 Credits)

Students will choose an area of specialized study as the culminating task toward the completion of their master's degree in criminal justice. The project may either be a research paper or an evaluative paper and students will design and undertake the project under the supervision of an instructor. (Completion of 24 credits, including CJ 605)

Pre-Requisite(s): Completion of 24 credits, including CJ 605.

CJ 680 Criminal Justice Management (3 Credits)

This seminar studies the problems of criminal justice management in a time of fiscal austerity and resource scarcity. The focus is on improved management techniques in an era when more is expected to be done with less.

CJ 685 Planning in the Criminal Justice System (3 Credits)

This course offers a critical analysis of the planning process in criminal justice. Change strategies, rational planning, efficient budgeting, needs assessment, and evaluation are stressed.

CJ 690 Workshop in Criminal Justice Administration and Decision-Making (3 Credits)

This seminar deals with the problems of criminal justice management. The focus is on improved management techniques used to "survive" in an era when more is expected to be done with less. Group projects are required and are judged by a panel of practitioner experts.

CJ 691 Human Trafficking (3 Credits)

This course will explore human trafficking both as a domestic and global social problem, and how the economic, technological, cultural, and global conditions have shaped this market and allowed the trafficking of human beings to flourish. Using a criminological perspective, students will examine human trafficking of women and children into the sex industry and domestic work, and the trafficking of men, women, and children into forced labor. This course will also examine governments' roles, laws, culture, organized crime, and discuss efforts being made to combat the human trafficking problem.

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the Master of Science Criminal Justice  program, students will be able to:

  1. Evaluate criminal justice institutions and processes through the selected application of criminological theory, law and policy.
  2. Employ advanced knowledge of research methods.
  3. Appraise historic and current criminal justice literature in project topic.
  4. Articulate advanced oral communication skills through the presentation of the masters project.