Criminal Justice majors must choose one of five concentrations: Corrections, Criminal Legal Studies, Forensics, Juvenile Justice, or Law Enforcement. Students should choose the concentration that most closely matches their eventual career interests. However, choosing a concentration in, for example, corrections, would not preclude an eventual career in, for example, law enforcement. We also offer minors in Criminal Justice and Forensics.
Course names and numbers vary from college to college. The tables below list the applicable courses from the colleges nearest to Stanislaus State. Please note that you are not required to complete all of these courses prior to transferring to Stanislaus State, but you may do so if you choose. If you are attending a California community college not listed here (or another CSU campus), you can refer to the CANs (California Articulation Numbers) of the courses on your campus to find the equivalents, or contact us. Note that the classes listed below are the only classes that will transfer from community colleges; even if a community college class has a title similar to one of our courses (e.g, Criminology), it will not fulfill our requirement.
Prerequisites to the Criminal Justice Major
- CJ 2240
- CJ 2255
- CJ 2280
- CJ 2250
- CJ 2270
- CJ 2450
Prerequisites to the Forensics Concentration (only Forensics students are required to take these classes)
- CHEM 1100
- MATH 1600
- BIOL 2310
- PSYC 2030
Students with the Forensics concentration are required to take Statistics. For students with other concentrations, Statistics is recommended but not required.
Our Forensics concentration offers a broad-based curriculum in the forensic sciences. It is intended for students who wish to pursue a career in field work, such as crime scene investigation. Students who wish to be criminalists (that is, to work in a crime lab, analyzing evidence) should major in Chemistry or Biology, and also choose the Forensics minor. Students who wish to specialize in other areas of Forensics, such as Forensic Anthropology or Forensic Psychology, should major in those areas, but may wish to minor in Criminal justice.
Some of the most common careers for our graduates include: law enforcement, probation, parole, correctional facilities, juvenile hall, group homes, social work, law school, coroners office, and graduate school. There are many other job opportunities as well.
We offer an occasional course online but we don't offer an online degree program.
Visit the web page for the Stanislaus State Student recruitment and Outreach office; you can find admissions information there. For information on graduate admission, you can go to the Graduate School page, and also visit our page on the CJ Masters Degree program.
Sure. Get campus visit information. To meet with a CJ professor, contact the department at (209) 667-3409
Updated: July 11, 2023