Graduate students completing a thesis will select a thesis supervision committee chaired by their graduate advisor. The student will select, with approval of their advisor, two additional members of the Graduate Faculty to serve on this committee (so there are a total of three faculty members on the committee). One of these additional faculty will be selected from among the remaining CRM Graduate Faculty and the other must be a Graduate Faculty member outside CRM in a program related to the student’s thesis topic. The Criminology Graduate Program will follow the thesis submission deadlines established by the Graduate College. The thesis must be a comprehensive academic culmination of the student’s knowledge gained through the M.S. in Criminology program, such as an empirical endeavor or a comparable intellectual undertaking. It is expected the thesis will integrate relevant coursework taken for the graduate degree.

When the written thesis product is approved by the supervision committee, the student then must appear before the committee for a public thesis defense.   A general invitation for all Department Faculty to attend this event will come from the Director of Graduate Studies. The defense will be facilitated by the advisor and thesis committee members will initiate questions and discussion about the student’s work. Questions from the audience will be allowed after the initial questioning by the committee.

At the conclusion of the defense, the candidate and audience will leave the room and the thesis committee, in closed session, will judge the student’s work as either “pass” or “not pass.” Immediately after this decision is reached, the candidate will receive the decision in-person from the advisor along with a justification if the decision is “not pass.” If a student does not pass this requirement, they will be allowed to revise the thesis and participate in a second thesis defense. A student may repeat the thesis defense only once, unless an exception is granted by majority vote of the CRM Graduate Committee.