Criminal Justice

Overview

As a student in one of the region’s only four-year undergraduate criminal justice programs, you’ll learn how to critically reflect on the complexities of crime and society’s response to it. You’ll examine the ways in which police, courts, corrections and victim services operate and relate to the larger political and social world.

The criminal justice program at UW-Superior is offered as a concentration of our Legal Studies major. This intentional structure focuses on the importance of a strong legal background for students pursuing this degree. While criminology programs offered elsewhere focus on criminals’ psychological and sociological behaviors and motivations, criminal justice centers around established procedures and systems.

This program is also offered as a minor for students looking to strengthen their current academic area of study.

What You’ll Learn

As a criminal justice major, you will study topics related to crime, corrections, and punishment; judicial process; criminal justice policy and reform; police and society; and criminal law. This coursework will challenge you to develop intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, and oral and written communication skills. You will be exposed to a variety of subject areas related to the criminal justice field while simultaneously developing a strong understanding of the history and background of this area.

Through a minor or comprehensive (no minor required) concentration in criminal justice at UW-Superior, you will:

• Understand the nature and role of police organizations and study issues concerning the relationships between police agencies and the community
• Understand and use research and statistics methods to gather, organize and analyze data
• Explore and criticize arguments made in legal settings about race, ethnicity, class or gender and assess connections
• Examine the social and psychological dimensions of juvenile delinquency
• Receive a thorough background in criminal justice issues and the legal system as a whole

Program Outcomes/Career Opportunities

UW-Superior alumni are working across the nation in federal, state and local criminal and juvenile justice agencies. Find your niche as an:

• Attorney
• Youth counselor
• Surveillance officer
• Paralegal assistant
• Military officer
• Private investigator
• Probation officer
• State patrol officer
• City police officer
• Crime scene technician
• Correctional counselor
• Victim’s advocate