Program Overview

The School of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Texas State offers a doctoral program for:

1. criminal justice professionals who seek advanced education and
2. students who will pursue academic appointments at colleges and universities in Texas and around the nation.

Texas State is located in the heart of the central Texas corridor, near 16 state criminal justice offices and 13 Texas counties, including Travis (Austin) and Bexar (San Antonio). The university's geographic proximity to state criminal justice agency headquarters for law enforcement, criminal courts, and corrections, and to managers and executives in these agencies, makes it an ideal location for offering a doctoral-degree program.

The doctoral program is part of a vibrant school, with approximately 1000 bachelor's students and 30 master's students. Twenty-three full-time faculty members are involved in a wide range of research. A list of faculty and their research interests is available at http://www.cj.txstate.edu/people/faculty. The School of Criminal Justice and Criminology also administers a number of institutes and centers, including the Center for Geospatial Intelligence and Investigation and the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center (ALERRT).

Courses are offered in the evenings for the convenience of working professionals. Students are classified as either full-time (nine hours per term) or part-time. All students will be given the opportunity to initiate, complete, present, and publish original research. Each student develops an appropriate degree plan to meet their career and academic goals. The degree plan will include a mix of theoretical, analytical, and elective courses that will prepare students to work independently and in multidisciplinary teams.

It is expected that students will pursue their courses and research activities in an efficient and timely manner. If it is determined that a student is not making adequate progress toward completion of the doctoral degree requirements, consultations will be undertaken between the student, the student's dissertation chair (when applicable), the program director, and the School's doctoral executive council to develop a remediation plan, which may include revising a student's program of study or research. Failure to successfully remedy documented deviancies will result in termination of the student's enrollment in the doctoral program at the discretion of the doctoral executive council. Students removed from the doctoral program in this manner may appeal to the dean of The Graduate College for reinstatement in the program.

Educational Goal

The central educational goal of the Ph.D. program in criminal justice at Texas State is to prepare doctoral students to assume leadership roles in academic, public policy, and administrative positions within a rapidly changing criminal justice system. The Ph.D. program produces outstanding researchers who are qualified for academic positions and prepares practitioners to conduct research in criminal justice agencies. The school has developed a programmatic perspective that is sensitive to the importance of research skills, balanced with theoretically informed policy analysis, so that students can more effectively address the challenges in criminal justice in Texas and across the nation. Students gain expertise to apply statistically advanced research methodologies to conduct empirical studies in crime, law, public policy, and administration of the criminal justice system.

Other educational goals and objectives are to:

• Identify the theoretical perspectives and foundations of current research in the study of crime, law, and public policy decision-making undertaken by criminal justice agencies to assist law enforcement, court personnel, and corrections staff to plan, develop, and implement timely, efficient, and sound responses to crime.
• Apply precise, empirically validated, and tested research methods to investigate, analyze, and improve theory and policy to provide policy makers with the most current research and applicable technology to address emergent public safety growth areas.
• Communicate effectively to educate and inform professional managers and administrators of criminal justice agencies, their service personnel (e.g., police) and the community at-large about the ‘best practices’ for addressing the control of crime at the neighborhood, community, state, and national levels.
• Recognize ethical dilemmas and make ethically sound decisions to ensure that recommended criminal justice policy becomes a useful guide, if not benchmark procedure, for executives and heads of criminal justice agencies as they develop their strategic plans to address crime and public safety at the local, state, and national levels.

Apply a broad understanding of the legal and empirical elements of criminal justice administration in leadership positions to encourage current and future working professionals and executives in criminal justice agencies to incorporate more comprehensive training using the ‘best practices’ in leadership and management theory when developing, planning, and implementing policies that effect their own agencies and the surrounding communities they serve.

Financial Assistance

Assistantships and scholarships are available to qualified applicants. The School of Criminal Justice and Criminology offers doctoral instructional assistantships and teaching assistantships on a competitive basis to full-time students enrolled in the criminal justice Ph.D. program. An offer of financial support will normally be made at the time that a student is accepted into the program. The Graduate College can provide further information regarding scholarships.

Application Requirements

Application requirements consist of institutional and program requirements for applicable semesters of entry during the current academic year. Additional information and changes to admission requirements for semesters other than the current academic year can be found on The Graduate College's website.

Unless otherwise noted on The Graduate College program page, AI tools can only be used to correct spelling and grammar errors in application materials.

Institutional Requirements

Institutional requirements are the minimum standards for admission to any graduate program at Texas State. These include:

• Completed online application
• Nonrefundable application fee
  • Degree Programs (Doctoral and Master’s)
    • $55 fee, or
    • $90 for applications with international credentials
  • Post-Baccalaureate Programs (Certificate, Certification, Non-Degree, and Visiting)
    • $20 fee, or
    • $60 for applications with international credentials
• Official transcripts from each institution where course credit was granted. Final transcripts showing degree completion are required before the student may register for their second term of enrollment. 
• GPA requirements (a higher GPA may be listed in the Program Requirements)
  • Doctoral programs require a 3.00 overall GPA or a 3.00 GPA in your last 60 hours of undergraduate course work (plus any completed graduate courses).
  • Master’s and Specialist programs require a 2.75 overall GPA or a 2.75 GPA in your last 60 hours of undergraduate course work (plus any completed graduate courses).
  • Post-Baccalaureate programs require a 2.50 overall GPA or a 2.50 GPA in your last 60 hours of undergraduate course work (plus any completed graduate courses).
• Baccalaureate degree from a regionally accredited university. (Non-U.S. degrees must be equivalent to a four-year U.S. Bachelor’s degree. In most cases, three-year degrees are not considered. Visit our International FAQs for more information.)

Approved English Proficiency Exam Scores

Applicants are required to submit an approved English proficiency exam score that meets the minimum requirements below unless they have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher from a regionally accredited U.S. institution or the equivalent from a country on our exempt countries list. Some programs may restrict acceptable tests or require higher scores than the institutional scores; this will be noted in the Program Requirements.

• official TOEFL iBT scores required with a 78 overall if taken on or before January 21, 2026
• official TOEFL iBT scores required with a 4 overall if taken after January 21, 2026
• official PTE scores required with a 52 overall
• official IELTS (academic) scores required with a 6.5 overall and minimum individual module scores of 6.0
• official Duolingo scores required with a 110 overall
• official TOEFL Essentials scores required with an 8.5 overall
• official Texas State Intensive English Program score of 90% or higher in the highest-level course (level 5)

The institution does not offer admission if the scores above are not met.

 Program Requirements

• master's degree in criminal justice or a related field from a regionally accredited university
• minimum 3.5 GPA in all completed graduate course work
• statement of purpose describing the student’s personal history and life goals that are relevant to obtaining a doctoral degree
• three letters of recommendation indicating the student’s skills and capacity to be successful in the Ph.D. program
• GRE not required

Degree Requirements

The Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree with a major in Criminal Justice requires 51 semester credit hours. No grade earned below “B” on any course work may apply toward a Ph.D. degree in criminal justice at Texas State.

All doctoral students are required to enroll in CJ 7309 Proseminar during their second or third year to learn about the criminal justice discipline, teaching, publishing, grants and fellowships, writing dissertations, and post-doctoral employment. Doctoral students selected for teaching assistantships will be required to enroll in CJ 7301 Instructional Assistant Supervision during the first semester they teach.  

Course Requirements

Qualifying Examination 

All students take a qualifying examination one to two weeks after completion of their first year in the program. The qualifying examination integrates criminological theory, quantitative methods, and regression. The examination is graded by those professors who taught the first-year required courses or those in a pool who have previously taught the courses. One re-examination is offered at midsummer for those who fail. Students who fail the re-examination will be dismissed from the program.

Comprehensive Examination Requirements

All candidates for graduate degrees must pass one or more comprehensive examinations.

Advancement to Candidacy

Application for Advancement to Candidacy

Students can download the “Application for Advancement to Candidacy form” from The Graduate College website. The student should complete and sign the upper portion of the form and return it to the program director. When all requirements for admission to candidacy have been met (completion of course-work, a passing grade on the comprehensive examination, approval of dissertation chair and committee, and submission of an approved dissertation proposal), the program director will forward the Application for Advancement to Candidacy form to the dean of The Graduate College for review and approval.

The dean of The Graduate College approves advancement to candidacy once all requirements are met and at the recommendation of the program director.

In addition, before advancement to candidacy, students are required to complete the following:

1. Completion of all courses toward the doctoral degree with a GPA of 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale.
2. Passing grade on the comprehensive examination. "Pass" is the only satisfactory grade.

3. The student must select a dissertation chair, and that chair must be approved by the doctoral executive council. The student also must select a dissertation committee comprised of three additional members of the doctoral faculty, one of whom must be an external member from outside the School of Criminal Justice of Texas State University.

4. The student must choose a topic with the approval of the student’s dissertation advisor and committee.
5. The student will submit a title and a written proposal for the dissertation to the student’s dissertation committee and successfully defend the proposal in an oral presentation with the dissertation committee. The proposal will include a statement of the problem to be studied, a discussion of the relevant literature, and the research method of the proposed dissertation topic.
6. The program director will make a recommendation to the graduate dean who makes the final decision on the student’s advancement to candidacy. The Graduate College will notify the student once the decision has been made.

Advancement to Candidacy Time Limit

Full-time, traditional students should be advanced to candidacy within five years of initiating Ph.D. course-work applied toward the degree. Non-traditional, part-time students may request extensions from the Doctoral Executive Council as long as they maintain a GPA of 3.0 and are making consistent progress toward fulfilling their degree requirements. The Doctoral Executive Council will review part-time students’ requests for extensions on an individual, case-by-case basis.

No credit will be applied toward a student’s doctoral degree for course-work completed more than five years before the date on which the student is admitted to candidacy. This time limit applies to course credit earned at Texas State, as well as course credit transferred to Texas State from other accredited institutions.

Grade-Point Requirements for Advancement to Candidacy

A minimum GPA of 3.0 on all course work undertaken as a doctoral student in the criminal justice program is required for admission to candidacy. No grade earned below “B” on any course work may apply toward a Ph.D. degree in criminal justice at Texas State.

Incomplete grades must be cleared through The Graduate College at least ten days before approval for advancement to candidacy will be granted.

Dissertation Proposal

A dissertation proposal prepared by the student and approved by the student’s dissertation chair and a majority of the other members of the dissertation committee is a requirement for Advancement to Candidacy status. The proposal must outline the substance and scope of the dissertation research, present the methodology to be used, and survey the relevant literature. The student’s dissertation chair and other dissertation committee members must indicate approval of the dissertation proposal on the “Dissertation Proposal and Proposal Defense” form. This form can be downloaded from The Graduate College website. A final copy of the dissertation proposal, accompanied by the signed approval form, must be turned in to the program director, who will forward it to the dean of The Graduate College for review and final approval.

Advancement to Candidacy Comprehensive Examination

The comprehensive exam involves completion of an empirical research project (with data analysis) and a single-authored article about it (not to exceed 6,000 words, excluding references) that, in the examination committee's view, is suitable for publication in a refereed journal. The purpose of the comprehensive exam is to assess a student's ability to critically assess previous research on a topic, develop a research question on it, and complete independent research to address the question. Students need to disclose to the examining committee if the article originated in a class or if there are other potential conflicts with it.

The examining committee is comprised of a chair and two other members. All must be members of the doctoral faculty, and the chair must be a member of the Core Doctoral Faculty. The chair is chosen by the student, and the other two committee members are chosen at random by the Doctoral Program Director from a list of doctoral faculty members. A form with the committee's composition must be filed with Doctoral Program Director when the committee is constituted. The committee must be constituted no later than when a student has completed 27 hours of doctoral coursework. The committee must approve the topic for a student's article, and a written description of the topic will be distributed to all members of the doctoral faculty. The examining committee's assessment of the student's article will be based on: (1) the quality of the research question, (2) the appropriateness of the methods and data analysis, (3) the adequacy of the articles connection to previous research, (4) the appropriateness of the interpretations of the data analysis, and (5) the quality of writing. A simple majority vote (2 of 3) is sufficient for deciding a grade. After completing 27 hours of coursework, a student can submit an article to their committee for grading. A student has until the semester after, they have completed 39 hours of doctoral coursework to receive a passing grade on an article. If a passing grade is not achieved by this point, the student will be dismissed from the program. Articles can be submitted for grading to the examining committees during the first three weeks of the fall semester or the first three weeks of spring semester.

The examining committee will have graded a submitted article within three weeks of receiving it. The grade options are "pass", "fail", and "revise and resubmit." If a student's article is assigned a "revise and resubmit," the student will have one semester to submit a revised version in order to receive a passing grade. The chair of the student's committee will summarize in writing what changes need to be considered in the revision for a "pass." If a student's article is assigned a "fail," the student will have one semester to submit an article on a new topic and receive a passing grade for it. The chair of the student's committee will explain in writing reasons for the failure. The same three graders will be used for an article that is assigned a "revise and resubmit." A student can select a new committee chair for a "failed" article, and two new committee members will be assigned by the Doctoral Program Director. In the event that a student's second resubmission of an article is assigned a "fail," the student will be dismissed from the program.

Full-time, traditional students are expected to pass their comprehensive examination by the end of their third year. For non-traditional, part-time students, the three years can be extended on an individual, case-by-case basis. However, extensions will require the approval of the doctoral council.

Recommendation for Advancement to Candidacy

The program director recommends the applicant for Advancement to Candidacy. Students must submit an official "Application for Advancement to Candidacy" form when all requirements are met (completion of coursework, a passing grade on the comprehensive examination, approval of dissertation chair/committee, and submission of an approved dissertation proposal). This form can be downloaded from the Graduate College website. The results of the comprehensive examination and the completed Application for Advancement to Candidacy form must be filed in the Graduate College before the dean of The Graduate College gives final approval to candidacy. The Program director is responsible for submitting these forms to The Graduate College.

Dissertation Research and Writing

All doctoral students are required to complete a dissertation. The dissertation must present a systematic inquiry into a relevant research question, be informed by prior research, and add to the body of knowledge in the field. In most cases, the research will be quantitative in nature, although qualitative or legal research may be utilized in some cases. It is expected that the dissertation will provide the content for one or more publishable articles in academic journals.

Students are required to complete the following dissertation requirements:

1. The student will complete the dissertation, which must be an original contribution to scholarship and the result of independent research in a significant area of criminal justice. The student is expected to write the dissertation and orally defend it in an announced public presentation within three years of the official date of being advanced to candidacy. Questions posed to the student are initially limited to the dissertation committee membership. However, at the discretion of the presiding chair and when time permits, questions will also be solicited from the attending public audience. The approval of the dissertation requires the approval of the dissertation chair and the approval of a majority of the other members of the committee. A written notice of the dissertation committee’s approval will be forwarded to the program director and then to the graduate dean.
2. If the dissertation committee decides not to approve the candidate’s dissertation, the dissertation chair will prepare a written response to the doctoral executive council, accounting for the decision and outlining the steps required for approval. These steps will also be communicated to the candidate.
3. The student will submit the final, approved dissertation to The Graduate College in the prescribed format.
4. The program director will conduct a final review of the coursework and recommendation from the student’s dissertation committee before making a recommendation to the graduate dean that the student be awarded the Ph.D. degree with a major in criminal justice. The graduate dean will certify that the student has met all of the requirements and can be awarded the degree.

Dissertation Enrollment Requirements

After being admitted to candidacy, students must be continuously enrolled for dissertation hours each term until the defense of their dissertation. If a student is receiving supervision on the dissertation during the summer or the student is graduating during the summer, the student must be enrolled in dissertation hours for the summer. All candidates for graduation must be enrolled in dissertation hours during the semester in which the degree is to be conferred. Students must complete a minimum of 12 semester hours of dissertation credit.

Dissertation Time Limit

It is expected that the dissertation will, in most cases, be completed in two terms of concentrated effort and in no more than six terms. Students must appeal to the doctoral executive council for an extension beyond six terms. The student must pass an oral defense of their dissertation before final completion of the doctoral program.

Dissertation Committee

The dissertation committee will oversee the research progress of a doctoral student and the writing of the student's dissertation. The committee will consist of at least four members, including the student's dissertation chair and three additional members of the doctoral faculty, one of whom must be an external member from outside the School of Criminal Justice of Texas State University. The student's dissertation chair will be a member of the core doctoral faculty in the School of Criminal Justice. The student, program director, school director, and the dean of The Graduate College will approve the composition of dissertation committee. The student is responsible for obtaining committee members' signatures on the "Dissertation/Research Advisor Assignment form: and the "Dissertation Committee Request form" which can be downloaded from the Graduate College website.

Dissertation Defense

The dissertation defense may not be scheduled until all other academic and program requirements have been fulfilled. A complete draft of the dissertation must be given to the members of the dissertation committee at least 65 days before the date of commencement during the term in which the student intends to graduate. After committee members have reviewed the draft with the student and provided comments, the student, in consultation with the dissertation chair, will incorporate the recommended changes into a second draft of the dissertation. When each committee member is satisfied that the draft dissertation is defendable, the dissertation defense may be scheduled.

The student is expected to orally defend the dissertation in an announced public presentation within three years of the official date of being advanced to candidacy. Questions posed to the student are initially limited to the dissertation committee. However, at the discretion of the dissertation chair and when time permits, questions will also be solicited from the attending public audience. The approval of the dissertation requires the approval of the dissertation chair and the approval of a majority of the other members of the committee. A written notice of the dissertation committee’s approval will be forwarded to the program director, and then to the dean of The Graduate College. Specific information on the examination procedure can be found in the School of Criminal Justice Ph.D. Handbook or obtained from the doctoral director.

Approval and Submission of the Dissertation

Following approval of the dissertation by the members of the dissertation committee, the student must submit one copy of the dissertation and a signed "Thesis/Dissertation Committee Approval form" to the office of The Graduate College for final approval. Specific guidelines for approval and submission of the dissertation can be obtained from The Graduate College. 

Doctoral level courses in Criminal Justice: CJ

Courses Offered

Criminal Justice (CJ)