Department website: https://academics.potomacstatecollege.edu/majors/two-year-programs/criminology
Degree Offered
- Associate of Arts
Nature of the Program
Do you have a passion to study crime and its impact on communities? Go beyond the legal definitions of criminality with a major in criminology. The understanding of criminal activity changes as society continues to change, and the need to understand how and why such behavior occurs will continue to grow.
Criminology treats crime as the product of complex social forces, seeking to understand its nature and causes as well as the successes and failures/limitations of criminal justice approaches and processes. Students acquire knowledge of social structure and culture along with analytical tools that are highly valued in careers in criminal justice, social services, and business. The major also provides an excellent foundation for those who wish to pursue graduate or professional study, such as law.
Career Opportunities
The holistic societal perspective prepares graduates to pursue a broad range of careers such as policing, security, corrections, law, social services, and business. The major also prepares students for graduate studies in the social sciences in pursuit of academic or applied research careers or for professional training in law, public administration, social work, and related fields.
Faculty
Chair
- Cassandra Pritts - M.A. History (Duquesne University)
Year @ PSC (2011)
Assistant professor
- Catie Snider - M.A. Biological Anthropology (University of Montana)
Year @ PSC (2014) - Kristin Smouse - MSW (West Virginia University)
Year @ PSC (2019)
Admissions
Entering freshmen are admitted directly into the major.
Benchmark Expectations
Students must maintain a GPA of 2.0 overall and a minimum GPA of 2.0 in all SOCA and CJ courses counting toward major requirements. All majors must meet with their adviser every semester. Students who do not meet these benchmarks may be removed from their major.
General Education Foundations
Please use this link to view a list of courses that meet each GEF requirement.
NOTE: Some major requirements will fulfill specific GEF requirements. Please see the curriculum requirements listed below for details on which GEFs you will need to select.
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| General Education Foundations | ||
| F1 - Composition & Rhetoric | 3-6 | |
| Introduction to Composition and Rhetoric and Composition, Rhetoric, and Research | ||
or ENGL 103 | Accelerated Academic Writing | |
| F2A/F2B - Science & Technology | 4-6 | |
| F3 - Math & Quantitative Reasoning | 3-4 | |
| F4 - Society & Connections | 3 | |
| F5 - Human Inquiry & the Past | 3 | |
| F6 - The Arts & Creativity | 3 | |
| F7 - Global Studies & Diversity | 3 | |
| F8 - Focus (may be satisfied by completion of a minor, double major, or dual degree) | 9 | |
| Total Hours | 31-37 | |
Please note that not all of the GEF courses are offered at all campuses. Students should consult with their advisor or academic department regarding the GEF course offerings available at their campus.
Curriculum Requirements
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| A minimum GPA of 2.0 is required for all SOCA and CJ courses required in the major. | ||
| GEF Elective Requirements (2, 5, 6, and 8) | 18 | |
| ENGL 101 & ENGL 102 | Introduction to Composition and Rhetoric and Composition, Rhetoric, and Research (GEF 1) | 6 |
| MATH 124 | Algebra with Applications (GEF 3) | 3 |
| ANTH 105 | Introduction to Anthropology (GEF 7) | 3 |
| CJ 101 | Introduction to Criminal Justice | 3 |
| CRIM 232 | Criminology | 3 |
| SOC 101 | Introduction to Sociology (GEF 4) | 3 |
| STAT 211 | Elementary Statistical Inference (GEF 8) | 3 |
| WVUE 191 | First Year Seminar | 1 |
| ANTH/SOC 200-level Elective | 3 | |
| Foreign Language | 6 | |
| Elective | 8 | |
| Total Hours | 60 | |
Suggested Plan of Study
| First Year | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Fall | Hours | Spring | Hours |
| SOC 101 (GEF 4) | 3 | ENGL 101 (GEF 1) | 3 |
| MATH 124 (GEF 3) | 3 | ANTH 105 (GEF 7) | 3 |
| WVUE 191 | 1 | Foreign Language | 3 |
| GEF 6 | 3 | GEF 2 | 3 |
| Foreign Language | 3 | GEF 5 | 3 |
| Elective | 2 | ||
| 15 | 15 | ||
| Second Year | |||
| Fall | Hours | Spring | Hours |
| CRIM 232 | 3 | ENGL 102 (GEF 1) | 3 |
| STAT 211 (GEF 8) | 3 | CJ 101 | 3 |
| GEF 2 | 3 | ANTH/SOC 200-level Elective | 3 |
| GEF 8 | 3 | GEF 8 | 3 |
| Elective | 3 | Elective | 3 |
| 15 | 15 | ||
| Total credit hours: 60 | |||
Major Learning Outcomes
Criminology
Upon successful completion of the A.A. degree, Criminology majors will be able to:
- Describe the social roots and implications of criminal behavior and the operation of the criminal justice system.
- Apply the theoretical and methodological tools of sociology to make sense of crime and social control in modern society.
- Distinguish between criminology’s sociological approach to crime and the related field of criminal justice, which emphasizes the procedural activities of criminal justice agencies.