Criminal Justice is a broad and increasingly interdisciplinary field. The Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice (BACJ) program utilizes an interdisciplinary approach to capture both the academic liberal arts emphasis and the professional and policy knowledge required to educate criminal justice professionals.

Students who complete the BACJ will:

• Be able to draw on multiple disciplines and research traditions to identify and understand the social and behavioral contributors to crime and delinquency.

• Have effective critical thinking and oral and written communication skills.

• Have a comprehensive understanding of the institutions in criminal justice system and how politics and policy making affect these institutions.

• Have a comprehensive knowledge of the ethical concerns of the criminal justice field.

• Understand how perceptions of the criminal justice system vary cross-culturally and how such differences influence policy and public perception.

The mission of the UCCS School of Public Affairs is to improve the quality of life for people and their communities, here and abroad, through collaborative governance, public service innovation, community engagement, and research.

To accomplish this mission, we strive to:

• Improve the quality of public, nonprofit, criminal justice, and national security systems.

• Educate leaders to meet societal challenges with compassion, vision, analytic rigor, and practicality.

• Foster critical thinking and decision-making, effective and confident communication, creative problem-solving, knowledge management, and global citizenship.

• Create, build, and maintain connections with current, past and future students and all the communities we serve.

• Ground our decisions and actions in integrity, diversity, collaboration, and excellence.

• Support and model civil public discourse, citizenship, responsibility, and respect.