PhD in Public Policy or Criminal Justice

Is a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Administration in demand in the academic world? I am debating getting a PhD in Public Policy and Administration with the expectation of teaching at the college level and want to know if there is a demand in academia for this subject. I am also considering a PhD with a focus on Criminal Justice and would have the same question regarding this subject as well.

 

Hi jdlaw93,

Have you ever thought of an ABA J.D.?
You can teach criminology in law school.
It's probably a safer bet.

 

I have an ABA JD and an MPA. However, it seem very difficult to land a faculty position without the PhD, even at the college level.

 

The PhD in Criminal Justice is, I believe, available via distance learning at:
Capella University www.capella.edu
Northcentral University www.ncu.edu
Saybrook University www.saybrook.edu
Union Institute www.tui.edu
Walden University www.waldenu.edu
and possibly Nova Southeastern University www.nova.edu

 

The PhD in Public Policy and Administration is available via distance learning at:

Charles Sturt University www.csu.edu.au (BG15, 104)
London South Bank University www.lbsu.ac.uk (BG15, 172)
University of Luton www.luton.ac.uk (BG15, 139)
Open University (Netherlands) www.ouh.nl (BG15, 166)
University of Pretoria www.up.ac.za (BG15, 143)
University of South Africa www.unisa.ac.za (BG15, 144)
Walden University www.waldenu.edu (BG15, 183)

 

PhD in Criminal Justice

Hi JDLAW93:

You are correct. It is difficult to land a tenure track teaching position with the JD alone. A PhD is a prerequisite for most of the jobs teaching CJ that I frequently see listed in the Chronicle and other places.

The on-line schools that Mr. Heiks was kind enough to post all have concentrations but not degrees in CJ. The problem is that currently there is no actual on-line doctorate in criminal justice. Unfortunately, if you are trying to study criminal justice, most of these concentrations, because they are merely that, have little to do with the justice system.

That is in no way meant to marginalize these excellent schools nor their programs, they are just not CJ programs. I am in a traditional CJ doctoral program at the Graduate Center at CU NY and around 85% of the coursework is labeled as such. When you are looking for a job teaching CJ (in a CJ department) and you submit your transcripts, your potential employer is not going to be looking for human services, business, psychology or other courses. This certainly makes sense since if you were looking for a job teaching psychology, then CJ courses wouldn't be very attractive. I previously looked into, and did some coursework at NCU.

The courses were great and the rigor was fine but the vast majority of the courses, because the concentration came under their business program, were in business. They were truly great courses, but the degrees from NCU and all other on-line schools are merely concentrations in CJ, not degrees in CJ. Before investing your money and your time in any of these otherwise excellent programs, be sure that they will accomplish what you want them to. I don't know if this helped but I wanted to share what little I know.

 

Re: PhD in Criminal Justice

Interesting read. Let me share with you what a friend of mine was told by our local state university. First, a little background:

My friend has the following RA degrees:
BA criminal justice
MA criminal justice
PhD theology

He has also been a cop for over 30 years and he's been teaching as an adjunct professor at the university for several years. He was recently approached by university officials and he was told that the regional accreditors are coming down on the school. He was told the following:

• If he wants to teach CJ at the community college level, then all he needs is a Masters in CJ.
  
• If he wants to teach Bachelors and Masters level courses, then he will need to get a doctorate that has a "specialization" in CJ, consisting of 18 graduate level credits that are directly connected to his doctorate. He was not told that he has to get a doctorate in CJ; he was simply told that he needs a doctorate with a CJ specialization.

I received the above information about a month ago and it seems to demonstrate that a doctorate with a "specialization" in the field that you want to teach is sufficient. After all, when you get a PhD in criminology, are you getting a doctorate in philosophy or are you getting a doctorate with a specialization in CJ? I think that the specialization in the doctorate is the most important element to consider.

My .02

 

You can specialize in Public Admin (no policy) at NCU:

http://www.ncu.edu/dpro_spec.asp?degree_program_code=PHD-BA&dp_version_id=7&dpro_section_main_id=61

 

Re: Re: PhD in Criminal Justice

Thank you, your insight is greatly appreciated. Any indication if the university you made reference to would have accepted an ABA JD to satisfy the 18 graduate level credits in criminal justice? I have no doubt that I could have identified at least 30 criminal law related credits taken for my JD, not to mention my admission to the state bar. I guess the real question is - are "criminal law" classes considered sufficient to meet the university's requirement for "18 criminal justice" credits?

One other question, any reason why you chose to pursue the DBA in criminal justice as oppose to the Ph.D. in criminal justice? Is there a significant difference?

 

This particular state university does not have any ABA JD's teaching for them. However, I have seen it elsewhere and, to answer your question, yes, IMO your classes in criminal law would be sufficient to teach CJ.

I had already taken undergraduate and graduate statistics elsewhere, but NCU would not honor them for their PhD program and they wanted me to take their statistics course. However, for their new (at that time) DBA program, they either:
a) did not require statistics
b) or they honored statistics from another university.
I think it's answer (a), but I'm not 100% certain.

Also, as it was described to me, the DBA (at NCU) is more of a working man's doctorate where he can apply real world problems (such as at his place of employment) to his dissertation and the real world problems don't have to be an original contribution to the world of academia and, subsequently, it doesn't have to be orally defended (it's optional). Conversely, their PhD program requires an original contribution to the world of academia that must be orally defended.

This raises the question: What is the significance of an oral defense? First of all, a candidate for a PhD is highly unlikely to make it to the oral defense until his dissertation has been approved. Consequently, the oral defense is simply a formality. It can also be viewed as a rite-of-passage that has almost become legendary. Nonetheless, the real defense of a PhD occurs throughout the dissertation process and, with that in mind, most universities have an attrition rate of over 50% e.g. students either quit or fail during the dissertation and not during the oral defense.

 

At what level do you want to teach? Major university? Small college? CC?

Are you locked into the notion of teaching CJ? There are opportunities for JD-only, JD-MBA or JD-MPA people at small colleges or CCs.

 

Re: Re: PhD in Public Policy or Criminal Justice

I absolutely have not desire to teach at a large university, I simply would like to teach at a small 4 year college or CC. That's why I am very hesitant to jump into a PhD program, because I'm not sure it is necessary given my objective. I'm also not married to CJ. I would be willing to teach management also, but would much rather to teach a law related course.

 

North Eastern

Are you anywhere near Boston? Then the program offered by North Eastern would be worth a look.

http://www.ace.neu.edu/spcs/dlp/

 

Re: North Eastern

Thank you. This type of program seems to be very close to what I am looking for. However, the distance may be an issue. If it were in NY metro area. I have take a look at the website and can't tell how often the classes meets. Do you have any idea if its weekly or monthly?