Criminal Justice
The mission of the Department of Criminal Justice is to offer high quality education to those seeking employment with local and national criminal justice agencies.
Given the comprehensive orientation of the University, our educational focus is to prepare students to be fully informed participants at all levels of the justice field. In order to provide the highest quality education, faculty actively participate in scholarship. Faculty also provide service to justice entities, the community, and the profession.
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A Brief History of Criminal Justice at Boise State
The discipline of Criminal Justice was introduced at Boise State College in 1966, and was entitled Criminology. The program was started under a two-year grant from the Office of Law Enforcement Assistance.
During its first years, the program was moved from the Department of Social Science to Business, then Economics, then Public Administration, then Societal and Urban Studies, who changed their name to Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice Administration.
In 1990, the Department of Criminal Justice Administration became a separate department.
Student majors increased from about 25 in 1969 to over 200 in the early and mid-1970s.
Today the Criminal Justice Program has almost 500 undergraduate and graduate students, and is the largest in Boise State’s School of Public Service.
Criminal Justice faculty are engaged in a variety of research projects and community activities. See the Research section for more information.