Justice Science - New Requirements for Criminal Justice Major

New Requirements for Criminal Justice Major

The Department of Justice Sciences is proposing a new curriculum for the criminal justice major to take effect Fall, 2006 for new majors only (students already in the program will follow the curriculum as it existed when they declared criminal justice as their major). Designed to provide students a more intense and focused curriculum, the new requirements reduce the total hours needed to complete the major from 42 to a minimum of 39 hours; increase the number of hours of required courses to 24 hours; include an internship or co-op requirement for graduation; create several "tracks" of electives, including forensic science, policing, corrections, law, or juvenile justice from which students may select elective hours needed to satisfy the major; and continue the statistics/research methods requirements. Please note a continuation of the policy that at least 9 credit hours must be completed at the 400 level to satisfy University residency requirements. Transfer students must take a minimum of 15 hours of criminal justice credit at UAB, of which 9 hours must be at the 400 level

Required Courses (Total: 24 Cr. Hrs.):

JS100, JS101, JS120, JS220, JS230, JS240, JS300, JS410, JS399 (Co-Op) or JS499 (Internship). NOTE: Students must maintain a GPA of 2.5 or higher in all JS courses to be eligible for co-op or internship.

Electives (15-18 Cr. Hrs.):

Option #1: Student chooses elective courses from one of the specialized tracks listed below to accumulate the required number of elective hours for the major. Minimum of 12 cr. hrs. required to complete a track.

Corrections: JS340, JS341, JS342, JS343, JS445

Criminology: JS360, JS362, JS402-JS404, JS408/508, JS440/540, JS441/541, JS442/542, JS443/543,JS444/544, JS483/583, JS490/491

Forensic Science: JS110, JS250, JS350, JS351, JS352, JS456 (also ANTH401), JS405

Juvenile Justice: JS408, JS411, JS412, or JS445

Law: JS330, JS331, JS332, JS333, JS401, JS402, JS412, JS444

Policing: JS320, JS321, JS322, or JS405

Option #2: Student chooses electives from across the tracks and does not select a specific area of specialization.