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 do not write the thesis. 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. Prior to submitting the thesis students must have received passing grades for the three semester prospectus seminar FOS 795-797. Students are encouraged to enroll in FOS795 and identify a full time science graduate faculty member as a research mentor and thesis advisor within their first year in the program. Thesis topics are expected to broaden the knowledge base of Forensic Science and during the course of this seminar series students will be asked to complete a prospectus including a brief impact statement on how the proposed research will potentially affect a forensic discipline. Students are allowed to start their thesis project immediately after approval of their topic by the thesis advisor.
International Crime and Justice
MASTER OF ARTS IN INTERNATIONAL CRIME AND JUSTICE
The typical admitted student has a grade point average of 3.0 or higher, a combined GRE score of 297 or higher (147 + Quantitative Reasoning; 150+ Verbal Reasoning) and a score of 3.0 or higher on the Analytical Writing section. GRE scores are only one component of the application profile.
The Graduate Record Examination (GRE), or other standardized test, is required for all applicants to the MA program in International Crime and Justice except when the Graduate Admissions Committee elects to waive the requirement based on special circumstances, such as:
(a) the applicant is a graduate of the major in International Criminal Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and has a GPA of 3.5 or more;
(b) the applicant has seven or more years of related professional experience in the international criminal justice field (e.g., works for UN, INTERPOL, World Bank, etc.) and has demonstrated significant professional accomplishments;
(c) the applicant is a foreign student. Foreign students are defined as students who are enrolled in institutions of higher education who are not citizens of United States of America, immigrants, or refugees. These may include holders of F (student) visas, H (temporary worker/trainee) visas, J (temporary educational exchange - visitor) visas, and M (vocational training) visas. Foreign students do not have long-term or permanent residence.
In addition, applicants should have taken an undergraduate statistics course. Students may be conditionally admitted without undergraduate statistics but must complete this course within the first year of the program.
ICJ THESIS TRACK
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.