San Francisco State University

The multidisciplinary program in Criminal Justice Studies explores the conception and implementation of law, crime, and justice systems and ideas. The program emphasizes critical thinking about law, crime, and justice systems and their entanglement with larger political-economic processes. In particular, the program explores how ideas and systems of crime, law, and justice shape broader issues of social justice, especially those related to the experience of race, class, gender, sexuality, and age inequity in the U.S. The program teaches students the skills of critical analysis and ethical reasoning so that students can challenge structures and assumptions and innovatively contribute to the assessment of alternative solutions to problems associated with the identification, control, and prevention of crime and delinquency.

Program Learning Outcomes

1. Analyze how systemic inequality shapes and is shaped by crime, law, and justice systems.
2. Examine how people and groups impact, engage, contest, and remake legal institutions and ideas.
3. Analyze the history and politics of criminological knowledge.
4. Critique and analyze claims, data, and knowledge about crime, law, and justice systems.
5. Design and implement a senior capstone project that demonstrates effective written communication, ethical reasoning, and critical analysis.