Arizona State D.CJ.

Greetings Community Leaders,

It is time to take your career to a new level! Earn a Doctorate of Criminal Justice from the #2 ranked graduate program in the U.S.

The School of Criminology and Criminal Justice is excited to announce that, after a multi-year effort, the University has approved our Doctorate in Criminal Justice. We expect that the application link will go live by May 15. All classes will be taught by fulltime ASU faculty.

Charles Katz, Professor and Director of the Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety, will lead this professional graduate degree program. Dr. Katz will be joined by all of the CCJ faculty in welcoming our first cohort in Fall 2025.

This doctorate will provide career mobility or change for people interested in careers in senior leadership in public safety agencies, policy-making, criminal justice research, or university-level teaching.

Delivery Modality: ASU Sync – ASU Sync is a remote one-night per week, face-to-face learning environment with optional on-campus enrichment opportunities. Degree completion is projected to be 3 – 4 years.

Information Sessions:

Register here for the Zoom Information sessions.
May 6, 5 p.m. MST
June 3, 5 p.m. MST

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BTW, I am an online faculty associate at ASU (R1, #2 CCJ school in the country) since Spring 2023. I teach grad and undergraduate courses. However, only FT tenure-track and tenured faculty will teach in this new doctoral program.

 

So what exactly is a DCJ? Is it a professional research doctorate? Criminal Justice is a field that badly needs more research.

It also needs people inside and outside the field to be more receptive of good research.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Criminal_Justice

A couple schools already offer it. It's like the Ed.D., DBA, etc. Alternative to the Ph.D.

 

ASU apparently doesn't require a dissertation.

 

For which program? The DBH, no. They require a Capstone. However, their online Ed.D. requires a dissertation. I'm almost certain the DCJ will require one knowing what I know about the conceptualization of the program.

Their Ph.D. is already the #2 doctoral program in criminology and criminal justice in the U.S. There's a reason they will only have full-time faculty teaching in the D.CJ. program.

 

ASU's DCJ site doesn't mention any dissertation requirement that I could find. Nice bit of lawyer bait, though. A JD gets 30 hours of graduate coursework credit toward the DCJ.

Given that the average law school curriculum MIGHT offer six hours of substantive criminal law and six hours of criminal procedure, that's generous.

 

Generally speaking, professional degrees are research degrees. Whether one does a dissertation or capstone or other such project, the student conducts practice-based research. This is opposed to a scholarly doctorate (typically--but not always--the PhD), which makes an original contribution to scholarship (theory building or theory testing). Both professonal doctorates and the PhD are research degrees.

The ASU DCJ program teaches research methods and culminates in an applied (practice-based) research project. The program targets mid- and senior-level practitioners.

 

Practitioners? Criminals, you mean?

 

I'm having trouble finding the info again. What I can see, I like. I don't think they'd admit me, though, given my age and retirement status. I'm unlikely to make any significant contributions to the field in my remaining time on Earth.

Truth be told, I think I'd prefer a residential program. I've rubbed elbows with a few Criminal Justice scholars and I think their work is fascinating. My biggest reason for doing a graduate degree would be to work under their supervision for awhile.

Also, I'm a lawyer. My interest lies there and not in Social Science.

 

Is is a competitive admissions process?

 

I don't know? I'd prefer something fully funded, though.

 

Attend one of the information sessions.

 

Here is some more information I got tonight from the info session.

Application due: July 1st
Fall only admission
*Decision within 30 days

Cost: 6 credits/semester $8,800 (AZ residents)
Out of state pays more ($12,000).. It's mandated. International ($13,000).
Rough estimate...not final as yet.

Expensive.. that's like 88k for AZ residents if I calculated correctly

Program: 60 credits total

Capstone (9 credits)... still being finalized
*CRJ 790: Reading and Conference: Research Question, Literature Review, Methods (proposal presentation) (3 credits)
*CRJ 792 Research: Data Analysis and Results (3 credits)
*CRJ 793: Applied Project: Discussion and Conclusion, including final oral presentation (3 credits)

See the attachment for the first year tentative schedule.

 

So...capstone instead of dissertation?

 

Yup.

 

I would be shopping around at that price point since 88k+ is way too much for a terminal doctorate. As much as it sounds like a great program and doesn't require a dissertation, rather a capstone, in comparison to other programs the price point would be the selling point for me and its way out of my budget plus there are so many other schools offering different doctorate degrees such as DCJ, EdD, DPA, DSc, PhD, and DLP at a much better price point. I am unsure if any employer or school would care that ASU is ranked number 2 when hiring a candidate. I wonder how much weight that would actually hold?

 

ASU made it clear last night that the DCJ is not the degree one should choose if they aspire to become a tenure-track faculty at a research school. You could find it useful if you want to be a teaching faculty.

 

If the degree is not for tenure-track faculty, what could it be used for? Makes you wonder because most criminal justice sector jobs require a bachelor's or at best a master's degree.

 

Teaching at community colleges, teaching-focus schools, or adjuncting online. It has become so competitive to find online adjunct gigs that a doctorate is almost a minimum requirement. Someone with a D.CJ. could also gain full-time faculty positions at an R1 university, but likely as a career-track (non-tenure track) faculty (e.g. Lecturer, Teaching Assistant Professor, Clinical Assistant Professor, Instructional Assistant Professor, etc.). And don't forget that some high-level CJ professionals just want to earn a doctorate, so the D.CJ. might be more appealing than the research-oriented Ph.D.

 

Here are some full-time faculty with a D.CJ.

https://www.nccu.edu/employee/cmaye1

https://www.usj.edu/faculty/john-watts-d-c-j/ (this guy holds the position I was offered for Fall 2022, but I declined and went to Tennessee State instead.)

https://www.newhaven.edu/faculty-staff-profiles/kelly-kraynak-duprey.php (her LinkedIn shows her D.CJ. degree was earned at Saint Leo)