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The University of Texas at Dallas
Graduate Admissions

Doctor of Philosophy in Criminology

http://www.utdallas.edu/epps/crim/

Faculty

Professors: John L. Worrall (Program Head), Bruce Jacobs, James Marquart
Associate Professors: Denise Boots, Thomislav Kovandzic, Lynne Vieraitis (Graduate Director)
Assistant Professors: J.C. Barnes, Robert Morris
Clinical Professor: Elmer Polk
Clinical Assistant Professors: Timothy Bray, Sarah Maxwell

Mission

The Mission of the Doctor of Philosophy in Criminology at the University of Texas at Dallas is threefold in nature, in order to:

1. Deliver high-quality education to a diverse body of graduate students regarding the etiology, control, and variation of law-breaking across space and time.

2. Serve local, regional, and national communities through professional development programs, public policy analyses, evaluation research, program and policy design, and a forum for new approaches to the study of crime.

3. Advance the understanding of criminology through a multidisciplinary mix of theoretical and applied research.

Objectives

The doctoral program in Criminology is an interdisciplinary, research-oriented degree offered in conjunction with other graduate programs in the School of Economic, Political, and Policy Sciences at UT Dallas.  The objective of the Ph.D. program is to provide students a coherent, yet intellectually challenging degree that adequately prepares them to conduct research among the many aspects of criminology and criminal justice, varying with individual interests and areas of specialty.  Graduates of the Ph.D. program will be qualified to teach at the University level as professors.  Graduates will also be competent to enter into analytic and administrative posts within the vast array of research and policy institutions, criminal justice organizations, and in the private sector.

Facilities

Students have access to the computing facilities in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences (EPPS) in two computing laboratories which equipped with major social science software packages, including E-Views, R, Rats, PASW, STATA, Lexis/Nexis database, and Westlaw for student use. The University’s Computing Center provides personal computers and UNIX Workstations. Data and reference materials are also available online via the library and UTD’s memberships in numerous organizations.

Graduate Assistantships

Criminology Program Funding is limited primarily to doctoral students, with limited opportunities others. Students should note their desire to be considered for graduate student funding as a teaching or research assistant in their letter of intent to the program at the time of. For more specific information, please see our Criminology Graduate Program Handbook located on our website at http://epps.utdallas.edu/crim/ .

Application and Admission Requirements

The PhD Program in Criminology seeks applicants from a baccalaureate or Masters in Criminology, Sociology, or a relevant discipline.  A 3.2 GPA and a GRE score of 1,000 are desirable, but students may be admitted at the program’s discretion.  All transcripts must be submitted, along with three letters of recommendation (preferably academic) and a one-page essay describing their background, education, and professional objectives.  For more information please see our Graduate Handbook on our website. 

Degree Requirements

On admission to the Ph.D. in Criminology Program, a student must complete a 90 semester credit hours across three tiers of graduate coursework. Additionally, students must fulfill other requirements including comprehensive exams, and two writing requirements as follows:

• Coursework: 75 credit hours of graduate study (minus transferred or masters hours)

• Analytical Paper Writing Requirement

• Comprehensive Examination

• Doctoral Dissertation

A grade of "C+" or worse in any graduate class requires that the class be retaken with only one retake allowed per course. If the retake results in a final grade of "C+" or worse, the student will be dropped from the program. In addition, all students must meet the University’s minimum required GPA of 3.0 or higher. See our Criminology Graduate Program Handbook located on our website for more specific requirements.

Semester Credit Hour Requirements

Coursework Tiers and Credit Hours

Tier I

Required Criminology Core Classes: 15 hours

Electives: 15 hours (9 hours in Criminology/6 graduate hours taken in any other subject)

Writing Requirement for Analytical Paper: 6 hours

Total Tier I Hours: 36

Tier II

Required Criminology Core Classes: 12 hours

Required Additional EPPS Methods/Stats Classes: 6 hours

Criminology Electives: 6 hours

Open Electives (in Criminology or any other program/college): 6 hours

Total Tier II Hours: 30

Tier III

Dissertation/Three-Paper Option Research (minimum of 9 hours)

Total Tier III Hours: 9

Total Program Hours: 75 total credit hours minimum beyond BA/BS

27 Hours Core Criminology Courses

6 Hours Analytical Writing

6 Hours Additional EPPS Methods/Stats Classes

15 Hours Criminology Electives

12 Hours Open Electives (any program/college)

9 Hours Dissertation

75 Hours TOTAL

Core Courses

EPPS 6310 Research Design I
CRIM 6300 Proseminar in Criminology
CRIM 6303 Etiology of Crime and Criminality
CRIM 6307 Extent of Crime and Measurement in Criminology
CRIM 6311 Crime and Justice Policy
EPPS 6313 (Intro to Quantitative Methods) or 7316 (Regression and Multivariate Analysis)
CRIM 7300 Advances in Criminology Theory
CRIM 7301 Seminar in Criminology Research
CRIM 6V98 (Analytical Writing) or CRIM 6V96 (Thesis Writing Research) (6 hours)
CRIM 8V99 Dissertation (18 hours)

Criminology Electives

CRIM 6305 Law and Social Control
CRIM 6308 Victimology
CRIM 6309 Communities and Crime
CRIM 6310 Delinquency and Juvenile Justice
CRIM 6313 Corrections
CRIM 6314 Policing
CRIM 6315 Violent Crime
CRIM 6317 Courts
CRIM 6322 Crime Prevention
CRIM 6323 Violence and Gun Control
CRIM 6324 Correlates of Crime and Justice
CRIM 6332 GIS Applications in Criminology
CRIM 6348 Drugs & Crime
CRIM 7342 Qualitative Criminology
CRIM 7351 Advanced Criminological Theory
CRIM 7381 Special Topics in Criminology
CRIM 8V01 Independent Study in Criminology

Sample of Additional Methods/Stats Classes

EPPS 6342 Research Design II
EPPS 6346 Qualitative Research Methods
EPPS 6352 Evaluation Research Methods
EPPS 7318 Structural Equation and Multilevel (Hierarchical) Modeling
EPPS 7344 Categorical and Limited Dependent Variables
EPPS 7368 Spatial Epidemiology
EPPS 7370 Time Series Analysis
EPPS 7370 Applied Multivariate Analysis
EPPS 7386 Survey Research

Last Updated: September 28, 2011