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Crime Analysis, Certificate

Improve public safety with a Certificate in Crime Analysis. Learn about analyzing data, identifying emerging crime patterns, and communicating findings.

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About this Program

The Certificate in Crime Analysis provides you with the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to perform entry-level crime analysis in Federal, State and local criminal justice agencies.

As a crime analyst you may:

  • perform detailed statistical analyses of crime data 
  • analyze a wide variety of data including arrests, convictions, known criminal associates, and other criminal intelligence data 
  • conduct citizen surveys of crime victimization, satisfaction with police services, and perceptions of departmental performance
  • perform detailed statistical analyses of crime data
  • analyze a wide variety of data including arrests, convictions, known criminal associates, and other criminal intelligence data
  • conduct citizen surveys of crime victimization, satisfaction with police services, and perceptions of departmental performance
  • design and execute managerial and administrative studies forecasting personnel, budgeting, and other resource needs
  • prepare periodic reports on criminal activity and trends
  • identify emerging crime patterns, and communicate your findings to a variety of internal and external audiences

Crime analysts must be skilled in manipulating data and creating relational databases that can accommodate a wide variety of data formats and sources. A broad knowledge of law enforcement operations, criminological theory, statistics, research methods and relevant computer technology is needed.  

Crime analysts also need good critical thinking skills, logic and reasoning ability, and effective writing and presentation skills.

Certificate Requirements

The Certificate in Crime Analysis is a one-year program consisting of 25 credit hours. This online-only program can be completed on a full- or part-time basis, with part-time students completing in two years. All students enrolled in the Crime Analysis certificate program take a series of required foundation courses (19 credits), and elective courses (6 credits) on data management and analysis, terrorism and intelligence analysis.

  • Advanced Criminological Theory 
  • Statistical Analysis 
  • Statistics Lab 
  • Advanced Research Methods in Criminology and Criminal Justice 
  • Advanced Crime Assessment 
  • Crime Mapping 
  • Data & Intelligence Analysis 
  • Qualitative Research Methods in Criminology and Criminal Justice 
  • Typologies of Crime and Criminal Behavior 
  • Issues in Contemporary Law Enforcement 
  • Terrorism and Homeland Security 
  • Economics and Business Forecasting 
  • Data Management in Business 
  • Data Mining for Business Intelligence 
  • Special Topics courses 
  • Provide a foundation in criminological theory, statistics and research methods, criminal behavior, temporal and spatial crime analysis, criminal intelligence analysis
  • Prepare students for positions and advancement in Federal, state, and local criminal justice agencies as crime analysts and intelligence analysts
  • Foster the ability to design and execute applied research studies focused on crime and crime trends
  • Be able to use descriptive and inferential statistics to analyze crime and related social data
  • Be able to conduct temporal and spatial analyses of crime and related social data
  • Instilling knowledge of how to use a variety of computer databases to merge and draw data from diverse sources
  • Making effective oral presentations of crime analyses to specific audiences (including criminal justice officials, representatives of government, at professional conferences, and to the general public
  • Produce effective written analytic products suitable for publication and dissemination by criminal justice agencies
  • Conduct crime analysis and related research while maintaining strong ethical standards and awareness of moral and ethical implications of their work
  • Draw on relevant criminological theory to ensure underlying theoretical processes are sound, that subsequent analyses are theoretically grounded, and that broad perspectives are brought to bear on the complexity of crime analysis

Explore the Catalog

See the Graduate Catalog for full course descriptions.

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Admission Requirements

Applicants will be accepted into the program each quarter. Applicants’ academic history, motivation, aptitude for post-baccalaureate education, personal goals and professional experiences will be considered.  

Learn More About Admissions
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Combine This Certificate with a Criminal Justice Master's

Students can continue their criminal justice education and apply up to ten certificate in crime analysis credits to the Master’s of Arts in Criminal Justice program pending admission into the master’s program.

Gainful Employment Disclosure

More about our graduation rates, the median debt of students who completed the program, and other important information is available on this disclosure page.

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Get in Touch

If you have any questions about the program or application, we’re here to help.

Destiny Ledesma

Senior Admissions Counselor

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