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COLLEGE OF SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Department of Sociology
Online Criminal Justice Studies Certificate

The demand for public safety and security professionals with superior education and training has never been greater. Our innovative online certificate lets you keep working while you build cutting-edge skills in domestic violence, cyber crime, criminal forensics, international organized crime and other specialties tailored to your career objectives. Gain a solid foundation in American criminal justice — and valuable credit toward your sociology or criminal justice degree — as you prepare for positions in the judiciary, corrections, policing, homeland security, victim services and social services fields through this flexible program that draws upon the resources of UMass Amherst’s nationally ranked Department of Sociology.

Program Details

Admission: The certificate program and courses offered in association with the program are open admission. The only restriction is that students are expected to have a high school degree or GED. High school students with written permission of their guidance counselor and parent or guardian may also enroll.

Transfer credits: Many students use the courses in this program for transfer credit to other colleges and universities. The University of Massachusetts Amherst is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges Institutional Accreditation (www.neasc.org). To find out if credits earned at the University of Massachusetts Amherst will be accepted by another college or university, contact the registrar's office at that university.

Curriculum: Students take a total of 6 courses (3 credits each), including:

  • Criminology (Sociology 241)
  • Sociology of Law (Sociology 323)
  • Four upper-level criminal justice courses

Certificate requirements: The certificate is awarded to students completing the required courses with passing grades in each course (a combined minimum grade point average of 2.0 on a scale of 4.0). All courses must be taken through UMass Amherst.

Certification process: Upon meeting the requirements, students must submit a certificate application form and formal request to have their transcript sent to the program director for auditing.

Fees: This certificate requires students to take six 3-credit courses. The fee for each course is $960. There is an additional non-refundable registration fee of $45 each term. The registration fee is paid only once each term, regardless of how many courses a student enrolls in.

Fall 2008

Enrollment begins: July 23rd. All courses are offered online except where noted.

For more information:
Donald Tomaskovic-Devey
Sociology Department
University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA 01003
413-545-4070
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Faculty

Tom Bazley (SOCIOL 394S: White Collar Crime/Fall08) received his Ph.D. in Criminology from the University of South Florida, Tampa. He retired from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service after having served more than twenty-six years, with duty stations in Newark, NJ, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, PA, and Tampa, FL. He held a variety of field investigative and management positions, including the head of basic training for newly hired Postal Inspectors. Additionally, he was a visiting instructor at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, Glynco, GA. Dr. Bazley continues to be headquartered in Tampa where he writes, and teaches undergraduate and graduate level Criminology/Criminal Justice courses. His research interests included white collar/corporate crime, policing and law enforcement, and violence issues. He has authored and co-authored publications on these topics.

Sara Becker (SOCIOL 241: Criminology/Summer08 and Fall08) is the Assistant Director of the residential Criminal Justice Program in the Department of Sociology at UMass-Amherst, where she is also a doctoral candidate. Her current project is ethnography of an east coast vacation village and its anti-crime efforts. She also does research and publishes in the area of inter/intraracial violence using data from the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS). She has taught at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts and at UMass-Amherst in the areas of criminology, gender and crime, and sociological research methods. Beginning in September 2008, she will be an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Department of Women's and Gender Studies at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA.

Lee Blackstone (SOCIOL 242: Drugs and Society/Summer08 and Fall08) holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. An assistant professor of sociology and criminology at the State University of New York at Old Westbury, he has taught at Wesleyan University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst in areas of crime and deviance including juvenile delinquency, drugs and society, and criminal violence. He has conducted extensive fieldwork in England, and is currently writing and publishing on the relationship between citizenship and the law.

Katherine Culotta (SOCIOL 392A: Race, Class and Crime and SOCIOL 395C: Hate Crime in America/Summer08) holds an MA and Ph.D. from the University of Maryland at College Park. She has taught criminology at the University of Maryland and Indiana State University, where she currently teaches online in the areas of race and crime and criminological theory. Her past research and writing has focused on crime prevention, and she has served as a consultant on public safety for the National Association of Counties, Washington, D.C., and on the effectiveness of correctional programs for the State of Washington. She recently completed research on decision making in hate crime cases in Chicago, focusing on factors that affect victim reporting, police investigation and prosecution.

Joel Garner (SOCIOL 392J: Race, Profiling and the Police/Summer08) holds a Ph.D. in political science from George Washington University. He has served as deputy director of research at the National Institute of Justice in Washington D.C., and as director of research for the U.S. Sentencing Commission. He has published extensively on police use of force, racial profiling and police response to domestic violence. He is currently director of research at the Joint Centers for Justice Studies, a nonprofit research organization based in West Virginia.

Patrick Grove (SOCIOL 394F: Crime and Forensics/Summer08), a 30-year veteran of law enforcement, currently serves as commander of the Tactical Response Team for the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department. With a background in the street crimes unit and tactical supervision and narcotics enforcement, Grove has spent the last couple of years working in the area of incident command management. He holds a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Missouri and instructs at the Regional Police Academy.

Laura Hickman (SOCIOL 395K: Domestic Violence/Fall08) holds the joint titles of Social Scientist at the RAND Corporation and Associate Professor of Criminal Justic at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. She has worked primarily in the area of domestic violence, including research on the impact of police behavior on the future reporting of female domestic violence victims, barriers to addressing domestic violence in military families, estimating the economic costs of domestic violence, and the correctional supervision of domestic violence offenders. Among other studies, Dr. Hickman is currently leading research projects on prosecutorial decision-making in federal death penalty cases and the status of women in policing.She received her Ph.D. in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Maryland.

Gary Minor (SOCIOL 397E: Ethics and Criminology/Summer08 and SOCIOL 397D: Delinquency and Juvenile Justice/Summer08 and Fall08) recently retired from his position as chief of police in a suburb of Seattle, Washington. With over 25 years of police experience, as officer, sergeant, detective, and narcotics investigator, Chief Minor holds a master's degree in information systems and a JD in law from Seattle University School of Law. He practiced criminal law for 6 years, and has extensive experience teaching a variety of traditional and online college courses on criminal justice, criminal law, and juvenile justice.

 
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