Ranked #33 in the 2024 U.S. News & World Report’s Best Online Master’s Programs in Criminal Justice, our program provides students with advanced theoretical, legal, and methodological training for research, teaching, and management careers in criminal justice. The program serves to educate criminal justice professionals and prepare students for further advanced graduate work, legal studies, and scholarship. The Master of Science program in Criminal Justice is taught entirely online with four synchronous sessions a semester. Unlike other online programs, where students have no direct interaction with other students or faculty, here students have the opportunity to interact in a virtual setting in each course, but maintain the flexibility of never having to come to campus.
Required Coursework (18 hours)
- Seminar in Criminal Justice
- Advanced Theory in Criminal Justice
- Research Methods in Criminal Justice
- Contemporary Law & Society
- Applied Statistics in Criminal Justice
- Capstone (for working professionals) or Thesis
Electives (12 hours)
Sample online electives include:
- Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Crime
- Terrorism
- Applied Ethics in Criminal Justice
- Computer Crime
- Criminal Justice Response to Domestic Violence
- Miscarriages of Justice
- Understanding Cybercrime
- Crime & Pop Culture
- Rural Criminology
- Business & Industry Security
- Women & the Criminal Justice System
Note: Cyber Forensics & Security electives to be offered soon.
Click here for graduate Criminal Justice Course Descriptions for individual courses.
Graduates are successfully employed in a variety of fields
- Adult drug court probation
- Anti-terrorism/Force Protection Intelligence Analyst, WV National Guard
- Attorney, Harris Immigration Law, Chicago, IL
- Budget analyst, Department of Justice
- Investigator, WV Attorney General’s office
- Juvenile and adult probation
- Quality Assurance Specialist, WV Supreme Court of Appeals, Probation Services
- Social Services Coordinator, WV DHHR
- Special Project Analyst, WV Supreme Court of Appeals, Division of Court Services
- Unit manager, Federal Bureau of Prisons
- Victim advocate, Contact Rape Crisis Center
- West Virginia State Police
Questions?
Contact: Dr. Kimberly DeTardo-Bora, Graduate Director, 304-696-3084, detardobora@marshall.edu