Doctor of Philosophy in Criminal Justice

PhD in Criminal Justice

The Department's new Ph.D. program is the State of Illinois' first and only doctoral program in criminal justice. Specifically, the program seeks to:

Create advanced research training for students interested in criminal justice

Place graduates in academic and research positions locally and across the nation

Advance our scientific knowledge regarding crime, law and criminal justice policy

Strengthen the University's research commitment to Chicago and other urban areas

The Department of Criminal Justice includes some of the leading scholars in the country and its graduate curriculum is unique in several ways:

Addresses qualitative as well as quantitative methods of research and evaluation

Emphasizes community processes and the intersection between informal and formal mechanisms of social control

Brings attention to race and gender in research on violence and on systemic efforts to achieve social and criminal justice.

Program Concentrations:

Law and Society, which examines the nature of formal and informal social norms, their development, use and variation across cultures, societies, and over time.

Criminology, which examines the theories of deviance, crime causation, criminal behavior and explanations of rule-breaking from psychological, sociological, economic, and political perspectives.

Organizations, which explore organizations and agencies whose principal function is the application of law, and theories explaining practices of decision-making and how organizations are created, maintain and develop resources, and relate to internal and external environments.

Admission Requirements:

Baccalaureate Field: Students may enter either with an MA or a BA. If applicants received their Criminal Justice MA from UIC, then they must have received a "high pass" (4.50) on their MA Comprehensive Exam.

Grade Point Average: At least 4.0 (A=5.0) for the final 60 semester hours (90 quarter hours) of undergraduate study, with a GPA of at least 4.25 in all graduate courses taken.

Tests required: GRE scores (verbal, quantitative and analytic) with a minimum combined verbal and quantitative score of 1000.

Minimum TOEFL Score: 550. (International students only.)

Letters of Recommendation: Three letters of recommendation from professors addressing the applicant's academic accomplishments and potential.

Personal statement: Required; a statement of academic and professional goals.

Other requirements: An MA thesis or other major research paper; a writing sample (if applying with a BA only).

Degree Requirements:

Departmental Qualifying Examination: None.

Preliminary Examination: Required written and oral.

Dissertation: Required.

Application Deadline: The priority application deadline for fall semester is January 1st . The final deadline is February 1. Applicants who wish to be considered for nomination for university fellowship competitions should file their completed applications by January 1, for the following fall term.

Research on Human Subjects:

Students using human subjects in any research (this includes surveys, interviews, preexisting data and human tissue obtained for nonresearch purposes) must have approval from the Institutional Review Board or one of its approved committees before they begin data collection. Relevant information and forms are available on the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research website at www.uic.edu/depts/ovcr.

Teaching:

All PhD students will earn teaching experience while a graduate student, either while serving as a teaching assistant or teaching their own course. The Department will also offer a number of instructional seminars in which criminal justice faculty will relate their experiences and recommendations for being effective instructors. Students are urged to confer with their advisors early in their graduate education to discuss their teaching interests and to develop a plan with the Department's graduate office to gain such experience. Students are also urged to visit various undergraduate classes to observe different faculty in the classroom teaching a variety of course material.

Time Limits:

Students admitted to the Graduate College with a master's degree or who continue in the Graduate College after completing the master's degree at UIC must complete the degree requirements within seven consecutive calendar years after initial registration as a doctoral student. Students admitted to the Graduate College without a master's degree who proceed directly to the doctorate must complete degree requirements within nine consecutive calendar years of initial registration as a doctoral student. Students who do not graduate by these deadlines will be dismissed from the Graduate College for failure to progress. Time spent on a leave of absence approved by the program and the Graduate College is not counted toward the degree time limit.

The CIC Traveling Scholar Program:

The CIC Traveling Scholar Program, sponsored by the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), enables doctoral students to take advantage of educational opportunities -- specialized courses, unique library collections, unusual laboratories C at any of the Big Ten universities or the University of Chicago. CIC traveling scholars should have completed at least one year of study in a doctoral program at UIC and must receive prior written approval from their advisor, their department head, and the UIC CIC liaison officer. With these approval signatures, students must then seek permission from the host institution to take the desired course(s). CIC traveling scholars register and pay for the CIC credit at UIC and also make arrangements to register at the host institution through its CIC liaison officer. A leave of absence is not required, since participants are registered at UIC during their stay at the other institution. Since other CIC institutions have different academic calendars than UIC, participation in the CIC Traveling Scholar Program is discouraged during the student's final term before completing the degree. Consult your director of graduate studies or the UIC CIC liaison officer in the Graduate College for more information.

To receive detailed information in mail, contact Graduate Program Coordinator Ms. Sharon Casillas at (312) 996-2383 or <casillas@uic.edu>.

	Create advanced research training for students interested in criminal justice
	Place graduates in academic and research positions locally and across the nation
	Advance our scientific knowledge regarding crime, law and criminal justice policy
	Strengthen the University's research commitment to Chicago and other urban areas

	Addresses qualitative as well as quantitative methods of research and evaluation
	Emphasizes community processes and the intersection between informal and formal mechanisms of social control
	Brings attention to race and gender in research on violence and on systemic efforts to achieve social and criminal justice.

Program Concentrations:
Law and Society, which examines the nature of formal and informal social norms, their development, use and variation across cultures, societies, and over time.
Criminology, which examines the theories of deviance, crime causation, criminal behavior and explanations of rule-breaking from psychological, sociological, economic, and political perspectives.
Organizations, which explore organizations and agencies whose principal function is the application of law, and theories explaining practices of decision-making and how organizations are created, maintain and develop resources, and relate to internal and external environments.