Criminal Justice, Certificate in (Post-baccalaureate graduate certificate)

Program goal

The Certificate in Criminal Justice is a post-baccalaureate graduate program designed to help facilitate career advancement in the criminal justice and/or criminology field. The program seeks to develop critical-thinking skills among the students through the use of current criminal justice and criminological topics, reports and research findings.

This certificate program offers specialization for individuals interested or involved in law enforcement, corrections, juvenile justice or the courts. It combines survey and theory courses with research, management and policy courses on the justice system. The courses in the certificate program are the same as the master’s courses. With minimum grades of B and upon acceptance into the master’s degree program, these courses are fully transferable to the Master of Science (M.S.) in Criminal Justice degree program.

Student learning outcomes

1. Students will communicate effectively about criminal justice issues/policies using well-reasoned evidence from empirical studies to support their arguments and/or positions. 
2. Students will demonstrate critical thinking and articulation of major issues related to the field in a diverse socio-cultural context while also understanding the diversity of lived experiences.

VCU Graduate Bulletin, VCU Graduate School and general academic policies and regulations for all graduate students in all graduate programs

The VCU Graduate Bulletin website documents the official admission and academic rules and regulations that govern graduate education for all graduate programs at the university. These policies are established by the graduate faculty of the university through their elected representatives to the University Graduate Council.

It is the responsibility of all graduate students, both on- and off-campus, to be familiar with the VCU Graduate Bulletin as well as the Graduate School website and academic regulations in individual school and department publications and on program websites. However, in all cases, the official policies and procedures of the University Graduate Council, as published on the VCU Graduate Bulletin and Graduate School websites, take precedence over individual program policies and guidelines.

Visit the academic regulations section for additional information on academic regulations for graduate students.

Graduation requirements

As graduate students approach the end of their academic programs and the final semester of matriculation, they must make formal application to graduate. No degrees will be conferred until the application to graduate has been finalized.

Graduate students and program directors should refer to the following graduation requirements as published in the Graduate Bulletin for a complete list of instructions and a graduation checklist.

Visit the academic regulations section for additional information on graduation requirements.