Criminal Justice, M.P.A.

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Plan B (Non-Thesis)

The M.P.A. with criminal just ice concentration curriculum consists of 39 credits including: core (7), option-core (2) and criminal justice (4) courses. Students may complete the degree within two years full-time or approximately three-four years part-time. Courses are offered through distance education, which allows students to complete their degree in their community while working full-time.

Required Core Courses

POLS 5000 - Survey of Public Administration Credits: 3
POLS 5400 - Public Personnel Management Credits: 3
POLS 5410 - Administrative Behavior and Theory of Organization Credits: 3
POLS 5440 - Principles and Processes of Government Budgeting Credits: 3
POLS 5510 - Public Policy and Program Management Credits: 3
POLS 5684 - Empirical Analysis for Public Administration Credits: 3
POLS 5690 - Capstone in Public Management Credits: 3

Option-Core Courses

All MPA students are required to choose two courses designated as option core credit, defined as courses relating to more specific focuses on public administration and taught by MPA faculty members.

Criminal Justice Concentration Courses

Required Criminal Justice Concentration Courses

CRMJ 5000 - Survey of Criminal Justice Credits: 3
CRMJ 5100 - Public Policy and Crime Credits: 3

Elective Criminal Justice Concentration Courses

*Students with little or no administration and/or criminal justice professional experience must enroll in CRMJ 5500 as one of their electives.

(students must select two of the following courses)

CRMJ 5130 - Leadership and Management in the Criminal Justice System
CRMJ 5151 - Crime Causation Credits: 3
CRMJ 5280 - Comparative Criminal Justice Credits: 3
CRMJ 5500 - Internship in Criminal Justice Credits: 3 *
CRMJ 5860 - Social Inequality, Crime, Criminal Justice and the Law Credits: 3

Additional Requirements

In addition to graduate coursework, M.P.A. students must complete a series of papers constituting the Plan B project. It is the purpose of POLS 5690 - Capstone in Public Management , to be a framework within which students initiate and substantially complete their Plan B projects.

Following the completion of all other requirements, the M.P.A. student is required to pass a comprehensive oral examination covering the information contained within his/her program of study as well as a defense of the Plan B projects. The oral examination is also conducted within the framework of the POLS 5690 Capstone course.

Students entering the M.P.A. Program are expected to possess basic computer literacy, and to have access to a computer for such purposes as communicating with professors via e-mail, receiving M.P.A. Program memos, conducting research on the Web, retrieving articles from course documents libraries, working on course projects, and for conducting interactive/ electronic class discussion.

Students must maintain a graduate GPA of 3.000.

Students must complete the CAPP program in lieu of a program of study.