Studying criminal justice is signing up to understand and work with a complex, living system. You’ll come to learn the laws and what happens when they’re broken, sure, but it doesn’t stop there. You’ll need to know about the politics and governments that create that process, and about the people it affects – the psychology, culture, and history of how society has defined (and redefined) criminal behavior and how to respond to it. Our program works to prepare you for all of the above – pulling from every discipline we can get our hands on to prepare you for a future in law enforcement, social work, the legal system, and more…or just to understand a complicated aspect of the world that much better.

Our programs within Criminal Justice are the newest to come onto our roster, but they’ve been offered by other departments at FCC for quite a while. We’re excited to update, expand, and refine from such a strong starting point! To what you see below, we’re planning to add even more sociocultural and psychological investigation, explore historical inequities, give chances to research developing police-community relationships, and even expand into terrorism, extreme crime, and what happens when the justice system and national security apparatus interact. We hope you’ll come join us for the ride.