The Criminal Justice undergraduate program provides Southern University at New Orleans students with a thorough knowledge of the nature and operation of the Criminal Justice System.

It includes courses in the following core areas as well as specialized electives: criminal justice and juvenile justice processes (law, crime, and administration of justice); criminology (the causes of crime, typologies, offenders, and victims); law enforcement (police organization, discretion, subculture, and legal constraints), law adjudication (criminal law, criminal procedure, prosecution, defense, and court procedures and decision-making), and corrections (incarceration, community-based corrections, and treatment of offenders).

The program introduces concepts related to legal, legislative, and social processes and how they influence the criminal justice system. The program further addresses current methods in criminal justice processes and analyzes their strengths and weaknesses.