Criminal Justice Doctorate (PHD) Online
Admission to the Doctoral Program may be made directly after the Bachelor’s degree but may require some supplementary coursework. Upon admission, students will elect a faculty advisor to help guide them through their course of study. Although students can direct their education and specialize in certain fields, certain standard courses must be taken.
Most schools offer these lists of standard courses that are required of each student before their comprehensive exams are taken. These courses include courses in Criminal Justice, Seminars in Criminology and Advanced Criminal Justice and Criminology Research Methods. Aside from these departmental courses, many schools impose minimum GPA requirements. For example, at the University of Maryland, students are required to pass an advanced statistics class with a grade of B or higher.
Beyond these basic preparatory courses, when obtaining a Ph. D. in a criminal justice program, students will generally be required to take and pass comprehensive exams, as well as to obtain units of Ph. D. research credits. Depending on the school, students may also be required prepare, and defend a doctoral dissertation under the direction of their dissertation committee.
Time Limits and Residency Requirements for Criminal Justice Doctorate
For most Doctoral Programs, the coursework and dissertation preparation must be completed in a timely manner. Guidelines have been established that require the student be presented to candidacy within five years of being admitted to the doctoral program.
The completion of the entire program including the preparation and defense of his or her dissertation must be completed within 4 years of attaining candidacy. Failure to maintain this schedule will result in dismissal from some programs. Usually, students can apply for readmission.
While many programs a minimum of three years of research and graduate level courses to obtain a Criminal Justice Doctoral degree, some schools- including the University of Maryland- only require one year to be spent on site.
Comprehensive Exams
The comprehensive examinations required to obtain a Criminal Justice Doctorate measure a student’s ability to apply what they know. In some cases, this is a multiple choice test. In others, students will be given an essay in which they need to apply learned criminal justice programs to real life examples. Exact testing requirements vary by school, but in most cases, testing to obtain a Criminal Justice doctoral degree measures your ability to analyze and interpret concepts in criminal justice.
Examinations may be general or specific; practical or theoretical. General topics may address the administration of justice while theoretical topics may be based on history, current theories about crime, trends and the applications of current theories to specific types of crime or special interest groups
Dissertation and Final Examination for Criminal Justice Doctorate
Because a Doctorate in Criminal Justice is a Ph D program, most schools require students to write a dissertation. Usually, the proposed dissertation topic requires the approval of the student’s dissertation committee.
Upon approval, and completion of the research, the student will normally be required to defend his results in front of his dissertation Committee, which is made up of the faculty of the department and other peers. The committee will then vote on the performance of the research, its interpretation and conclusions. Multiple negative votes may be grounds for a failure. Students may have a limited number of opportunities to defend their dissertation and still remain in the program to get their ph D in criminal justice. Upon approval, the degree is granted and the program ends.
While demanding, the path to obtaining a Ph. D. in criminal justice prepares the student to think for himself or herself, be able to handle the literature and research in a logical manner and defend their position based on sound judgment and conviction.