Welcome to the UAlbany School of Criminal Justice. We are interdisciplinary, international, innovative and publicly engaged.
One cannot tell the story of the academic fields of criminology and criminal justice without telling the story of the UAlbany School of Criminal Justice.
We were established in 1968, we were the first to offer a PhD in Criminal Justice, and we have been ranked at or near the top since our inception. Our past and present faculty and our PhDs have been the vanguard of crime and justice scholarship for five decades. They include Presidents and Fellows of the American Society of Criminology (ASC) and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) and countless winners of major honors from ASC, ACJS, and other professional organizations. We have awarded nearly 300 PhDs who have gone on to populate academic departments of criminology and criminal justice throughout the nation and the world.
Our School is home to world class faculty. We boast four Distinguished Professors, three ASC Fellows, and a recent ASC Ruth Shonle Cavan Young Scholar Award winner. Our faculty regularly publish in the leading journals of criminology, criminal justice, and related disciplines. They give invited presentations about their research at leading institutions all over the world. And they consult regularly with criminal justice agencies, government officials, and non-governmental organizations.
Our School is home to outstanding academic programs. Our instructional faculty include two Distinguished Teaching Professors and recent winners of prestigious teaching honors like the UAlbany University Award for Excellence in Teaching and the SUNY-wide Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. We have a selective and rigorous undergraduate program, a highly regarded Master’s Degree program, special MA programs with both the New York State Police and the New York City Police Department, and a world renowned PhD program. Our undergraduate students regularly win university scholarships and awards, and our graduate students are consistently recognized with professional honors. Our incredibly accomplished BA, MA, and PhD alumni include prominent leaders in local, state, national, and international crime and justice agencies, including a former Chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration, former Superintendents and Deputy Superintendents of the New York State Police, and a former Director of the National Institute of Justice. They also include the CEO of a publicly traded, cutting-edge technology company, the President of an architecture company, the President and CEO of a prominent community justice organization, university Presidents and Provosts, Deans and department Chairpersons, and of course internationally known scholars who have helped shape the fields of criminology and criminal justice for fifty years.
Our School is a model of interdisciplinary scholarship. We are home to faculty with PhDs in Criminology, Criminal Justice, Sociology, Psychology, Political Science, and Public Policy. The School is also home to the internationally recognized Hindelang Criminal Justice Research Center, which coordinates pre- and post-award grant administration, has managed tens of millions of dollars in research grants, and is home to world class research projects. Soon after the founding of our School, its structure came to be known as “The Albany Model” and began to be replicated by other academic criminal justice and criminology programs forming throughout the nation.
We welcome you to explore our website, to learn more about the UAlbany School of Criminal Justice, and perhaps even to join our community.