Our mission is to conduct and disseminate first-rate research on crime and justice, while providing outstanding teaching and serving our campus, community, and profession with the utmost distinction.

We strive to be a vibrant interdisciplinary department, promoting synergy among research, teaching, and service to our students and our respective fields of study.

The dynamism in our educational environment drives us to identify issues that form the basis of our scholarly productivity and its excellence. The following goals shape our efforts:

• Foster a collegial environment that celebrates our passion for learning
• Recruit, retain, and develop a diverse and exceptionally talented student body
• Provide high quality courses and other means of instruction that meet students’ needs
• Enable and promote new knowledge through disciplinary and interdisciplinary research
• Reach the highest standards of scholarship reflective of our university’s world-class status
• Embrace the opportunity to contribute each of our strengths to the evolving character of the discipline of criminal justice
• Nurture the commitment to making a difference in the world and to serving society
• Deepen our sensitivity to visible and invisible injustices
• Recognize our responsibilities to one another and facilitate our professional development

We will continue to build and maintain a first-rate, interdisciplinary educational program marked by a firm commitment to the liberal arts. Our goals contribute to our vision, building on the wide range of disciplinary training, teaching experience, scholarship, and the personal strengths of our faculty and students.