Criminal Justice

The Ph.D. Program in Criminal Justice, housed at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, offers an interdisciplinary education in the field of criminology and criminal justice. Ranked as a top 15 Ph.D. program in Criminal Justice and Criminology by U.S. News & World Report, the program is designed to prepare students for careers in research and teaching. 

In accord with our strong research orientation, all students are well trained in the areas of research design and statistics and are prepared to critically analyze and evaluate criminal justice policy and programs and to test criminological theory. Our faculty, an internationally recognized group of empirical researchers, work closely with students for one-on-one advisement. Graduates from the program have taken academic positions as well as positions in criminal justice agencies and research institutions.

Program

The Doctoral Program in Criminal Justice was started in 1981 and has since grown into one of the premier Criminal Justice Ph.D. programs in the U.S.  The Program offers an interdisciplinary education in the field of Criminology and Criminal Justice. It prepares students for careers of research, scholarship and teaching, in addition to the general Criminology and Criminal Justice course of study.

Students in the Criminology and Criminal Justice program receive rigorous training in Criminological Theory, Criminal Justice Process and Policy, Research Methods and Statistics. The program offers electives in these areas as well as International and Comparative Criminal Justice, Sociology, and more. The PhD program requires at least 60 credits of coursework with two exams. It culminates in a dissertation in the area of a student's interest.

The faculty of the Doctoral Program in Criminal Justice include professors trained in a wide range of academic disciplines, including Criminology, Criminal Justice, Anthropology, History, Law, Philosophy, Political Science, Public Administration, Psychology and Sociology. Our faculty have received grants from the National Institute of Health, Department of Homeland Security, National Institute of Justice, National Science Foundation, Bureau of Justice Assistance, Guggenheim Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and other federal agencies and leading foundations.