Bachelor of Arts in Community Criminal Justice

Bachelor of Arts in Community Criminal Justice

The Bachelor of Arts in Community Criminal Justice program is designed to enable students to critically examine and explore the concepts and practices of justice, equality, and fairness that underpin our social and legal institutions. In so doing, students embark on community engagement and on an active and sustained engagement with institutions of civil society that can be productively harnessed to bring about social justice.

By combining theory and practice, students investigate issues of class, race, gender, and socio-economic conditions and examine how they shape our society. This program integrates opportunities to engage in undergraduate research, service learning, and practicum placements that provide students with highly transferable and marketable knowledge and skills.

The Bachelor of Arts in Community Criminal Justice program provides students with the following benefits:

• A broad understanding of crime and social justice issues within community, national, and international contexts.
• Courses unique in Canada that unite practical and professional skills with community building and social justice.
• An understanding of social and legal responses to crime and justice and the inter-relationship of these responses on societal attitudes.
• A solid understanding of, and familiarity with, the research techniques that allow us to accurately document crime, victimization, attitudes, and social and legal change.
• Ability to think critically and respond innovatively to emerging trends in community-based justice and related agencies.
• Opportunities to work in direct partnership with local agencies and faculty on projects or engage in research, working closely with academic supervisors.
• An understanding of, and ability to use, various means to promote social justice, including conflict resolution, restorative justice, community advocacy in a human rights framework, and an ability to deal with the many regulatory regimes that affect people in the justice system.

This unique program ensures that graduates have covered a range of theoretical, scientific, legal, and practical courses. Specific upper-division courses build knowledge and skills in:

• Understanding historical and contemporary perspectives of social justice and injustice
• Developing individual skills and leadership abilities to work effectively with community-based agencies and organizations that promote social justice goals
• Understanding crime in communities and its prevention
• Empirical data collection, analysis, and presentation
• Conflict resolution and mediation
• Restorative justice
• Professional communication skills
• Project planning, management, and evaluation
• Advocacy, human rights, and decision making in regulatory agencies
• Professional ethics

Students who are interested in applying to graduate school or prefer more extensive research experience are encouraged to undertake a structured program leading to an Honours degree. Students may obtain a Bachelor of Arts in Community Criminal Justice Honours degree by completing a further 12 credits of coursework centred on developing, researching, and writing an Honours Thesis.