The Criminal Justice Certificate is an interdisciplinary certificate in which you take courses from a variety of departments. Students who declared before Fall 2025 are required to take one course from each group. One of those courses should substantially deal with race and justice and are marked below with (**).
Please refer to the list below for the most accurate list of courses offered that fulfill certificate requirements. If a course appears below and is not listed on your dars report, please email cjcp@ssc.wisc.edu.
Criminal Justice Courses During Other Semesters
Group 1: Criminal Justice System
Legal Studies/Sociology 131: Criminal Justice in America
Group 2: Theories of Crime and Deviant Behavior
Psych 526: The Criminal Mind
Psych 601: Psych of Juvenile Delinquency—Seniors only, Capstone Psych Course (dars exception needed)
Social Work 612: Psychopathology in Generalist Social Work Practice
Sociology 441: Criminology
Group 3: Crime and Justice/Operations of the Justice System
**AfAm 272: Race and American Politics from the New Deal to the New Right (Ethnic St.)
**English 182: Doing Time: Race, Labor, Incarceration (Lit) (honors only)
Legal St./Hist 235: Prisons: From Antiquity to Supermax (dars exception needed)
Legal St. 400/Soc 496: The Penitentiary in Global Perspective (dars exception needed)
**Legal St./Soc 451: Race, Family and the State
**Legal St./Af.Am. 435: Civil Rights
**Legal St.400/Soc 496: Incarceration and Inequality (dars exception needed)
Psych 626: Issues in Prisoner Re-Entry (dars exception needed)
Group 4: Broader Psycho/Socio/Economic Processes Related to Criminal Justice
Econ 690: Economics of Crime (ECON 301 or 311 pre req) (dars exception needed)
**Ed. Pol/History 143: History of Race and Inequality in Urban America (Ethnic St.) (Comm b)
**HDFS 474: Racial Ethnic Families in U.S. (Ethnic St)
Legal St. 135: Disability and the Criminal Justice System
Legal St. 422: Women and the Law
**Legal St./ChicLa/Soc 443: Immigration, Crime & Enforcement (Ethnic St)
Legal St. 444: Law in Action
Legal St. 477: History of Forensic Science
Psychology 405: Adult Psychopathology
**Pub Affr 520: Inequality, Race and Public Policy (Ethnic St.) (dars exception needed)
Social Work 453: Substance Use Disorders
Social Work 627: Sex Trafficking and Sex Trading
Social Work 646: Child Abuse and Neglect
**Sociology 578: Poverty and Place
Group 5: Ethnography-Internship Prep
Com Arts 260: Communication and Human Behavior (dars exception needed)
Comm Arts 272: Introduction to Interpersonal Communication (Comm B) (dars exception needed)
Coun Psy 225: Intersectionalities- (Ethnic St)
Coun Psy 237: Mental Health, Self-Awareness, and Social Justice: Working in Diverse Communities (Ethnic St.)
Coun Psy 655: Clinical Communication Skills
ESL 200: Academic and Professional Speaking Skills for Undergraduate students
History 300: History at Work
Inter-HE 202: Careers and Leadership Dev (SOHE Majors only)
Inter-LS 210: L&S Career Development
Inter-LS 215: Communicating about Careers (Comm B)
Group 6: Fieldwork/Internship Seminar- All Internships must be Criminal/Juvenile Justice/Law/Policy Related
Watch this Short Video About the Fieldwork Requirement
Please note: these courses require advance preparation/permission to enroll per department
Legal St 694: Field Observation in Criminal Justice & Legal Studies
- Only available to students currently enrolled in pre-internship canvas site. If you have an internship for Spring 2026 and you are not enrolled in pre-internship canvas site, please email cjcp@ssc.wisc.edu
- This course is 3 credits and offered every semester. Students are enrolled in legal studies 694 at the same time they are interning.
- In order to get permission to enroll in legal studies 694, students must participate in a pre-internship process that typically begins the semester before a student wants to enroll in legal studies 694 and intern.
Below are opportunities in other departments that will fulfill the Group 6 requirement. Please refer to each program’s requirements for admission:
GEN&WS 660: Internship in Gender & Women’s Studies
LACIS 440: Spanish: Immigration Law Clinic
Legal Studies 473 (application required: link to website)
Political Science 315: Legislative Internship
Public Affairs 327: Administrative Internship
Social Work 401: Field Practice and Integrative Seminar II