The Criminal Justice program is committed to fostering a challenging and intellectually stimulating environment that provides a broad range of interactive academic and field experiences.  An understanding and appreciation of the theory, research, policy and practice of criminal justice, as a unique discipline, will be advanced.  The department will promote the development of future professionals who are capable of assuming responsibility for the research, continuing scholarship and administration of the criminal justice system.

The Forensic Science program is committed to fostering a challenging and intellectually stimulating environment that provides a broad range of interactive academic and field experiences.  An understanding and appreciation of theory, research, policy and practice of forensic science, as a unique discipline, will be advanced.  The department will promote the development of future professionals who are capable of assuming responsibility for the research, continuing scholarship and administration of forensic science. The core modules are:

• Criminal Law
• Criminal Investigation
• Introduction to Forensic Science
• Laws of Evidence
• Criminalistics
• Expert Witness Professional Practices
• Tire Imprint Evidence
• Forensic Microscopy
• Bloodstain Pattern Analysis
• Forensic Chemistry + Laboratory
• Analytical Chemistry + Laboratory
• Forensic Geology
• Computer Forensics and Cyber Crime

The vision of the Criminal Justice Department is to become an academic program in the field of Criminal Justice recognized by students, and alumni, which provides them with a critical understanding of the total system of criminal justice and the society in which it functions.  Additionally, we aspire to be recognized by local, state, and federal law enforcement communities for our progressive education, service, intellectual maturity, and ethical awareness.

The vision of the Forensic Science area of the Criminal Justice Department is to become an academic program in the field of Forensic Science recognized by students, and alumni, which provides a critical understanding of the investigation procedures for forensic evidence and the society in which it functions.  Additionally, we aspire to be recognized by local, state, and federal law enforcement communities for our progressive education, service, intellectual maturity, and ethical awareness.

The Criminal Justice Crime Scene Investigation concentration emphasizes the skills required for employment in positions focusing on the collection, documentation and preservation of evidence.  Students that graduate from the CSI concentration are well prepared for careers as crime scene investigators, field evidence technicians and fingerprint analysts. Graduates from this program go on to careers with civilian crime scene units and fingerprint units throughout the western United States.  Some students also go on to careers in law enforcement.

The program is a hybrid of criminal justice courses, basic science courses, and forensic science courses. Since there are a significant number of WSU General Education classes in the required support courses, you should look up the program requirements before selecting your math, science and humanities GE classes.  Students in the CSI concentration are not required to have a minor but there are a number of good minors that complement the concentration. The core modules are:

• Introduction to Criminal Justice
• Introduction to Forensic Science
• Criminal Law
• Criminal Investigation
• Juvenile Law and Procedure
• Criminal Courts
• Corrections in the Community
• Issues in Security and Loss Prevention
• Victimology
• Theories of Crime and Delinquency
• Critical Legal Studies
• Drugs and Crime
• Physical Methods in Forensic Science
• Juvenile Law and Procedure
• Introduction to Security
• The American Jail

WSU’s Criminal Justice program will assist you in your goal to improve justice administration. In doing so, students can earn bachelor’s degrees in criminal justice, crime scene investigation, or forensic science. Graduates with a degree in criminal justice have a wide range of employment opportunities. Locally, they can become Police Officers, Sheriff’s Deputies, or Correctional Officers. Federally, they can work as drug enforcement agents and U.S. Marshals

. They can also work at Adult Probation and Parole, crime scene units, and state and federal labs such as the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI. The CJ Department Chair Scholarship, Criminal Justice Alumni Scholarship, and the Social and Behavioral Sciences Dean’s Scholarship are all based on academic performance. Recipients are chosen by the CJ Department Chair and the Dean of the College. You will be notified if selected.

Southern Utah University, as our founders envisioned, is a dynamic teaching and learning community inspired by its unique natural surroundings. As Utah’s designated public liberal arts and sciences university, SUU engages students in a personalized and rigorous experiential education, empowering them to be productive citizens, socially responsible leaders, high achievers and lifelong learners. Advising helps students regarding education programs, courses of instruction, policies and procedures, career options, and information resources.  Both the student and the advisor have specific roles.

Students are responsible for seeking academic advisement and monitoring progress toward graduation. Advisors are available for students for each major as well as open option students, who are those that have not yet declared a major.  Students should work with advisors prior to registration to ensure progress toward a degree or certificate of their choice. All students who have earned less than 30 credits are required to be advised each semester before registration. The core modules are:

• Overview of Forensic Law
• Overview of Forensic Criminal Justice
• Overview of Forensic Psychology
• Overview of Forensic Biology
• Overview of Forensic Chemistry
• Overview of Forensic Computer Analysis.

The Common Core of 10 hrs integrates disciplines so that students will develop an overview of and some familiarity with all of the emphasis areas that may have to be pieced together during the investigation of a case. Please note, students in some Emphasis Options, Chemistry, for example, will not take the 2 cr. hr. Overview in Forensic Chemistry course. Students should check with advisors in their Emphasis Options for up to date requirements.

Analytical and forensic toxicology research in the department is concentrated in the Center for Human Toxicology (CHT). The CHT is a GLP compliant laboratory that provides analytical services, education, and research for the University of Utah, the state of Utah, the inter-mountain area and the nation. The faculty are internationally recognized leaders in the development of state-of-the-art assays for drugs in human tissues and other physiological specimens. Most of these assays are based on immunoassay techniques, gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry (LC/MS).

Graduate students work on projects generated from within the CHT, but student and faculty throughout the Department avail themselves of the expertise of the center. The research emphasis of CHT is on drugs of abuse, including the psychostimulants, and more recently, performance enhancing drugs, such as steroids and has resulted in the establishment of the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory (SMRTL) devoted to the detection and interpretation of performance-enhancing drug use in sports competition.

The service component of the lab is supported by the highest levels of professional, collegial, and Olympic sports agencies in the United States. The forensic staff in CHT also support private companies and government agencies with their drug free workplace programs. These consulting services include oversight of their drug-testing programs, preparing and providing blind quality control specimens and the evaluation of toxicology laboratory performance in the programs. The faculty of CHT have received numerous awards including the Irving Sunshine Young Investigators Award from the American Academy of Forensic Sciences to Diana Wilkins, Ph.D for her research efforts and the Gettler Award by the American Academy of Forensic Sciences to Rodger Foltz, Ph.D. for his contributions as an analytical toxicologist. The core modules are:

• Analytical Toxicology
• Mechanisms of Toxicology
• Advances in Endocrine Pharmacology
• Advanced Topics in Cardiovascular Pharmacology
• Biochemical Mechanisms of Signal Transduction

The overall objective is to provide broad, multidisciplinary training that enables the students to pursue careers in a variety of settings, including colleges and universities, pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, government laboratories, and private research institutes and foundations. The guiding philosophy emphasizes the development of scientific investigators who have a broad interdisciplinary background in modern biomedical sciences (cell and molecular biology, physiology and biochemistry), as well as training in the concepts and approaches of pharmacology and toxicology. We also train individuals in state-of-the art approaches to hypothesis-driven research. The program is designed to be exciting and challenging, and at the same time, supportive and flexible enough to meet the specific needs and interests of the students and their mentors.

In the second year, our students take a number of basic and advanced courses in pharmacology and toxicology. Also available is a huge array of graduate level courses that are offered by other programs in the Health Sciences Center, which can be taken depending on career development needs and interests of the students. Students also begin their dissertation research as early as their second year.