Guided by its outstanding faculty, Boston University’s Metropolitan College (MET) plays a unique and essential role in connecting BU to the wider world of professional achievement and academic application. Throughout its history, BU MET has empowered nontraditional students, who are often employed full-time, to advance in their accomplishments, build on their strengths and demonstrated abilities, and develop in their personal and professional lives, thanks to the aid and guidance of its instructors and online course facilitators.
As a case in point, take the criminal justice programs at Metropolitan College. BU MET has offered criminal justice education since 1973, and over that significant stretch of time has made a positive impact on the lives of countless individuals, thanks to deeply committed criminal justice faculty who share students’ passion for substantial criminal justice issues—particularly in matters of policing best practices, cybercrime, the judicial system, reform, and corrections. As part of the Department of Applied Social Sciences, the Master of Science in Criminal Justice (MSCJ) at BU MET—available on campus and online—offers a relevant, cutting-edge curriculum and provides the tools to establish evidence-based policies and institute best practices in degree concentration areas such as Crime Analysis, Cybercrime Investigation & Cybersecurity, and Strategic Management. Since 2015, BU MET’s online MSCJ has been ranked among the top 4 Best Online Master’s in Criminal Justice Programs, according to U.S. News & World Report.
The BU Advantage: Earn Your MSCJ Degree from a Top Institution
Founded in 1839, Boston University today is internationally recognized as a top institution of higher learning and research. The University’s 17 schools and colleges offer more than 250 undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, and special degree programs, along with the resources of 21 libraries and over 100 academic centers and institutes. With more than 35,000 students from all 50 states and 140 countries—and more than 390,000 living alumni—Boston University is the fourth-largest independent university in the United States.
For over half a century, BU’s Metropolitan College has brought the scholarly rigor and resources of an internationally respected research university to busy, working adults via innovative, part-time programs. BU MET offers more than 70 graduate and undergraduate degree and certificate programs evenings on campus, online, and in blended formats designed to meet the needs of both the local and global professional community. A laboratory and incubator for new programs, pedagogy, and educational technologies, BU MET ensures that students have access to cutting-edge facilities and the latest learning tools—as well as the opportunity to build networks with classmates and industry peers.
Metropolitan College students have access to Boston University’s array of valuable academic and social resources, such as the Center for Career Development, Education Resource Center, Fitness & Recreation Center, IT Help Centers, Mugar Memorial Library, Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, Center for Antiracist Research, Initiative on Cities, Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground, George Sherman Union, and many others.
When you study at BU MET, you participate in an exciting exchange of ideas—a spirit of innovation that reaches far beyond the classroom into the global arena. You’re connecting to students and faculty from around the world, engaging in new perspectives, fresh challenges, and novel solutions. Plus, you graduate with a degree from Boston University—a trusted credential that adds great value to your résumé.
The Flexibility Advantage: Top Criminal Justice Education That Fits Your Needs
With classes held evenings on campus, online, and in a versatile and responsive Learn from Anywhere (LfA) format, BU MET grants access to an education at a globally renowned, leading research university via part-time or full-time study.
The eight-course Master of Science in Criminal Justice (MSCJ), which has optional concentrations in Crime Analysis, Cybercrime Investigation & Cybersecurity, and Strategic Management can be completed in as few as 8 months of full-time study, or 16 months of part-time study. For those who wish to build toward a degree—but perhaps are not in a position to commit to the full program right away—there are several four-course graduate certificate programs that can serve as building blocks to the master’s degree. Each certificate shares specific courses with the MSCJ program and its concentrations, giving you the option to obtain one or two certificates on your path to a master’s degree. Note that you must apply for admission and be accepted into the degree program in order to be eligible to earn the master’s.
The MSCJ Online Advantage: Ranked Top 4 since 2015
Our master’s degree in criminal justice had the distinction of becoming Boston University’s first fully online program in 2002. Thanks to our engaging teaching model, continuous innovation, rigorous quality control, and a deep commitment to providing support services for students, BU MET’s online master’s degree in criminal justice has been ranked among the top 4 Best Online Master’s in Criminal Justice Programs each year since 2015 (U.S. News & World Report).
- State-of-the-Art Technology: Each course provides an exciting and interactive online environment that incorporates simulations, video, audio, multimedia, and group activities such as discussion boards.
- Student Support Services: Online students participate in an orientation class, and have access to professional, dedicated, and knowledgeable support staff who provide prompt and attentive assistance from application through graduation.
- 15:1 Class Ratio: Each online course is divided into sections limited to 15 students and led by an online course facilitator, who serves as a link between faculty and students and provides online support with course-related questions. Facilitators are often program alumni and practitioners in the criminal justice field. Read an interview with course facilitator Danny Dixon (MET’04).
- Accessibility: Course content is available online, providing you access to the learning materials you need 24/7.
- Career Resources: Along with “Handshake,” BU’s online hub for career resources available to students and program alumni worldwide, you have access to Smarthinking™, which provides review for résumés, cover letters, and career writing, as well as live interview practice and coaching.
- Global Network: In the online classroom, students are able to network with a global community of criminal justice professionals.
The Practical Advantage: Hands-On Education You Can Put to Work
Emphasizing useful, insightful, and adaptable knowledge, MET’s criminal justice curriculum develops practical skills that can be immediately applied on the job while informing your career growth for years to come.
Our experienced criminal justice faculty ensure that you have the tools to establish evidence-based policies and institute best practices in your organization. The latest case studies, hands-on projects, and an emphasis on collaborative classrooms ensure an active learning environment, providing a sturdy foundation for successful outcomes.
“We think of it as a professional education,” Applied Social Sciences Chair and Criminal Justice Assistant Professor Shea Cronin says. “What we try to do is not only advance theoretical knowledge, but we also try to impart important skills that our students can bring back to their workplace.”
BU MET is even relied upon to upskill law enforcement in key sectors. The Cybercrime Investigation & Cybersecurity (CIC) program is backed by grant funding from the US Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) aimed at helping departments and criminal justice professionals improve their understanding and command of computer forensics and digital evidence. As CIC Director and Professor of the Practice Kyung-shick Choi explains, his experience is a key benefit for his students. “Since I do a lot of work with field officers, and on federal projects, I know what professionals expect in the field,” he says.
The Networking Advantage: Make Connections in the Criminal Justice Field
Whether through mentorship, networking opportunities, or the potential to collaborate on meaningful research efforts, Metropolitan College faculty share in your investment for progress and can help you find opportunities to go beyond the classroom and develop real, demonstrated expertise—key traits sought by hiring professionals and superiors.
BU MET students of criminal justice come from all walks of life and comprise an intricate network of organizations. This diversity of experience enriches the on-campus and online classrooms, inspiring discussion and debate along with a unique opportunity to form valuable, long-lasting connections across the criminal justice field. Whether you are pursuing or enhancing a criminal justice career, planning for a doctoral program, or considering entry to the teaching profession, BU MET’s criminal justice programs will give you the foundation to navigate difficult issues, improve your practice, and open new possibilities for your future.
Importantly, as a graduate student, you will find exciting opportunities to collaborate with faculty on research projects, conference presentations, journal articles, and much more.
- Prepped for a PhD: Katherine Limoncelli (MET’17) Credits BU MET Faculty for Support, Research Skills
The Financial Advantage: Reasonable Part-Time Tuition Rates & Financial Assistance
Boston University’s tuition rates for graduate students studying part-time (up to 11.5 credits per semester) are substantially lower than those of the traditional, full-time residential programs yet provide access to the same high-quality BU education. Learn more about current tuition rates.
Metropolitan College’s Graduate Financial Aid office offers comprehensive financial assistance for graduate students. A variety of lending options include:
- Scholarships
- Graduate Assistantships
- Employer Tuition Reimbursement
- Military & Veterans Benefits
- Loans
The Leadership Advantage: Engage in Real-World Law Enforcement Solutions with Faculty across Disciplines of Criminology, Strategy & Reform
The richest value students draw from BU MET is the commitment of our faculty, who each bring to the classroom a unique combination of scholarship and applied industry experience. This hands-on expertise, developed both inside and outside academia, is a transformative resource available to students.
When you study criminal justice at BU MET, you benefit from impassioned and engaged faculty who are dedicated to providing future leaders with critical insight and practical perspectives. With full-time professors steeped in active research and part-time educators engaged with emerging practices in the field, BU MET’s criminal justice faculty bring to the classroom lessons pulled directly from the real world—ensuring that you benefit from the most up-to-date insight from relevant case studies, approaches, and learnings.
Meet the BU MET Criminal Justice Faculty
Shea Cronin
Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice; Chair, Applied Social Sciences
PhD, American University; BS, Northeastern University
Assistant Professor Shea Cronin is a champion of the powerful role data can play in law enforcement and criminological assessments.
Dr. Cronin is an expert in the areas of crime policy and administration, and he teaches courses in criminology and crime policy, policing, and crime analysis and evaluation methods. His work has been published in the Journal of Urban Health, Journal of Crime and Justice, Justice Quarterly, and Crime & Delinquency. His research, which has included quantitative studies on firearms trafficking and firearms homicide, police strategies, organizations, and policy implementation, often draws conclusions and makes recommendations based on large sets of data.
Among recent research projects, including serving as a co-investigator on a National Institute of Justice grant examining the impact of state firearm laws on homicide rates disaggregated by race and ethnicity, Dr. Cronin co-authored a study published in the Journal of the National Medical Association that found correlations between racial housing segregation and gun-violence homicide rates.
Professor Cronin teaches Crime and Intelligence Analysis (MET CJ 612), a required course in MET’s crime analysis programs. Here, students become familiarized with the data-driven techniques contemporary law enforcement agencies use to inform and develop effective responses to criminal activity.
“Every criminal justice agency talks about data-driven approaches,” he explains. “A capacity to work with data and understand the ways it can inform decisions is essential.”
Data, Cronin holds, is always an asset. Asked to comment on a 2017 AP review of the stubbornly high rates at which minorities are subject to stop-and-frisk searches by Boston Police, Cronin attested that even limited data sets can help lead to better evaluations and decision-making within law enforcement organizations, helping managers drill down on whether specific officers, units, or shifts use such tactics most often. As an instructor, Cronin seeks to help his students develop the skills they need to provide solutions through intelligence.
“A capacity to work with data and understand the ways it can inform decisions is essential.”
MET Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice Shea Cronin
Dr. Shea Cronin on Racial Segregation and Gun Violence Study
“Practitioners in operations, investigations, management, and leadership need to be fluent in what opportunities there are to bring quality data to bear on their problems, as well as the limitations inherent in such approaches,” Dr. Cronin says.
Kyung-shick Choi
Professor of the Practice; Director, Cybercrime and Cybersecurity
PhD, Indiana University of Pennsylvania; MS, Boston University; BS, Northeastern University
When MET Director of Cybercrime and Cybersecurity Kyung-shick Choi considers the program he helped develop at BU, he frames its importance in historic terms.
“We are in the midst of a fourth industrial revolution,” Dr. Choi, who researches the intersection of human behavior and technology, contends. “The first industrial revolution was the machine age, utilizing steam engines for mechanical production. The mass production paradigm using electricity was the second industrial revolution, whereas the use of internet technology served as the third industrial revolution.”
The current, fourth industrial revolution, Choi explains, is using cyber-physical systems. “This is the age of global connectivity, providing the power to transform entire systems of production, management, and governance through the cyber-physical system.”
“We are in the midst of a fourth industrial revolution. This is the age of global connectivity, providing the power to transform entire systems of production, management, and governance through the cyber-physical system.”
MET Director of Cybercrime and Cybersecurity Kyung-shick Choi
Dr. Choi designed and oversees the MSCJ concentration and certificate in Cybercrime Investigation & Cybersecurity, offered jointly by the Department of Applied Social Sciences and Department of Computer Science. He describes the study of cybercriminology in plain terms as “the way human behavior and technology interact with criminal justice systems.”
His research has largely been rooted in applying the principles of routine activity theory, which examines the environments that lead to crime and lawlessness in the online world. In 2008, he introduced the Cyber-Routine Activities Theory, which has since become a widely recognized framework through which cybercrime and computer crime victimization are considered.
Choi has presented findings and led discussions at international security conferences in Singapore, South Korea, and Colombia, and provided expert testimony on how to mitigate and combat cybercrime to the Massachusetts State House.
“My passion for studying cybercrime always energizes my teaching,” Dr. Choi says. “I’m fascinated with understanding cybercrime issues. It is a challenging area of study which sparks the curiosity.”
Part of the challenge is that emerging cybersecurity methodologies in the field require an interdisciplinary perspective.
“Although many universities are focusing on cybersecurity issues, very few programs offer an interdisciplinary approach, combining criminal justice and cybersecurity—which is crucial to minimizing the incidents of cybercrime,” Choi says.
MET a Professor: Dr. Kyung-shick Choi
In 2009, the Korean Institute of Criminology, in cooperation with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), invited Choi to facilitate the UN’s Virtual Forum against Cybercrime (VFAC) as an instructor. His work has appeared in numerous criminal justice journals, and his books include Cybercriminology and Digital Investigation (LFB Scholarly Publishing, October 2015), Risk Factors in Computer Crime (LFB Scholarly Publishing, August 2010), and The Foundations of Statistics in Criminology and Criminal Justice (Cognella Academic Publishing, August 2020).
In 2020, Choi was appointed chair of the American Society of Criminology’s Division of Cybercrime.
Danielle Rousseau
Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice
PhD, Northeastern University; MA, University of Denver; BA, University of Vermont
Few social justice researchers or criminal justice practitioners are as hands-on, practical, supportive, and passionate about their subject as Assistant Professor Danielle Rousseau. A licensed therapist and certified yoga teacher, Dr. Rousseau’s expertise lay at the intersection of mental health and criminal justice, and she has significant experience as a crisis response and victim advocacy specialist.
For Rousseau, it is the tactile nature of criminal justice that makes her work meaningful. “Our field of study is exciting because of its applied nature and the capacity to bring the real world into the classroom. What we do has the potential to have significant impact every day,” she says.
Dr. Rousseau’s research, teaching, and practice focus on justice, trauma, gender, mental health, and mindfulness. “I consider myself an advocate of integrative, holistic approaches that support embodied self-care and resilience,” she says. “I am a certified yoga teacher and do a lot of work in supporting empirically based strategies and best practices for using embodied mindfulness approaches as a complementary treatment approach.”
Through her organization, Yoga 4 Change, Rousseau’s grant-funded research develops, implements, and evaluates an opioid-specific yoga and mindfulness curriculum. “Yoga 4 Change’s work offers a novel, low-cost, healthy way to treat trauma and improve mental and physical health by integrating physical movement with thematic teachings,” Rousseau says. “These teachings are specifically developed for individuals who have experienced trauma.
“I consider myself an advocate of integrative, holistic approaches that support embodied self-care and resilience.”
MET Assistant Professor Danielle Rousseau
Rousseau has long held interest in yoga and mindfulness as complementary tools for healing.
“Before coming to BU, I worked as a therapist in correctional facilities and served communities doing crisis response and victim advocacy,” Rousseau explains. “Working with individuals in crisis, especially in settings such as prisons, I saw the incredible power of breath as a tool in calming the stress response that regulates our autonomic nervous system.”
“There is a growing amount of literature on the benefits of yoga and mindfulness in helping to support health and well-being. We use this literature, including experiential and empirical data, as our foundation,” she explains. “Our curriculum is rooted in the extant literature on both addiction and alternative approaches to treatment.”
Rousseau’s work has found many positive outcomes, including improvements to health and sleep, coping skills, emotional regulation, anger management, decreased anxiety, and post-traumatic growth. As research opportunities grow, she sees potential for eventual cost reduction in healthcare systems via mindfulness programming. “I also encourage students to pursue their research interests, and invite students to join me in my current research pursuits. I enjoy collaborating with students,” she says.
When teaching Trauma and Crisis Intervention (MET CJ 720), Forensic Behavior Analysis (MET CJ 725), Criminology and Crime Policy (MET CJ 570), and Research and Evaluation Methods (MET CJ 590), Dr. Rousseau challenges her BU MET students to think critically and become justice advocates. To do this, she structures her assignments such that they are practical, and encourages her classes to better understand the justice system, question injustice, and think about policy implications.
Rousseau has seen work published in many academic journals and texts, including Journal of Gender, Race & Justice, the Law and Society Review, and the Annals of the Academy of Political and Social Sciences. Her most recent publication is Yoga and Resilience: Empowering Practices for Survivors of Sexual Trauma.
As an instructor and professor, what Dr. Rousseau seeks to inspire in her criminal justice students more than anything is their own sense of passion and direction.
“Be engaged and think critically. Take an active role in your education. And, above all, do what sets your soul on fire,” she says. “When you do what you are passionate about, it does not feel like work. For me, that involves living in service and empowering others, advocating for equal access to justice, and combating the many wounds of trauma.”
Read More MET Criminal Justice Faculty Q&As
- Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Dr. Lou Chitkushev and Cybercrime Investigation & Cybersecurity Director Dr. Kyung-shick Choi Discuss MET’s History and Future as a Nationally Valued Security Hub after Digital Evidence Grant from Department of Justice
- With 25 Years of Experience, Lecturer Dustin Navarro Brings Real-World Context to the Latest Infosec Topics
- After Defending the Nation’s Cybersecurity, Charles Pak Brings Industry Solutions and Lessons to the Classroom
- Adjunct Faculty Linda Holt Uses Real Datasets to Introduce Analytics Tools and Explore Operational Issues Across the Justice System
- Modernizing Criminal Justice Approaches, Instruction a Passion for Lecturer Dr. Frank Carney
- Managing Prisons: Former Superintendent James Matesanz Brings First-Hand Experience to the Classroom as Lecturer
- Lecturer Joseph Burgoyne: Think Like a “Malicious Actor” When Assessing Security Risks
- Professor Choi and Award Winner Work to Make a Difference in the “Cyber” World
- Shea Cronin Links Segregation to Disparities in Firearm Homicide Rates
- A Mindful Approach: Dr. Danielle Rousseau Receives Grant to Develop Novel Treatment for Opioid Addiction
What to Read Next: MET Criminal Justice Knowledge Center
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- Alumni Profile: BU MET Master's in Criminal Justice
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