Program Specific Requirements

Criminal Justice

Students who complete CRJ 715 and CRJ 716 with an A- or better may choose to write a thesis instead of taking four elective courses. Students choosing the thesis option must first take CRJ 717 Reading in Research and receive an A- or better. Students must obtain permission from the program director to pursue the thesis option after completing CRJ 717. If permission is granted, they must take CRJ 791 Thesis Prospectus as an Independent Study with their thesis advisor who must be a member of the graduate faculty. Finally, students must submit a thesis approved by their advisor and a second reader within no more than one year after completing CRJ 791. Students choosing the thesis option will complete a total of 30 credits for the master’s degree, six fewer credits than those students who take the comprehensive exam. However, writing a thesis is a substantial undertaking usually requiring more work than that required by two additional courses.

Digital Forensics and Cyber Security (D4CS)

The D4CS thesis option is suited for superior students who seek the challenge of traditional scholarly research. Thesis research requires the sponsorship of a D4CS full-time faculty member who agrees to serve as the thesis adviser. Students unable to gain an adviser can do an Applied Research Project or fieldwork for their capstone experience. When a student gains faculty sponsorship, the adviser notifies the program director who will approve registration for FCM 791, Prospectus Seminar. The college’s general thesis guidelines apply with the additional provisions that a D4CS thesis may follow IEEE citation guidelines, a digital copy of the approved thesis must be submitted to the program director, and the thesis committee may require an oral defense. Completion of a thesis makes a student eligible to graduate with a 33 credit program of study.

Forensic Science

All students are required to write a thesis. To complete the thesis students must register for and pass the three semester prospectus seminar FOS 795 - FOS 797. During the course of this seminar series, students must identify a full time science graduate faculty member as a research mentor and thesis advisor, receive approval of the thesis topic from the thesis advisor and the prospectus instructor, and complete a prospectus. Students are encouraged to select a thesis advisor within their first year in the program and are allowed to start their thesis project immediately after approval of their topic.

International Crime and Justice

The thesis track is available only to those students who received a grade of A or A- in Research Methods in International Crime and Justice (ICJ 715) and Using Computers in Social Research (CRJ 716) and have maintained a 3.5 GPA. Pursuit of the thesis track also requires the permission of the program director. The thesis track consists of completion of ICJ 791 (Thesis 1) and ICJ 792 (Thesis II) in sequence, for a total of six credits. These courses are taught one-on-one with the student´s faculty advisor. Students may not register for ICJ 791 (Thesis I) until a faculty advisor has been identified. Course descriptions for ICJ 791 and ICJ 792 can be found in the bulletin.

Security Management

The thesis option is only available to students with a GPA of 3.5 or higher with the permission of the program director.