CRIMINAL JUSTICE

The Criminal Justice program provides a Christian liberal arts and social scientific basis, addressing the field of criminal justice from a biblically restorative perspective. It aims to honor biblical and social bases of law and the need for justly ordered society. Further, it recognizes that laws are not isolated from other social institutions and structures, so that the legal and social justice systems require practitioners who are well educated, resolute, just, and seasoned with Christian love. We seek to provide to the criminal justice system competent and compassionate professionals who afford not only punishment but restoration of those who break laws and even greater restitution for the general society and victims of crimes. Graduates of this major will take their places within the criminal justice field with a critical-curative biblical basis from which to conduct their work in society, and will be prepared to not only labor within existing systems, but also to present alternatives that lead to remediation, rehabilitation, and restoration of justice and peace to the greatest extent possible in an imperfect world.

The Criminal Justice major consists of 33 credit-hours, plus 15 credit-hours of cognate courses, for a total of 48 credit-hours. A minimum six hours of field education are required. In addition to Field Education, the program will also have an applied emphasis in at least six other courses, either by hosting practitioners or requiring student outside practice and visits. The College's oral communication requirement is met by enrolling in the cognate Communication Arts 101, and the capstone experience is embedded in the Senior Seminar course.