DIRECTOR'S WELCOME

The School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University offers several exciting and dynamic undergraduate programs. Students can complete a major, a major with honours or a minor in criminology, as well as minors in legal and in police studies. We also offer diplomas and general and advanced certificates in criminology, forensic, legal, police, and correctional studies. Students can take joint majors that include psychology, sociology and anthropology, and gender, sexuality and women’s studies.

The School is one of the largest Schools of Criminology in the world so offers a variety of challenging courses. We have an interdisciplinary faculty with a wide range of research and teaching interests.  Faculty  backgrounds include law, psychology, biology, sociology, political science, social work, and geography.  Students are provided with an interdisciplinary understanding of the complexities of criminal and other deviant behaviour, society’s reaction to crime and justice, the operations of the criminal justice system, and key areas of law such as criminal law and the law relating to human rights.  Our program provides courses in the theoretical and practical aspects of the criminal justice system and its components together with opportunities for empirical studies.  Students can acquire a broad education in all aspects of criminology, or focus upon a specific area such as law, policing or corrections.

Criminology is a subject that is, and always will be, important in society and graduates have a wide range of career options ahead of them. Many of our students go on to law school or enter careers in areas such as policing, corrections, and social work.  Some decide to further their education through graduate studies. As well as traditional lecture and seminar courses, we also offer a range of special topics courses which change based upon student and faculty interests. Students can also pursue specific topics through directed readings courses, one on one with a faculty member. Our honours program allows top students to spend two terms doing their own original research into a topic of their choosing.

Criminology offers an exciting array of courses and career options. We are a large School with faculty who are teaching and conducting research in a vast array of exciting and leading edge areas. We have over 1000 majors and minors but with a large variety of courses and faculty and two student advisors we can still offer a personalized service to students. We invite anyone who is interested in the School to find out more by contacting one of our advisors.