Doctor of Philosophy in Criminology

The Ph.D. program in criminology is designed around a highly interdisciplinary approach from a variety of academic disciplines in addition to traditional criminology: public health, biology, sociology, demography, law, statistics and others. Applied training and traditional academic training are represented. The faculty in the Department come from a number of disciplines and students are also encouraged to take courses outside of the department. A key feature of the program for Ph.D. students is that they are encouraged to construct their own mix of graduate courses to properly inform their interests.

Program Features

• Admission is directly into the Ph.D. program.
• Students can earn an MA degree as a way station to the Ph.D. after two years of course work with a B average or better.
• Soon after arriving, each student selects a mentor and with the mentor, the graduate chair and one other member of the graduate group, designs a hand-tailored curriculum. That curriculum will include several “core” courses taken in the first year. The proposed curriculum can be revisited and revised as needed.
• There is a “comprehensive exam” designed by the student, the mentor and at least one other member of the graduate group. The exam can take a variety of forms depending on what seems most appropriate. For example, it could be a traditional written examination, an oral presentation, or one or more review papers meant to synthesize areas in criminology and/or related fields. The paper(s) could draw from the material already covered in course work and additional readings to broaden and deepen coverage. Ideally, a significant part of this work will serve as a literature review for the dissertation.
• The Ph.D. dissertation can be a single document or a set of several published papers consistent with the rules of the Graduate Division of the School of Arts and Sciences.
• The Ph.D. program conforms to the course load and time-to-degree requirements of the Graduate Programs in the School of Arts and Sciences.

Graduate Group Faculty
(All members may serve as the chair of a dissertation committee.)

Dr. Paul D. Allison Dr. Richard A. Berk Dr. Stephanos Bibas Dr. Robert F. Boruch Dr. Charles L. Bosk Dr. Randall Collins Dr. Martha J. Farah Dr. Frank F. Furstenberg Jr. Dr. Richard James Gelles Dr. Marie Gottschalk

Dr. William S. Laufer Dr. John M. Macdonald Dr. Stephen J. Morse Dr. Therese Richmond Mr. Paul H. Robinson Dr. Charles William Schwab Dr. Lawrence W. Sherman Dr. Barry G. Silverman Dr. Susan Sorenson

Core Courses

Ph.D. students are required to take seven "core" courses, six in the first two years. The course requirements are defined by subject matter. A given requirement may sometimes be fulfilled by any one of several offered courses. Students are encouraged to finish the core courses rapidly so that they can proceed quickly to their more specialized training and research.

First or Second Year:
1. Criminology Theory --- a survey course covering relevant theory up to the present (two semesters)
2. Criminology and Public Policy --- applications of criminology to policy matters (two semesters)
3. Applied Statistics --- a mix of statistical theory and applications in which data analysis skills are acquired (two semesters)

Second or Third Year:
1. Dissertation Seminar --- students are asked to consider and present initial work on their dissertations (one semester).

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