The Criminal Justice baccalaureate program provides a combined training and education package to prepare men and women for a professional career in the criminal justice system.

Acceptance into the bachelors degree program (junior/ senior level) is on a competitive basis, as space permits.

The program provides two primary entry points: (1) to accommodate students who wish to complete all four years at Ferris; and (2) those who transfer into the program with an associate degree or its equivalent.

Students who enter the program prior to the junior level enroll in the Pre-Criminal Justice curriculum. Completion of the Pre-Criminal Justice program does not guarantee acceptance into the BS degree program. The BS degree in Criminal Justice is awarded for successful completion of 128-134 semester credit hours of coursework. These credit hours are a combination of the 63-64 credit hours as required in the first two years (or an equivalent from another college) and the 64-67 semester credit hours required in the junior and senior years at Ferris. Graduation requires a minimum 2.5 GPA for the law enforcement specialist option. Graduation in the criminal justice corrections and generalist options requires a minimum 2.0 GPA.

Graduates must complete all of Ferris general education requirements as outlined in the General Education section of this catalog, and have an ACT math subscore of 24, or complete MATH 115 or pass the proficiency exam.

The BS degree program at Ferris has three options: law enforcement specialist; criminal justice corrections; or criminal justice generalist. Depending upon the option chosen, students study criminal justice subjects such as administration of police units, police laboratory techniques, collection of evidence, the role of police in forming community opinion, cause and prevention of juvenile delinquency, theory and practice of handling convicted law violators, probation and parole, criminal justice processes and problems, crime control policy, and the role of law enforcement in American society.

During the summer internship between the junior and senior years, the student is assigned to a cooperating criminal justice agency for practical experience.