Criminal Justice Program Overview

The Criminal Justice program is designed to:

1. provide students with a basic understanding and comprehensive overview of the criminal and juvenile justice systems including the police, courts, and corrections fields;
2. encourage theoretical and informed inquiry into justice practices and policies;
3. develop introductory skills in research methodology and statistics; and to
4. prepare students for professional careers in criminal justice as well as to provide a foundation for the advanced study of criminal justice, law, or other graduate studies. Experiential learning (internship) opportunities are available with various local, state, and federal agencies in the Criminal Justice system.

Since the 1960s, America's criminal justice system has undergone a significant shift in operating philosophy and sophistication. Thanks to increased funding for education, research, and evaluation initiated by the 1967 President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, we have a greater understanding of crime, its causes, and criminal justice practices. With this increased knowledge, today's criminal justice professionals are increasingly expected to identify, design, implement, and evaluate programs to prevent crime and reduce recidivism.

In order to fulfill these expectations, criminal justice professionals need to have greater computer literacy, possess more developed critical thinking skills, be more resourceful problem solvers, and be familiar with criminal justice literature, research and statistics. York College's Criminal Justice program is designed to provide students with these skills. The curriculum insures that through the study of crime and the operational policies and practices of criminal, juvenile, and private agencies that respond to crime, that students will become familiar with social science theory and will acquire applied and theoretical knowledge appropriate for a beginning professional, including the ability to apply computer skills to criminal justice problems. Students may, after completion of the comprehensive core, specialize in the fields of law enforcement, corrections, criminalistics, asset protection, or juvenile justice.