About Criminology and Criminal Justice programs
Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty
Department of Criminology and
Criminal Justice
Location: Building 51, Room 2310
Phone: (904) 620-1724
Web Address: http://www.unf.edu/coas/ccj/
Dr. Brenda Vose, Chair
Mission
The Department of Criminology & Criminal
Justice offers a variety of programs in the social sciences. The Department
offers a Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminal Justice and offers a minor in
Criminal Justice as well. The Department also offers a Master of Science degree
program in Criminal Justice.
The Department of Criminology & Criminal
Justice seeks to provide its students with the theoretical, practical and
ethical foundations for understanding crime and the criminal justice system in
its social context. The faculty is committed to excellence through the
development of focused and relevant scholarship. Through excellence in research
and teaching in the areas of law creation, crime, deviance and societal
responses to law violation, students develop a greater understanding of the
challenges of social control and its dynamic processes. Participation in
research and internships assures relevance to current practice and further
prepares students to apply their knowledge in the field, to conduct critical
analyses, and to undertake policy development and implementation. Students at
the graduate level receive advanced instruction in research methods and theory,
helping students develop professional skills for direct employment or more
advanced study. Rigorous commitment to peer-review and collegiality help assure
that an ethic of continuous-improvement and self-reflection govern all
departmental processes.
Criminology & Criminal Justice Major
The undergraduate degree program in
Criminology & Criminal Justice is broad-based in nature, stressing the
interrelationships between the various components of the criminal justice
system — police, courts, corrections — and familiarizing students with each of
these components and their theoretical bases. The program also recognizes and
builds upon the interdisciplinary nature of the field it seeks to address.
Criminal justice draws together all the social and behavioral
sciences, the natural sciences, the mathematical and computer sciences, and law
and jurisprudence to focus on the problem of crime in society. Indeed,
accreditation guidelines for post-secondary criminal justice education programs
clearly specify that the curricula “must give explicit recognition to the
multi-disciplinary character of the field.” The UNF program is designed to
comply with that standard.
There are no specific Criminology & Criminal Justice prerequisites at the
lower level, although STA 2014 (Elementary Statistics) is a prerequisite to CCJ
3700 (Research Methods in Criminology & Criminal Justice), and CCJ 2002
(Crime in America) is recommended as a preparatory course for the major.
Graduate Program
Criminology & Criminal Justice education
is one of the most rapidly growing fields in higher education today. Public
concerns about crime, and the dramatic expansion of the criminal justice system
in recent decades, have spurred a proliferation of courses in this field in
colleges across the country. Jobs that did not exist two decades ago – such as
victim advocates or police computer mapping specialists – continue to develop.
There is a growing demand for persons with graduate level education in all
sectors of the system. The Master of Science in Criminal Justice at UNF
provides an opportunity for advanced academic work in this expanding field of
study.
As an interdisciplinary field, Criminology
& Criminal Justice draws together all the social and behavioral sciences,
natural sciences, mathematical and computer sciences, history, law and
jurisprudence to focus on the problem of crime in society. The MSCJ program at
UNF is vitally concerned with the interrelationship between theory, practice
and research. The program emphasizes the acquisition of professional skills
that will enable students to keep abreast of new research and developments in the
field long after they have completed their formal studies.
Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice Faculty
Brenda Vose, Associate Professor and Chair
Samantha Brown, Assistant Professor
Michael Cherbonneau, Associate Professor
John Dean, Instructor
Michael Hallett, Professor
Kristina Lopez-Smith, Assistant Professor
Holly V. Miller, Professor
J. Mitchell Miller, Professor
Alicia H. Sitren, Associate Professor
Jennifer K. Wesely, Professor
