Graduate Certificate in Forensic Services

This 16-credit graduate certificate program is designed for criminal justice and mental health professionals. Our program provides a strong grounding in basic science, mental health counseling principles, and social theory, while at the same time offering practical skills and competencies in mental health and criminal justice, which will enable students to serve as effective professionals in a variety of social service environments where the problems of crime and mental illness intersect.

The program's emphasis on analysis and its interdisciplinary approach are strengthened by collaborations with other academic units: UMass Boston's undergraduate Criminal Justice Program, Department of Psychology, Graduate Program in Counseling, Department of Psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine.

Five three-credit courses and a one-credit field experience project
(students matriculated in Applied Sociology can substitute Soc. 698 for Soc. 598):

COUNSL 604: Foundations in Mental Health
PSYCH 614: Forensic Psychology
SOCIOL 598: Field Experience Project (1 credit)
SOCIOL 618: Psychiatric Epidemiology and Forensic Services
SOCIOL 623: Alcohol and Crime
SOCIOL 667: Sociology of Law

Applied Sociology students may use Forensic Services courses as their area of concentration even if they do not complete the Certificate requirements.

Read the Report on Program Alumni, 2004
This research was conducted by Kathleen Clark in Master's Research Paper,Spring, 2004, under the direction of Professor Stephanie Hartwell and Professor Russell K. Schutt.