Website: https://sasn.rutgers.edu/academics-admissions/academic-departments/psychology/minor-youth-development-juvenile-justice

Overview

Rutgers University-Newark offers an interdisciplinary minor in Youth Development and Juvenile Justice (YDJJ). Students in this program will gain a broad and deep understanding of the factors affecting adjudicated youth, including social environments, individual development, educational challenges, and systemic issues in juvenile justice and the surrounding fields. Multidisciplinary course work draws from the School of Criminal Justice, Department of Psychology, Department of Urban Education, and Department of Social Work, allowing students to grasp the scope of systems influencing the lives of young people in our communities, and to build tools for helping court-involved youth succeed and become productive members of society. A minor in Youth Development and Juvenile Justice prepares students to pursue careers in juvenile justice, direct service provision to youth under correctional supervision, and fields such as education and social work which influence the lives of youth and families.

This course of study's unique and collaborative approach reflects the complexity of improving outcomes for justice-involved youth. The minor in Youth Development and Juvenile Justice is open to students who are majoring in Criminal Justice (or Justice Studies), Psychology, Social Work, or Urban Education at Rutgers-Newark.

Minor Requirements (18 credits)

• Two courses from the YDJJ list from each unit outside of your major. (18 credits, see course list below)

• Occasionally, Special Topics courses are available on topics related to youth development and juvenile justice. Students wishing to apply one of these courses to their minor sequence should obtain approval from the YDJJ advisor in their major department/school.

• If internship/fieldwork courses are applied to the minor sequence, students should ensure that their field placement is with a youth and/or family serving agency.

Criminal Justice/Justice Studies

• 47:202:223 Delinquency and Juvenile Justice (3)
• 47:202:411 Juvenile Gangs and Co-Offending (3)
• 47:202:422 Youth Violence (3)
• 47:202:499 Internship in Criminal Justice (3)

Psychology

• 21:830:323 Developmental Psychology (3)
• 21:830:324 Psychology of Adolescence (3)
• 21:830:374 Psychopathology of Childhood (3)
• 21:830:369,370 Fieldwork in Psychology (3,3)
• 21:830:485 Internship in Psychology (3)

Note: Students may count only one course from 369, 370, or 485.

Social Work

• 21:910:322 Human Behavior and the Social Environment (3)
• 21:910:343 Children and Families (3)
• 21:910:345 Human Diversity (3)

Urban Education

• 21:300:190 Radical Teaching: Voices of Youth Truth (3)
• 21:300:210 Youth Culture Formation: Race, Gender, and Sexuality (3)
• 21:300:292 Social Foundations of Urban Education (3)
• 21:300:295 Child and Adolescent Psychology and the Urban Experience (3)
• 21:300:305 Decarcerating Disability and Education (3)
• 21:300:306 Disability Studies (3)

Notes:

• A Youth Development and Juvenile Justice advising faculty member must review requirements for the minor and sign the Declaration of Minor form.
• Students must be majors in good standing in Criminal Justice/Justice Studies, Psychology, Social Work, or Urban Education in order to declare this minor (i.e., meeting GPA requirements of respective majors).
• Most courses in the list above have significant prerequisites. Students wishing to declare this minor should ensure that they have completed those prerequisites successfully before declaring.
• Students must participate in yearly advisory meetings with a faculty advisor who is affiliated with the YDJJ program once they have declared the YDJJ minor.
• In order to be certified for graduation with a minor in Youth Development and Juvenile Justice, students must pass (with a grade of "C" or better) six courses (18 credits) from the list of courses associated with the minor while fulfilling the distribution requirements described above.

Please visit the departmental website for the most up-to-date information about faculty advisors, minor requirements, and current courses.