The PhD program in criminology, law and society is designed to produce top academic scholars and leaders in policy and applied settings. It brings cutting edge social science methods to the disciplines of criminology and law and society. Students coming to this program seek to make a difference in the development and evaluation of policy in these fields. The goal of this program is to provide a rigorous course of study that will prepare students to do research, teach, develop and test policies, and administer agencies and programs designed to administer law, deliver justice, reduce crime, and enhance domestic security. The program draws on a multidisciplinary departmental faculty to teach the required core courses and electives. Students can also take a wide range of other electives from many other university faculty including those in computational social science, conflict analysis and resolution, economics, government, law, philosophy, psychology, public administration, sociology, and statistics. The program takes advantage of the university’s proximity to many justice organizations at the federal, state, and local levels in the capital region. The curriculum is structured to give students the skills to do policy-relevant research and work with justice and security agencies in the region to exercise those skills and serve the needs of those agencies.

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