Certificate in Paralegal at American National University

Inequality and injustice are powerful and harmful forces in society, but they are often invisible to us. The Social Justice minor arms students with both extensive knowledge about these forces, and the skills needed to combat them in the United States and throughout the world. Core issues you will explore include the nature of social inequality (e.g., racial, ethnic, class, gender, sexual orientation, immigration status, etc.) that exist within systems of criminal justice, law, education, employment, health care, media, family, and human relationships and the competing interpretations of the causes of, and solutions to, inequality.

Northeastern Illinois University’s Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Justice Studies program gives students the opportunity to examine the social and historical roots of justice, crime, and the law. Students seek to discover how these roots have shaped public policies, including those of the criminal justice system, and study systematic explanations for the failure—or triumph—of justice in society and explore the potential for transformative justice.

Through critical inquiry, social science investigation, and experiential learning, Justice Studies students develop an understanding of social and economic justice issues and critical criminology. For instance, criminology examines the structural roots of crime and takes up the legal and social concerns of diverse, urban, low-income, and disenfranchised communities, whose members are often heavily targeted by the criminal justice system.

Criminologists investigate the causes, consequences and reactions to crime – and this course gives you experience of designing, analysing and evaluating criminal justice and crime control strategies.

With an interesting and varied curriculum, this programme has a very strong emphasis on applied knowledge and job market skills. This course is intended to create sophisticated criminological practitioners, able to navigate the realities of criminal justice and crime control, with superior experience, skills and knowledge of how to think, act and reflect criminologically.