Online MS in Criminal Justice—Crime Analysis

At a Glance

Completion Time

8–16

Months

Credits Required

Tuition

$21,948–$23,700

Part-Time*

*Based on 2025–2026 Boston University tuition and fees. Merit scholarship may reduce cost.

Learn to Leverage Data in Leading Criminal Investigations

The online Master of Science in Criminal Justice (MSCJ) concentration in Crime Analysis provides students with a set of courses that further develops their ability to use and analyze a variety of data sources to inform the investigations, strategies, and policy decisions of criminal justice organizations. This set of skills is crucial to a growing field within law enforcement and related domains in criminal justice. Data-driven and intelligence-led approaches to crime have become the standard among contemporary criminal justice organizations. The concentration prepares students to fill in-house crime analyst roles or similar positions, while strengthening the skills of students working in investigations, management, and operations to utilize analysis more effectively.

Curriculum

The online Master of Science in Criminal Justice, with a concentration in Crime Analysis consists of a total of eight courses (32 credits): four required courses and four concentration requirements.

The Boston University online Master of Science in Criminal Justice will provide you with an in-depth examination of crime and justice, including theories, trends, and policies, in fewer than two years of study. Online students pursuing a Concentration in Crime Analysis must satisfy the MS in Criminal Justice core requirements and the concentration requirements.

Waivers

Current members of the American Jail Association (AJA) are eligible for a Graduate Application fee waiver ($85 for applications to the master’s program) and should email metcorp@bu.edu with information confirming AJA membership.

Core Courses

MET CJ 570 Criminology and Crime Policy

4 credits. Fall and Spring

This course explores potential answers to complex and important questions about criminal behavior by drawing on the social science of criminology. Criminology is the interdisciplinary study of the development of law, criminal phenomena and societal responses to crime. The course has two primary focuses: 1) to explore and evaluate major explanations or theories of crime and 2) understand and evaluate the policy implications of major crime problems. Because criminology is interdisciplinary, students will examine theories that are grounded in a range of academic perspectives, including sociological, biological, political, psychological and economic explanations for crime. These theories will be centered on important public policy debates about a host of contemporary problems, including: firearm violence, high post- incarceration recidivism, opioid use disorder crisis and human trafficking. Course lectures and discussions focus on the historical development of the theories, their major assumptions and propositions, their relevance for public policy and practice. As the course progresses through each explanation for crime, students will have the opportunity to critically evaluate the validity of different explanations for crime as well as criminal justice policies and practices that they support.

Section A1, FALL 2025 Sep 2nd to Dec 10th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Thomas	Independent	T	06:00:00 PM–08:45:00 PM	MCS B33

Section O1, FALL 2025 Sep 2nd to Oct 20th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Thomas	Independent	ARR	12:00:00 AM–12:00:00 AM

MET CJ 571 Criminal Justice Administration and Ethics

4 credits. Fall and Spring

This course introduces students to the concepts of criminal justice administration and ethics. Students learn about: the management of justice system organizations, and the various debates as to how best operate the organizations making up the system. Topics covered include: organizational theory and structure, professional ethics, leadership and management styles, organizational deviance and socialization, employee motivation, and management responses to stress and burnout. The course helps students understand the characteristics of effective leadership and policy implementation in the field of criminal justice. Students also have the opportunity to analyze ethical dilemmas commonly confronted in criminal justice work.

Section A1, FALL 2025 Sep 2nd to Dec 10th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Cadigan	Independent	R	06:00:00 PM–08:45:00 PM	MCS B33

Section O1, FALL 2025 Sep 2nd to Oct 20th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Cadigan	Independent	ARR	12:00:00 AM–12:00:00 AM

MET CJ 590 Research and Evaluation Methods

4 credits. Fall and Spring

The skills used in research method have become central to many positions within criminal justice administration and related areas. Not only are professionals required to understand and critically evaluate the program and policy science in their field to make decisions, they often employ methodological skills in program and policy development, implementation, management and assessment. This course takes students through the research process from question development to administration and reporting. It emphasizes applied research situations and settings and specifically program evaluation and assessment. After examining various research design models, the course focuses on specific techniques that inform both quantitative and qualitative evaluation studies. These include sampling procedures, survey design, interview techniques, participant observation and case studies and process evaluations.

Section A1, FALL 2025 Sep 2nd to Dec 10th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Ballou	Independent	W	06:00:00 PM–08:45:00 PM	PSY B53

Section O2, FALL 2025 Oct 28th to Dec 15th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Silver	Independent	ARR	12:00:00 AM–12:00:00 AM

MET CJ 591 Applied Analytical Methods

4 credits. Fall and Spring

Evidence-based and data-driven approaches to crime problems are the industry standard among criminal justice agencies and non-governmental organizations. This course will cover a variety of statistical "tools" from three broad areas: (1) descriptive statistics, (2) inferential statistics and hypothesis testing, and (3) measures of association. Students will learn how to develop research questions, describe and draw conclusions from quantitative data, and interpret statistical research findings, and be able to present these findings to a variety of audiences in a clear and accurate way -- to be able to "tell a story" with numbers. In addition, students will develop a proficiency working with large data sets and conducting analysis with a critical lens, using the analytical software -- Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) -- commonly used in criminal justice and related fields.

Section O2, FALL 2025 Oct 28th to Dec 15th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Holt	Independent	ARR	12:00:00 AM–12:00:00 AM

Concentration Requirements

MET CJ 612 Crime and Intelligence Analysis

4 credits. Fall and Spring

Contemporary law enforcement agencies regularly employ crime and intelligence analysis to develop and inform effective responses to crime. This course provides an in-depth examination of crime and intelligence analysis techniques. It also explores the role of the crime and intelligence analyst within law enforcement organizations and processes, the historical evolution of this approach, key legal and policy issues, and challenges to implementation. Students have the opportunity to apply these skills to case study simulations involving an array of common crime problems and cases using real-world examples and sources of information.

Section A1, FALL 2025 Sep 2nd to Dec 10th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Cronin	Independent	M	06:00:00 PM–08:45:00 PM	CDS 264

Section O1, FALL 2025 Sep 2nd to Oct 20th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Cronin	Independent	ARR	12:00:00 AM–12:00:00 AM

MET UA 598 Foundations of GIS and Spatial Analysis

4 credits. Fall and Spring

Foundations of GIS and Spatial Analysis provides an introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) specifically with a focus on applications in urban planning. The role of spatial analysis in local, state, and regional planning has steadily increased over the last decade with the infusion of windows-based GIS software such as ESRI ArcGIS. The class focus is to prepare students to feel comfortable communicating with other GIS users, research spatial data, and produce high-quality digital maps in an applied learning environment.

Section O2, FALL 2025 Oct 28th to Dec 15th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Sungu-Eryilmaz	Independent	ARR	12:00:00 AM–12:00:00 AM

Plus at least one course from the following list:

MET CJ 620 Cyberterrorism and Cyber Defense

4 credits. Fall and Spring

Cyber-terrorists continuously leverage sophisticated techniques in efforts to attack the nation's critical infrastructures by damaging their functionalities and stealing highly sensitive intellectual property, private information, and valuable assets. This course is designed to explore a new explanatory angle for studying cyberterrorism issues from a cyber- intelligence perspective. Major cyberterrorism cases will be empirically analyzed and applied into a lab environment for gaining hands-on-experience and to develop defensive strategies and counter measures. This course aims to examine three main types of cyberterrorism 1) Information Attacks, 2) Infrastructure Attacks, and 3) Technology Facilitation for building both technical capability and a set of policy recommendations to counter these potential threats.

Section O2, FALL 2025 Oct 28th to Dec 15th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Choi	Independent	ARR	12:00:00 AM–12:00:00 AM

MET CJ 640 Performance Management Analytics

4 credits. Fall and Spring

Data analysis informs administration, management and accountability processes within criminal justice and related organizations. While traditional crime analysis often narrowly seeks to improve the organization's effectiveness towards public safety outcomes, management and accountability analysis seeks to also ensure fair, efficient, transparent, and accountable practices as well. This course examines contemporary management and accountability practices with an emphasis on the ways in which data can be employed to improve these practices. Students will learn skills to work with real data sources across justice-system domains, from policing to corrections, as well as community-based organizations. Contemporary challenges, such as disparate treatment, abuse of force, 'overpolicing,' frame discussions and assignments. Students will understand the strengths and limitations of data-informed approaches. The course is valuable to students seeking careers in analytical roles, other practitioners, non-profit managers, and those interested in justice reform more broadly.

Section O1, FALL 2025 Sep 2nd to Oct 20th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Malcolm	Independent	ARR	12:00:00 AM–12:00:00 AM

MET CJ 840 Applied Crime Analysis Project

4 credits. Fall and Spring

Students in the Crime Analysis (CA) concentration or certificate program are encouraged to engaged in a supervised project as part of their degree. The project is supervised by an instructor, typically the concentration area coordinator. It can be used to fulfill a 4-credit elective course within the concentration or certificate. Project-based and experiential learning activities are central to graduate professional education and to our own program's learning outcomes. The project gives students an opportunity to enhance and synthesize skills learned in other courses, apply skills to real-world problems and settings, and make connections into the professional field. Projects in the CA concentration or certificate will focus applied research and analytical methodologies and/or organizational processes connected to analysis within criminal justice or related agencies.

Section A1, FALL 2025 Sep 2nd to Dec 10th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Cronin	Directed Study	ARR	12:00:00 AM–12:00:00 AM

Section O1, FALL 2025 Sep 2nd to Oct 20th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Cronin	Directed Study	ARR	12:00:00 AM–12:00:00 AM

Section O2, FALL 2025 Oct 28th to Dec 15th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Cronin	Directed Study	ARR	12:00:00 AM–12:00:00 AM

MET CS 521 Information Structures with Python

4 credits. Fall and Spring

Creativity/Innovation
Critical Thinking
Quantitative Reasoning II

This course covers the concepts of the object-oriented approach to software design and development using Python. It includes a detailed discussion of programming concepts starting with the fundamentals of data types, control structures methods, classes, arrays and strings, and proceeding to advanced topics such as inheritance and polymorphism, creating user interfaces, exceptions and streams. Upon completion of this course students will be able to apply software engineering principles to design and implement Python applications that can be used in with analytics and big data. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning II, Creativity/Innovation, Critical Thinking. Prerequisite: Programming experience in any language. Or Instructor's consent.

Section A1, FALL 2025 Sep 2nd to Dec 10th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Lu	Independent	M	06:00:00 PM–08:45:00 PM	KCB 102

Section A2, FALL 2025 Sep 2nd to Dec 10th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Mohan	Independent	T	06:00:00 PM–08:45:00 PM	PHO 202

Section O1, FALL 2025 Sep 2nd to Oct 20th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Pinsky	Independent	ARR	12:00:00 AM–12:00:00 AM

Section O2, FALL 2025 Oct 28th to Dec 15th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Bond	Independent	ARR	12:00:00 AM–12:00:00 AM

MET CS 555 Foundations of Machine Learning

4 credits. Fall and Spring

Formerly titled CS 555 Data Analysis and Visualization with R. This course provides an overview of the statistical tools most commonly used to process, analyze, and visualize data. Topics include simple linear regression, multiple regression, logistic regression, analysis of variance, and survival analysis. These topics are explored using the statistical package R, with a focus on understanding how to use and interpret output from this software as well as how to visualize results. In each topic area, the methodology, including underlying assumptions and the mechanics of how it all works along with appropriate interpretation of the results, are discussed. Concepts are presented in context of real world examples. Recommended Prerequisite: METCS 544 or equivalent knowledge, or instructor's consent.

Section A3, FALL 2025 Sep 2nd to Dec 10th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Alizadeh-Shabdiz	Independent	M	02:30:00 PM–05:15:00 PM	MET 122

Section A4, FALL 2025 Sep 2nd to Dec 10th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Alizadeh-Shabdiz	Independent	W	06:00:00 PM–08:45:00 PM	KCB 104

Section O2, FALL 2025 Oct 28th to Dec 15th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Alizadeh-Shabdiz	Independent	ARR	12:00:00 AM–12:00:00 AM

MET CS 699 Data Mining

4 credits. Fall and Spring

Prerequisites: MET CS 521 & MET CS 546; MET CS 579 or MET CS 669; or consent of instructor. - Study basic concepts and techniques of data mining. Topics include data preparation, classification, performance evaluation, association rule mining, regression and clustering. Students learn underlying theories of data mining algorithms in the class and they practice those algorithms through assignments and a semester-long class project using R. After finishing this course, students will be able to independently perform data mining tasks to solve real-world problems.

Section A1, FALL 2025 Sep 2nd to Dec 10th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Lee	Independent	W	06:00:00 PM–08:45:00 PM	SCI 115

Section O2, FALL 2025 Oct 28th to Dec 15th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Joner	Independent	ARR	12:00:00 AM–12:00:00 AM

And one additional criminal justice (CJ) course or approved course in a related discipline.

Any request for addition or substitution of elective courses requires approval from the department.

Dates & Deadlines

View BU MET’s academic calendar for online programs, including important dates and deadlines.

Application Requirements

Learn about application requirements for BU MET graduate degree and certificate programs.

How You Benefit from a
Boston University Education

A BU credential can help lay the foundation for career advancement and personal success.

Benefit from a 24:1 average student-to-instructor ratio
Engage with case studies, simulations using real data, and hands-on problem solving to develop practical skills you can immediately apply on the job.
Study under leading criminal justice faculty with extensive field experience and scholarship in law enforcement, corrections, cybercrime investigation and digital forensics, research and policy, forensic mental health, the judicial system, strategic management, and many other areas.
Learn from the best—BU MET has offered criminal justice education since 1973, introducing the master’s degree in criminal justice in 1980, which became BU’s first fully online program in 2002.

All graduate students are automatically considered for merit scholarships during the application process and nominated based on eligibility. Learn more.

Rankings & Accreditations

U.S. News & World Report - Best Online Programs - Criminal Justice 2025

#6 in 2025, and top 6 since 2015

MET’s online master’s degree in criminal justice is ranked #6 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report for 2025.

U.S. News & World Report Best Online Programs - Veterans - Criminal Justice 2025

#10, Best Online Master’s in Criminal Justice Programs for Veterans

MET’s online master’s degree in criminal justice is ranked #10 in the nation for veterans and active-duty service members by U.S. News & World Report for 2025.

Graduate with Crime Analysis Expertise

In addition to the knowledge gained in the MSCJ core, students who complete the Criminal Justice master’s degree concentration in Crime Analysis will be able to:

Understand the wide variety of data sources available for crime and intelligence analysis, including the methods of data collection, uses, strengths, and limitations.
Prepare different sources of data for analysis (e.g. data reorganization, matching) for use in analysis processes.
Conduct analysis using a variety of different techniques, including mapping and spatial analysis and other advanced techniques.
Incorporate analyses into effective written and oral reports that are useful to investigation, strategy, and policy decisions within law enforcement organizations.
Comprehend the ethical and legal rules and values that govern crime analysis within law enforcement organizations operating in a democratic society.
Inform effective data-driven or intelligence-led investigations, strategies, and policies based on awareness of contemporary law enforcement and security approaches.

“As someone who had no experience in the criminal justice field going into this program, I left it feeling very prepared and it definitely paid off. I have been told in several job interviews that my resume is impressive, and that is largely thanks to having Boston University on there. The name carries weight and gives you an edge over other candidates. On top of that, the skills and knowledge you gain really do prepare you for a job in the field.” Read more.

Bella Zak (MET’22)
Contractor, Crime Gun Intelligence Center of Chicago, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
MS, Criminal Justice, concentration in Crime Analysis

Advance Your Career in Criminal Justice

The Crime Analysis concentration of BU MET’s MS in Criminal Justice prepares you to fill in-house crime analyst roles or similar positions, while strengthening the overall skillset of individuals who are involved in investigations, management, and operations.

Recent graduates have found job opportunities and career paths in organizations such as:

Louisiana State Police
Pennsylvania State Police
San Diego County Sheriff’s Department
Wilmington Police Department
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)
Capital One
Roger Williams University

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
United States Army
Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC)
United States Department of Justice (DOJ)
United States Department of State (DOS)

Take Advantage of Career Resources at BU MET

You will find the support you need in reaching your career goals through MET’s Career Development office, which offers a variety of job-hunting resources, including one-on-one career counseling by appointment for online students. You can also take advantage of tools and resources available online through BU’s Center for Career Development.

Criminal Justice Faculty

Shea W. Cronin

Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice

Chair, Applied Social Sciences

Kyung-shick Choi

Professor of the Practice, Criminal Justice

Director, Cybercrime & Cybersecurity

Danielle Rousseau

Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice

James M. Silver

Visiting Associate Professor, Criminal Justice

View All Faculty

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Online Master of Science in Criminal Justice, Crime Analysis Concentration

At a Glance

Learn to Leverage Data in Leading Criminal Investigations