Public Administration and Justice Studies

Overview

In addition to University Requirements:

• At least 36 units of major coursework
• 6 units of communication skills
• 12-16 hours of a foreign language
• Elective courses, as needed, to reach an overall total of at least 120 units

Please note that you may be able to use some courses to meet more than one requirement. Contact your advisor for details.

Minimum Units for Completion	120
Major GPA	C
Highest Mathematics Required	MAT 114
Foreign Language	Optional
Fieldwork Experience/Internship	Optional
Some online/blended coursework	Required
AZ Transfer Students complete AGEC-A	Recommended
Progression Plan Link	View Progression Plan

Purpose Statement

The Bachelor’s in Justice Studies provides online and distance-learning students with a professional, criminal justice-focused education that prepares students to ethically work and lead in the fields of criminal justice and intelligence studies.
 
To help students reach their education and career goals, all Justice Studies faculty members have advanced degrees and extensive experience in the criminal justice or intelligence fields, specializing in areas, such as, criminal justice investigations, police leadership, community policing, drug investigations, federal law enforcement, corrections, intelligence-led policing, military intelligence, cyber crime, and the law.
 
Students complete core courses in ethics, leadership, criminal justice, criminology, the justice system and effective writing. They then move on to tailoring their degree to their individual interests by selecting elective courses in criminal justice administration or intelligence studies.
 
The emphasis in criminal justice administration ensures students develop an in-depth knowledge of their areas of interest within the criminal justice system, such as juvenile justice, mentally ill offenders, employment law, forensics and crime control. This emphasis also helps students use critical thinking to connect theoretical concepts with practical criminal justice situations; a necessary skill for success in the criminal justice field.
 
The emphasis in intelligence studies focuses on preparing students to identify, analyze and disseminate intelligence information for the purpose of investigating all forms of criminal activity, including terrorism. To ensure students are prepared to work in the current environment, courses also expose students to a variety of contemporary topics in the intelligence field, such as the promotion of terrorist ideologies through social media, the psychology of terrorism and counterintelligence strategies.
 
In addition to working in the criminal justice field, many graduates choose to build upon their critical thinking, criminal justice and leadership courses by pursuing advanced degrees in criminal justice, leadership or the law.

Student Learning Outcomes
Core Outcomes:

• Understand the ethical issues impacting the criminal justice field
• Identify and discuss the various steps involved in the adjudication process
• Distinguish between the crime control model of criminal justice and the due process model of criminal justice
• Describe how the courts are related to other components of the criminal justice system 

Students pursuing an emphasis in Justice Administration will be able to:

• Have an in-depth understanding of specific areas of the criminal justice field (e.g., employment law for justice administrators, forensics, cultural diversity).
• Have a general understanding of the theoretical causes of crime and be able to use this theoretical foundation to analyze practical criminal justice situations.
• Use leadership theories to develop strategies for leading in the criminal justice field.

Students pursuing an emphasis in Intelligence Studies will be able to:

• Provide a detailed understanding of basic intelligence concepts including the intelligence cycle, which serves as a framework for understanding intelligence activities.
• Explain the conceptual and practical foundations, organization, collection of platforms, capabilities, limitations, exploitation and key issues of intelligence collection with emphasis on various disciplines including HUMINT, SIGINT, MASINT, GEOINT and OSINT used in intelligence products.
• Identify, describe and evaluate applicable intelligence technologies.
• Understand how and why social media is used to facilitate terrorist ideologies.
• Identify ways to monitor, collect (covertly, overtly, and electronically), organize, and analyze data relating to a wide range criminal activity.
• Understand the role criminal intelligence has in crime prevention and intervention.
• Articulate understanding of the craft of intelligence analysis to include: critical thinking techniques, recognizing cognitive biases and logic errors, intelligence analysis process, intelligence-policy connection and natural points of conflict within this critical relationship, intelligence failures and associated causes, and challenges facing today's intelligence analyst.
• Examine the range of ethical responsibilities different U.S. intelligence communities hold, the relationship between intelligence and the policy-making process as well as the legal foundations and oversight mechanisms with particular emphasis on the intersection of national security concerns and civil liabilities.