The purpose of the Master of Science in Criminal Justice is to provide a high-quality graduate program that prepares competent individuals with the skills and knowledge necessary to meet the criminal justice needs of the region, including such aspects of criminal justice as law enforcement, courts, corrections, and crime prevention or to prepare students for doctoral education. The goals of the program are to prepare graduates who are able to:

• Assess and understand criminal justice problems and issues.
• Conduct basic and applied research in criminal justice.
• Use statistics and software to analyze?problems, data & evidence to answer research questions.
• Apply legal standards & theories to the study of the criminal justice system.
• Integrate the findings concerning the psychological, sociological, biological, economic and cultural explanations of crime.