The University of Massachusetts Lowell, well-known for its strong reputation in Criminal Justice education programs, offers a broad range of classes in leadership, administrative and management skills in crisis and emergency management, public policy, crime analysis, forensic psychology, and terrorism.

Students enrolled in the Criminal Justice program complete a total of 11 courses (33 credits). The core curriculum consists of five required courses dealing with theory, research, scholarship, quantitative analysis, and criminal justice administration. Students choose another six courses from a list of electives, allowing them to focus their studies on areas that are best suited to their own particular career goals and objectives.

The Online Master's Degree in Criminal Justice serves four types of students:

• those seeking a master's degree as a prerequisite for entry into the criminal justice field;
• those currently in service in the criminal justice system who wish to broaden their skills and obtain job-related knowledge and expertise;
• those currently in the criminal justice system seeking to specialize and/or work in some other area of the system; and
• those currently in the system or pre-service who wish to obtain the training and expertise necessary to meet the growing need for teaching criminal justice.

UMass Lowell's Master's Degree in Criminal Justice is designed to meet the changing needs of the criminal justice community. By promoting an integrated, academically rigorous, and empirically oriented curriculum, the program helps working criminal justice professionals, and those planning on entering the field, develop the repertoire of professional skills necessary to better manage their current positions, assume leadership roles and/or continue doctoral training in criminal justice.