Criminal Justice

Overview

The criminal justice undergraduate program has articulated discipline-specific knowledge, skills, behavior and values outcomes; critical thinking outcomes; communication outcomes; and assessment of criminal justice outcomes that are specified in our Academic Learning Compact.

The Criminal Justice program of University of Central Florida is designed to provide students with a broad understanding of crime and society’s control mechanisms as well as prepare them for professional careers in criminal justice and related agencies.

What is Criminal Justice?

Criminal justice is the system of law enforcement, the bar, the judiciary, corrections and probation that is directly involved in the apprehension, prosecution, defense, sentencing, incarceration and supervision of those suspected of or charged with criminal offenses.

The term criminal justice refers to an interdisciplinary field that draws upon the knowledge bases of criminology, sociology, psychology, law, public policy, computer technology and other related disciplines to develop insights into the causes and prevention of criminal behavior. It is an area of knowledge concerned with understanding and controlling crime.

The contemporary criminal justice system in the United States is monumental in size. It includes more than 55,000 public agencies employing more than 1.5 million people. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, it has a budget of more than $60 billion for agencies, 6,000 correctional operations. There are approximately 18,000 police agencies, 17,000 courts, 8,000 prosecutorial agencies, 6,000 correctional institutions and almost 4,000 probation and parole departments.

If you are not sure if this is the right major for you, you may want to enroll in “Careers in Criminal Justice,” an introductory course into the numerous careers available as a criminal justice graduate.