Human Rights & Criminal Justice Certificate program

Boost your criminal justice credentials.

As today’s world undergoes rapid social transformation, our approach to policing and criminal justice requires new and creative ideas to advance history in a positive direction — one the values and practices human rights for all. Historic and current social movements, including national protests after the death of George Floyd, demand a stronger understanding of the relationship between human rights and criminal justice.

UWL’s Human Rights and Criminal Justice Certificate provides alternative and powerful ways to understand this relationship in our post-modern social world. Paired with a university degree, students can use the certificate as an added credential when pursuing careers related to crime, criminal justice, at-risk youths, juvenile justice, and policing.

Undergrad certificate

A program within the Department of Sociology & Criminal Justice

What are human rights and criminal justice?

The right to life, safety, travel, privacy, food, education and health, among other things. These are examples of human rights, essential rights that belong to us as people of this world regardless of our status. Criminal justice is the system used for criminal proceedings and punishment. It includes the major areas of law enforcement, corrections, probation, the courts, crime and delinquency. This program shows us how we can transform criminal justice into a human rights institution.

Careers in human rights and criminal justice

Students seeking careers in the criminal justice system, federal law enforcement, policing, the legal system as well as those careers working with local community organizations, non-profit organizations, and at-risk youths can benefit from this certificate program.

This program will be especially beneficial to those who want to make positive changes in the criminal justice system and law enforcement in the U.S. and beyond.

What distinguishes the Human Rights and Criminal Justice Certificate program?

Interdisciplinary classes

The program offers a diverse range of classes that provide a critical analysis of human rights explored through the theoretical lenses of sociology and criminology, as well as philosophy, history and anthropology.

Unique program

UWL is the only school in the Universities of Wisconsin offering students the chance to acquire tools and skills (e.g., data and approaches) in this emergent area of criminal justice, juvenile justice, and policing, among other careers.

Depth of study

Students can examine the relationship between human rights and economic justice, criminal justice, and capitalism, among other things. The concept of human rights is explored as it has been applied throughout time and history by examining cross-cultural comparisons of human rights, as well as human rights as a form of ethics and practice.

Instructor with experience

Dr. Peter Marina shares many of his own life experiences in the class. A sociologist, criminologist and author, Marina wrote “Down and Out in New Orleans: Transgressive Living in the Informal Economy,” a book documenting his experiences living among natives of New Orleans in a tourism-dependent city where commerce caters to upper-class citizens and travelers. Marina most recently authored "Human Rights Policing: Reimagining Law Enforcement in the 21st Century."

Sample courses

SOC 333 Human Rights Policing This course focuses on how to apply human rights to the field of criminal justice, in particular, policing. The concept of human rights and its various meanings throughout time and place is analyzed. The course reviews the roles and functions of policing throughout human history, including its more sinister beginnings in the United States. This class challenges mainstream thought, orthodoxy, and voices of the powerful that dominate the fields of criminal justice. Students will move beyond the dominant discourse to better challenge structures of power, question the function of police in society, and scrutinize the age of mass incarceration. While the class offers a critical analysis of policing in society, it also explores alternative and creative solutions to the problems of policing in an increasingly precarious, but exciting, post-modern age. Students will have the opportunity to analyze and evaluate first-hand accounts of police officers applying human rights while in the line of duty. In the end, budding criminal justice professionals, including future police officers, will learn to apply human rights to their careers. Prerequisite: SOC 110 or SOC 120 or SOC 202 or ANT 101. Offered Spring - Even Numbered Years.

SOC 322 Criminology This course provides an overview of the sociological study of crime in the United States, with a special emphasis on patterns of criminality, competing theoretical explanations of crime, and societal responses to crime. As part of the examination of crime in the U.S., the course explores the definitions, measurement, and patterns of various types of criminal behavior; theory and research on crime; the roles of the victim and offender and the implications of public policy. Specific crimes covered include homicide, hate/bias crime, assault, and white-collar crime. Prerequisite: SOC 110 or SOC 120 or SOC 202 or ANT 101. Offered Fall.

SOC 321 Delinquency This course is an overview of the sociological study of delinquency, with special emphasis on competing theoretical perspectives. In the process of learning about theoretical perspectives aimed at explaining delinquency, this course will pay special attention to gender delinquency, gangs, current events regarding delinquency and the U.S. juvenile justice system. Prerequisite: SOC 110 or SOC 120 or SOC 202 or ANT 101. Offered Spring.