Welcome

On behalf of the University of South Florida St. Petersburg and the Criminology faculty,
I welcome you! As a new student of the Criminology program, you will be one of over 100 majors—the second largest within the College of Arts & Sciences.  Our students are of primary concern to the faculty and staff here at USF St. Petersburg, as we aim to provide you with the highest quality instruction and supportive educational environment. We pride ourselves on our small class sizes. USFSP is a place "the world knows your degree and the professors know your name!"

The University of South Florida is one of Florida’s top three public institutions and is recognized by the Carnegie Foundation in the top tier of research universities.  You are part of the USF system.  Here at St. Petersburg, we offer a full complement of academic services and facilities, not to mention being located on one of the most beautiful campuses in the US.  There is also a wide range of extramural activities including a sports center and our waterfront, which houses our swimming pool and the USF sailing team.  During your time here, make sure you take advantage of all the experiences that the university can provide.

We offer courses in a wide variety of criminological areas including but not limited to crime analysis, crime prevention, crime, media, and pop culture, juvenile justice, gender and crime, drugs and crime, capital punishment, white collar crime and corrections. Additionally, we have a dynamic internship program that has tremendously benefited our students. Our goal is to provide students with valuable critical thinking, research, and writing skills that will make them better citizens and professionals.  

Criminology is a discipline that embraces scholarly, scientific, and professional knowledge concerning the etiology, prevention, control and treatment of crime and delinquency.  This includes the measurement and detection of crime, legislation and practice of criminal law, theory testing, policy analysis and program evaluation as well as the law enforcement, judicial and correctional systems. This field is by definition multidisciplinary and includes scholars from sociology, political science, psychology, public administration, law, statistics, geographic modeling and other areas.

Your Criminology faculty consists of well-respected researchers who have contributed to their field of expertise, both nationally and internationally.  Our backgrounds are in the social sciences, mainly from criminology, sociology, and political science.  We are dedicated to a liberal arts education, which will provide you many options upon graduation.  Our students have entered the workforce directly, while others have chosen to expand their education by pursuing graduate or law school.

Whichever route you decide to take, we hope that your years here at USFSP are productive ones that are filled with enthusiasm, success, and happiness.

We look forward to seeing you in class.

Dr. Jacqueline L. Schneider
Associate Professor & Director