Director's Welcome
Welcome to the School of Criminal Justice & Criminalistics, a leading program in the study of criminal justice and criminalistics in California. Our faculty are dedicated to bridging research, policy, and practice in the classroom and through their research. We have nine full-time faculty whose interests and backgrounds include a variety of disciplines, giving our program a diverse and comprehensive examination of issues related to crime, forensic science, and the criminal justice system.
The School of Criminal Justice and Criminalistics is located in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Building, a state-of-the-art facility shared with the operating crime labs for the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. This building offers classrooms equipped with the latest technology and modern laboratories which provide students the opportunity to fully engage in their educational experience.
Students in our criminal justice program learn and discuss the causes and correlates of crime, how the criminal justice system operates, critical issues related to criminal justice, and how to improve our responses to crime. Undergraduate students who are accepted as criminal justice majors earn a Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice, and students who are not majors can earn a minor in criminal justice. Our School offers a Master of Science Degree in Criminal Justice; however, we are currently revising our graduate curriculum and will begin accepting students for admission into the master’s program in the Fall Quarter of 2014.
Students in our criminalistics program learn and discuss forensic science perspectives and apply scientific concepts uniquely related to the forensic sciences—such as crime-scene reconstruction, the legal integrity of scientific evidence, courtroom testimony, and individualization of physical evidence. In criminalistics, undergraduate students majoring in the physical sciences can earn a minor, and graduate students with a natural science undergraduate degree can earn a Master of Science Degree in Criminalistics.
Both the undergraduate and graduate programs are highly competitive programs that require students to apply directly to the School as well as to the University. The number of undergraduate majors accepted each year is limited and is based on applicants’ academic performance. Each year, the number of applicants exceeds the number of slots available; thus, acceptance as a criminal justice major is not guaranteed. Similarly, space is limited for our graduate programs, and selection at this level is also based on previous academic performance.
Thank you for your interest in the School of Criminal Justice & Criminalistics—I encourage all interested students to explore our website for more information on our application processes, our degree requirements, and our faculty backgrounds. If you have additional questions about our program, please call our main office at 323-343-4610.
Denise Herz
Professor & Director
School of Criminal Justice and Criminalistics
Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center, Room 253
Phone: 323-343-4610
Fax: 323-343-4646
dherz@exchange.calstatela.edu
