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 and social theory, while at the same time offering practical skills and competencies in mental health and criminal justice. This enables 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, the Department of Psychology, the Graduate Program in Counseling, and the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine.

Course requirements: Five three-credit courses and a one-credit field experience project
(students matriculated in Applied Sociology can substitute Sociol 698 for Sociol 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

Read the Report on Forensic Services 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.