Doctor of Criminal Justice
in Public Administration

This course examines current management issues within the criminal justice field. You will explore concepts and skills needed to address issues and problems confronting the criminal justice system. Issues such as the societal and cultural changes affecting criminal justice agencies will be examined. In addition, you will gain in-depth exposure to the application of theoretical and administrative principles.

In this course, students will analyze the internal organizational structure, roles and functions in criminal justice agencies. Students will examine the theoretical and research issues related to nature and causes of crime. Students will apply administrative and managerial concepts, and theories to demonstrate competencies in this area. Students will also learn to formulate policies for coordination and control procedures. Students will integrate theory and practice to evaluate best methods to improve overall performance of the agency.

This course provides a comprehensive review of ethics and moral behavior in criminal justice. The theoretical foundations of ethics will be introduced and applied to criminal justice practice. You will evaluate the ethical challenges faced by criminal justice professionals and the policies and practices in place to prevent unethical behavior. The ethical obligations in crime scene investigation, evidence handling, and testimony in court will also be addressed in this course.

In this course you will explore budget formulation, implementation, and execution within the context of public organizations and nonprofit or non-governmental entities. By the end of this course, you will be able to explain the craft of public budgeting, assess the tools used in the budgeting process, and depict the budget process for various levels of government. Finally, you will learn to evaluate capital public budgeting and asset management within the context of the public sector.

People who choose to work for the public good are often motivated by different incentives than employees in private organizations. There are specific challenges you will learn to navigate throughout this course including the assessment of external environmental changes related to politics and policy that influence public personnel administration. Additionally, you will learn to evaluate the legal and policy framework associated with public personnel management and to critique the practices and trends unique to public sector personnel administration. Finally, you will learn the various management strategies that enhance human capital in the public sector.

Strategic planning is necessary for effectively planning both current and future organizational goals of a criminal justice organization. This course will allow you to examine the tools and skills needed in the strategic planning process while understanding the importance of the planning process. This course will also strengthen your ability to analyze, develop, and implement strategic plans to achieve criminal justice goals for an organization as well as to assess and manage improvements for an organization in a specific geographical location. Several criminal justice agencies will be examined within the course to provide you with the widest perspective possible before you begin developing your own strategic planning documents.

In this course, you will engage in the process of scholarly literature reviews and academic writing. With an emphasis on how to (a) conduct effective literature searches, specifically in preparation for the dissertation, (b) develop a plan for writing comprehensive, critical, and synthesized reviews of research literature, and (c) critically review and write about underlying theory/conceptual frameworks, you will develop a foundation for future research. The overarching goal of this course is for you to conduct an exhaustive search of the peer-reviewed research literature in your topic area and identify potential areas of inquiry for your dissertation.

In this course, you will cultivate a statistical mindset through learning and nurturing skills needed to perform and interpret univariate inferential statistics. The course will facilitate building your statistical confidence in assessing and performing statistics. The course will cover univariate parametric and non-parametric statistical tests, interpretation of statistical output, and introduce skills needed to select statistical tests based on quantitative research questions.

During this course, as a scholar-practitioner, you will build the skills essential for designing quantitative studies; analyzing the data collected in these studies, and interpreting the results of data analyses. You will explore designs and statistical techniques to use with their envisioned dissertation research.

During this course, you will examine qualitative methods for studying human behavior including grounded theory, narrative analysis, ethnography, mixed methods, and case studies. You will explore designs and methodologies to use with your envisioned research.

The Pre-Candidacy Prospectus is intended to ensure you have mastered knowledge of your discipline prior to candidacy status and demonstrated the ability to design empirical research as an investigator before moving on to the dissertation research coursework. You will demonstrate the ability to synthesize empirical, peer-reviewed research to support all assignments in this course. The Pre-Candidacy Prospectus is completed only after all foundation, specialization, and research courses have been completed.

Students in this course will be required to complete Chapter 1 of their dissertation proposal including a review of literature with substantiating evidence of the problem, the research purpose and questions, the intended methodological design and approach, and the significance of the study. A completed, committee approved (against the minimum rubric standards) Chapter 1 is required to pass this course successfully. Students who do not receive approval of Chapter 1 to minimum standards will be able to take up to three supplementary 8-week courses to finalize and gain approval of Chapter 1.

Students in this course will be required to work on completing Chapters 1-3 of their dissertation proposal and receive committee approval for the Dissertation Proposal (DP) in order to pass the class. Chapter 2 consists of the literature review. Chapter 3 covers the research methodology method and design and to includes population, sample, measurement instruments, data collection and analysis, limitations, and ethical considerations. In this course, a completed, committee-approved Chapters 2 and 3 are required and, by the end of the course, a final approved dissertation proposal (against the minimum rubric standards). Students who do not receive approval of the dissertation proposal will be able to take up to three supplementary 8-week courses to finalize and gain approval of these requirements.

Students in this course will be required to prepare, submit, and obtain approval of their IRB application, collect data, and submit a final study closure form to the IRB. Students still in data collection at the end of the 12-week course will be able to take up to three supplementary 8-week courses to complete data collection and file an IRB study closure form.

In this dissertation course students work on completing Chapters 4 and 5 and the final Dissertation Manuscript. Specifically, students will complete their data analysis, prepare their study results, and present their findings in an Oral Defense and a completed manuscript. A completed, Committee approved (against the minimum rubric standards) Dissertation Manuscript and successful Oral Defense are required to complete the course and graduate. Students who do not receive approval for either or both their Dissertation Manuscript or defense can take up to three supplementary 8-week courses to finalize and gain approval of either or both items as needed.

In this course, you will explain issues and challenges in managing resources in public organizations while analyzing concepts and theories that are relevant to the practice of public and nonprofit organizations. You’ll also explore and assess the values that guide the practice of public administration and the challenges of ethical conduct as a public administrator working in a dynamic environment.

The country’s framers deliberately structured a constitutional republic to constrain the potential abuse of power through federalism and checks and balances. The growth of federal agencies and administrative law stress these notions of limited government. In this course, you’ll develop practical knowledge about administrative agencies and the laws that govern their behavior. Through a variety of case studies, you’ll examine and critique administrative law and its effect on government accountability and abuse of power.

The management of public sector organizations presents unique challenges to public administrators due to the nature of work done for the public good. In this course, you’ll learn to navigate the unique attributes of public organizations and the people who work within them. You’ll critique the principles and techniques of management and organizational behavior, assess the challenges of supervising public employees, and learn the levels of planning in public organizations.

The practice of public administration operates as part of the administration-policy dichotomy. In this course, you’ll develop the skills needed to analyze models of public policy and assess how participants and stakeholders in the policy process impact decision-making. You’ll learn to evaluate how court decisions shape public policy, and you’ll examine how the media influences the decisions of public administrators.