As recognized by the University Planning Committee for the School of Criminal Justice, the programs of graduate education, research, and public service should be mutually reinforcing and interdependent. An active research program by leading scholars provides the basis and appropriate environment for the instructional program. When this research is conducted in collaboration with operating criminal justice agency personnel, it supports the public service concerns of the school and provides students with outstanding opportunities for exposure to the practical concerns of law enforcement, judicial, and corrections personnel. A sound program of education in criminal justice depends upon the content of a quality research program and upon opportunities for close interaction with criminal justice operating agencies.

In order to meet needs in New Jersey and elsewhere for persons to fill positions in teaching, research, management, and leadership in criminal justice operating agencies, the program of the School of Criminal Justice is oriented generally toward the entire field. That is, the emphasis is on the interrelations among prevention, police, court, and correctional endeavors, and on problem definition and solutions. The instructional program stresses the development of analytic, problem-solving capabilities. It is assumed that graduates of the school will be best qualified for positions of leadership and improvement of criminal justice if they have a full understanding of delinquency and crime as one variety of social problem; if they are fully aware of the philosophical underpinning and historical development of our current, varied mechanisms of social control of delinquency and crime; if they can appreciate the nature of the criminal justice enterprise as a single system, with an understanding of strengths and weaknesses of current operations; and if they have a sound foundation in the basic principles of management and research concerning criminal justice. The general goal of the program, therefore, is to provide a basic understanding of delinquency and crime, of the criminal justice system, and of methods for assessing current problems in order to arrive at conclusions and rational decisions that must be made by those responsible for the administration of criminal justice.

The school accepts into the graduate programs men and women from the United States and abroad who have graduated from approved institutions of higher learning. The undergraduate program accepts both entering first-year and transfer students from two- and four-year institutions. The traditional policy of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is that students will be admitted on the basis of academic criteria, without regard to their political views or activities, or to prior criminal record.