Criminal justice examines the causes and patterns of criminal behavior, the institutions and individuals that work within the criminal justice system, and the role law plays in prevention and responses to crime. Strengths of the program : Graduates from our program receive a bachelor of arts in criminal justice and criminology. This differentiates WSU's program from other programs where criminal justice may be an emphasis area under another degree field rather than its own stand-alone degree, Our criminal justice program is a policy-based curriculum drawing from the social sciences, specifically from the areas of sociology, psychology, and political science. It is not a vocational/technical program, unlike programs found at some other schools, Our program is the oldest existing criminal justice program in the nation, established back in 1943 as the Department of Police Science.