Criminology

First-Year Applicants

All freshman applicants to Florida Southern Colleges full-time degree programs must submit the following information:

• A completed application form
• An official high school transcript
• SAT and/or ACT scores (unless applying Test-Optional)
• Academic recommendation

Transfer Applicants

Applying to Florida Southern as a transfer student is easy. Submit:

• A completed application form
• Personal statement
• All official college transcripts
• Social standing form

If transferring fewer than 24 credits, also include your official high school transcript and SAT/ACT scores.

Learn More about transfer admissions

International Applicants

Review all international admission requirements

Your coursework moves from the foundations of the justice system to advanced study of courts, corrections, and research. Along the way, you'll:

• Examine how race and culture shape the justice system, starting your first year
• Study policing, ethics, and the theories behind criminal and deviant behavior
• Explore victimology and the criminalization of mental illness
• Design and conduct your own research using statistics and social research methods
• Complete an internship and a senior research paper in the Seminar in Criminology

You'll visit correctional institutions, observe court proceedings, and connect with criminal justice professionals, preparing for careers in law enforcement, corrections, intelligence, law, social work, and graduate study.

The BA and BS in Criminology are both 124-credit-hour degrees built around a rigorous core in criminological theory, research methods, and the criminal justice system, supported by electives that allow students to specialize in areas of interest.

Research and Capstone

Every criminology major completes CRM 4999 Seminar in Criminology, the program's capstone course. Through readings, research, and class discussion, you'll examine pressing crime-related issues such as corporate, environmental, and political crime, violence, drugs, and prison overcrowding. You'll also write a senior paper on a topic of your choice: developing a research question, examining the literature on a specific crime or social issue, and recommending criminal justice reforms based on your findings.

Internship

Every criminology major completes a supervised internship in a criminal justice setting at the local, state, or federal level. Students choose their own internship site based on their interests and career aspirations. Recent students have interned everywhere from the Polk County Sheriff's Office and State Attorney's Office to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Criminology students at FSC are part of a passionate, socially engaged community of students and faculty. Get involved with:

• Deskovic Foundation Students in FSC's chapter of the Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice review court documents and case files to help determine whether a wrongfully convicted person should be granted a new trial.
• Criminology Club organizes service events, including toy drives to support children served by the Sheriff’s Department, and volunteer opportunities at organizations like Neighborhood Ministries and the Pace Center for Girls.
• Alpha Phi Sigma, the national criminal justice honor society

Criminology is the scientific study of crime — its causes, patterns, social context, and the policies designed to address it. Criminal justice focuses more on the systems and institutions that respond to crime: law enforcement, courts, and corrections. FSC’s Criminology program bridges both, giving students theoretical depth in the causes of crime alongside practical exposure to the criminal justice system through internships, field visits, and professional guest speakers.

Yes; it is one of the strongest. Criminology develops exactly the analytical, research, and writing skills that law school admissions committees look for, while giving students direct exposure to the legal system through courtroom observations, judicial processes coursework, and interactions with judges and attorneys. FSC graduates have gone on to law school and careers as prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judicial attorneys.

FSC Criminology graduates pursue careers as law enforcement officers, federal agents (Secret Service, DEA, U.S. Marshals, FBI), corrections officers, probation and parole officers, social workers, intelligence analysts, attorneys, policy analysts, and researchers. The degree also provides a strong foundation for graduate study in criminology, law, social work, and public policy.

FSC’s location between Tampa and Orlando and its proximity to the Polk County seat in Bartow give students access to internships at the local, state, and federal levels. Recent students have interned with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, the State Attorney’s Office, the Public Defender’s Office, the Florida State Attorney General’s Office, various nonprofit organizations, and the U.S. Department of Justice.

Yes — from their first semester. First-year students visit the Polk County Jail and the Emergency Communications Center through the Learning Community program. Students also go on ride-alongs with local law enforcement, tour correctional institutions, observe court proceedings, and hear directly from Secret Service agents, DEA officers, U.S. Marshals, judges, attorneys, and formerly incarcerated individuals. A supervised internship is also part of the degree.

Yes. Through a unique travel-study experience titled “An Examination of Crime, Deviance, and Culture in The Netherlands and Belgium,” students visit Amsterdam and Brussels to gain an international perspective on crime and its impact on society, examining how different cultures approach justice and deviance.

Yes. Every Criminology student completes an original research project through CRM 4420: Research Methods, presenting findings at the department’s end-of-term poster session. Outstanding projects have been presented at the Southwestern Social Science Association’s annual meeting, the longest-running social science conference in the United States, and many students have published their research in academic journals.

Both degrees share the same Criminology core curriculum. The BS emphasizes additional science and mathematics coursework, providing a stronger foundation for students planning graduate study or research-focused careers. The BA offers more elective flexibility for students combining Criminology with another discipline, such as political science, psychology, social work, or pre-law coursework.