In 1967, President Johnson issued Task-Force Reports on the police, the courts, and the correctional system, calling for the professionalization of law enforcement officers through “a solid grounding in a liberal arts education.” Over the next decade, many higher education institutions responded by developing criminal justice studies programs. In 1976, with the work and advocacy of Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Charles Darby, the UGA Board of Regents formally approved a Bachelor of Arts degree program in Criminal Justice Studies. The program was interdisciplinary from the start, requiring coursework in Sociology, Political Science, and Psychology. Ed Kassinger, Director of Public Safety at UGA and member of the CJSP Executive Committee, was responsible for the inclusion of a semester-long internship as part of the requirements for the major. By 1980, approximately 90 students had graduated with a Criminal Justice Degree.

 

After a series of temporary directors, Susette M. Talarico, Professor of Political Science assumed the CJSP directorship in 1983. She served in this role for more than 20 years. We honor her enormous impact on the program each year with the annual Talarico Lecture, in which we host esteemed criminal justice practitioners and scholars. Under her tenure, CJSP also inaugurated its first scholarship award (2001), launched the alumni networking panel (1996), rejuvenated the Criminal Justice Society (1992) to its current form, and created the CJ Minor(1991).

Drs. Elaine Weeks, Jody Clay-Warner, Susan Haire, and Sarah Shannon have served successively as Directors of CJSP since Dr. Talarico’s passing in 2007.  The program has grown every year for the past fifteen years to now serving over 300 majors and 200 minors. We place approximately 100 interns in more than 75 criminal justice agencies each year.