Welcome to the Department of Criminology

The American Society of Criminology describes criminology as addressing the "etiology, prevention, control, and treatment of crime and delinquency. This includes the measurement and detection of crime, legislation, the practice of criminal law, as well as a review of the law enforcement, judicial, and correctional systems."

The Department of Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania extends this characterization to include the study of a wide range of victims and actors with research from a host of related disciplines, including public health, statistics, psychology, epidemiology, sociology, law, and the neurosciences. The University of Pennsylvania has the longest continuous program of research and teaching in criminology of any American university, with a rich history, strong tradition, and distinguished group of alumni.

Today, Penn offers an interdisciplinary undergraduate major in Criminology, a unique professional M.S. in Criminology, a mentored one-year research M.A. in Criminology, and a Ph.D. program for a highly select group of students, as well as a wide-ranging research program under the affiliated Jerry Lee Center Criminology.