capstone projects for criminal justice

In criminal justice programs, theses and capstones assignments often coincide with a final practicum or internship period at a local police department or related field office, allowing for hands-on experience and practical research.

In criminal justice programs, theses and capstones assignments often coincide with a final practicum or internship period at a local police department or related field office, allowing for hands-on experience and practical research. Capstone and thesis students who do not participate in an internship typically complete much of their research in traditional spaces, such as online or in the library. Often collaborative in nature, capstones and theses may involve extensive discussions with faculty advisers, working professionals, and peers.

What's the Difference Between a Capstone and a Thesis in Criminal Justice Programs?

Capstones and theses involve the composition of a written work and require students to use knowledge and skills developed throughout their entire academic program. Thesis assignments generally appear in master's programs, while capstone projects often take place during undergraduate work. Additionally, capstones can align with a practicum or internship. The practicum/internship component of a capstone allows for the intensive study of an existing problem, which the student attempts to answer or solve. Thesis assignments, on the other hand, attempt to develop new knowledge through broad research.

What Is a Capstone Like in Criminal Justice Programs?

Criminal justice capstone format.

A capstone project typically fulfills the requirements of a single course and is typically scheduled in the final semester of an academic program. Capstone completion generally takes several months of work outside the classroom setting, but students can begin planning and preparing ahead of time if they choose. Depending on your particular program, the capstone may result in a written paper or a classroom presentation. The structure can vary, assigned as individual projects or as group assignments. Some programs assign capstones in conjunction with a criminal justice internship.

Choosing Your Criminal Justice Capstone Topic

Many students find it helpful to work with an adviser during the completion of their capstone project. This adviser can be a faculty member or a professional working in the field, and they may assist you in brainstorming topics for your capstone project. Criminal justice thesis topics should include a field current issue and a specific approach or solution to the given problem. This can range from broader societal issues to specific problems commonly faced by individual offices and police departments.

Completing Your Criminal Justice Capstone

Completed capstones may take form as extensive research papers, multimedia presentations, speeches with visual aids, or even short films.

Your professor may provide a set of guidelines or suggestions for you to follow during the completion of your capstone project, but you will retain responsibility for much of the final design and presentation. Make sure to obtain any necessary faculty approval for your chosen topic or format before you begin working. If completing an internship or practicum alongside your capstone course, consider aligning your topic and research accordingly to allow yourself extensive in-person study rather than limiting yourself to traditional methods in the library or on the web. As you progress, maintain a log of your research, a portfolio or list of your findings, and keep track of any important conclusions you draw. Once you gather your information, prepare it according to your course requirements. Completed capstones may take form as extensive research papers, multimedia presentations, speeches with visual aids, or even short films.

Presenting Your Criminal Justice Capstone

Completed capstone projects often culminate with student presentations given in front of a small group. Typical presentation audiences might include an academic committee, a classroom of peers, or a board of familiar program faculty. Some schools make capstone presentations open to the public. The exact nature and format of each presentation depends on the assignment's requirements and the student's personal choice, but most presentations employ the use of visual aids to support and exemplify research and talking points, such as PowerPoint slides, video footage, or charts and photographs.

How Is a Criminal Justice Capstone Graded?

Students obtain information at the beginning of a capstone course, ranging from general guidelines to a specific rubric. Completed capstones receive letter grades, but professors may offer a detailed numerical grade as well. Students who fail capstone projects typically must retake the course in another semester, delaying their degree. Learners accused of plagiarism will go through an appeals process before earning a second chance.

What Is a Thesis Like in Criminal Justice Programs?

Criminal justice thesis format.

Although some master's programs offer non-thesis tracks toward graduation, the majority of students earning a master's degree need to successfully write and defend an individual thesis. Similar to undergraduate capstone courses, theses occur during the program's final year, but students can begin preparing for them earlier if desired. A long-form research paper, theses develop original thought and present new insight within an academic field. Along with the paper's composition, students typically defend their thesis to a faculty panel by answering questions about their research and conclusions.

Choosing Your Criminal Justice Thesis Topic

With so much riding on the success of your thesis, selecting a topic can prove a difficult task. Most students completing theses will have access to a faculty adviser. You should also use the professional networking connections you already possess to consider potential topics. Originality makes up the most important component of a successful thesis. Choose a topic that allows you to prove your understanding and ability within your field.

Completing Your Criminal Justice Thesis

Before you begin writing your thesis, obtain any necessary faculty approval for your topic. To get an idea for a solid thesis, take a look at criminal justice thesis examples online. Theses contain all the main components of your past college writing assignments. The main difference lies in length. Theses completed in master's programs regularly reach 100 pages or more. Understandably, completing this task takes a significant amount of time and organization.

Theses completed in master's programs regularly reach 100 pages or more.

Make sure to set aside several hours each week to work through research, writing, and revising as needed. Consider keeping a separate physical binder or digital folder for organizing your criminal justice thesis topics online research. Your faculty adviser will work with you throughout the year to keep track of your progress, answer questions, and offer additional advice.

Presenting Your Criminal Justice Thesis

During the presentation -- often open to the public and lasting approximately 20-25 minutes -- you share information about your research and conclusions. Consider preparing visual aids for use during this talk, such as PowerPoint slides. Afterward, you will field relevant questions from a committee, typically consisting of your faculty adviser and other faculty members. This portion of the presentation, known as the defense, intimidates many students preparing a thesis. Remember that your committee just wants to see you perform well and show a thorough understanding of your material.

How Is a Criminal Justice Thesis Graded?

While you may not get a detailed rubric before starting your thesis, rest assured you will receive clear expectations. Completed theses receive letter grades based on the written paper and presentation/defense. Failures typically occur due to plagiarism, cheating, or not following required guidelines, rather than subpar research, writing, or poor performance at the defense. If you do fail, your ability to try again depends on the cause of your failing grade and the policies of your institution.

law.yale.edu

In the fall of their senior year, Human Rights Scholars undertake a capstone project that is informed by their extracurricular experience and developed in consultation with the Program Director. Students work on their project in a weekly seminar. Throughout the semester, they receive guidance from the Program Director, share progress reports, and provide one another with feedback. Students' capstone projects cover a range of topics, geographic areas of focus, and methods. Some students write academic papers, while others produce creative pieces. Many students apply what they have learned in the Human Rights Program to their surroundings by working with organizations or populations in the Greater New Haven Area.

You can learn some of the Capstone projects past Scholars have pursued below.

Past Capstone Projects

Class of 2022.

The 2022 Capstone Symposium showcased the culminating projects graduating Human Rights Scholars pursued in their final year of the Program. Projects covered topics from advocacy for rent control in Santa Ana to the effectiveness of the U.N. CEDAW Individual Complaints Mechanism to the issue of German reparations for the genocide in 1904-08 against the Herero and Namaqua people in what is Namibia today. The Capstone Symposium offered graduating students the opportunity to share their work with their cohort and with friends and family members. It was the first in-person Capstone Symposium since 2019.

Class of 2021

Through their Capstone Projects, Human Rights Scholars from the 2021 cohort:

and beyond! Presentations about these projects and more are available to watch online .

Class of 2020

Dani Schulman

For her capstone project, Dani recorded three interview-based podcasts that investigate existing farming and food models operating in the West Bank from a rights-based "food sovereignty" perspective. The United Nations and international human rights groups have been calling out violations in Palestine for decades, but no serious talks have occurred since Oslo broke down in the 1990s, or, perhaps, when Camp David broke down in 2000. When the existing UN human rights framework falls short, Dani’s capstone argued, outside actors have the power to demand more and try to fill the void. Her capstone highlighted food sovereignty, a re-framing tool from the international peasant’s movement La Via Campesina, as an alternative paradigm to food security and the current order of world food systems. As she explained in her podcast, food sovereignty marries existing human rights to food, to self-determination, to development, and to sovereignty over natural resources. Using the largest fair trade olive oil exporter in the West Bank, Canaan Palestine, as a case study, the capstone investigated the challenges and possibilities that exist when considering agriculture in Palestine from a food sovereignty perspective. Listen to Dani’s Capstone here.

Marwan Safar-Jalani

Marwan’s capstone examined the role of state sectarianism in the Syrian Civil War on the future of the social and political fabric in Syria. After compiling reported information about sectarian acts of massacre, demographic displacement, and sexual violence, Marwan addressed the question of the legitimacy of the current regime ruling Syria in the aftermath of the conflict. By borrowing Arendt's concept of human plurality, Yassin Al-Haj Saleh's understanding of sectarianism, and Hobbes's position on legitimacy, Marwan argued that the regime's sectarianism during the war limits Syrians' ability to speak about, act upon, and reason through their political and social realities. By doing so, the regime offends Syrians' ability to establish a shared political and national consciousness through which they can give their government a basis for legitimacy. Since sectarianism is inherently unequal, and since equality is the basis for both the Arendtian human plurality and the Hobbesian just governance, Marwan argued that the state's sectarian crimes against humanity are crimes against Syrian human plurality. Read Marwan’s full Capstone here.

Hana's capstone focused on the 2019 protests in Hong Kong and the city's ongoing fight for autonomy. Through a marriage of memoir, journalism and history, Hana explored how decades of mainland Chinese encroachment and protest shaped Hongkonger's collective identity. Her capstone argued that more than democracy and human rights are at stake should Hong Kong be subsumed into the mainland, but a sense of self, an identity. Hana was born and raised in Hong Kong, so her capstone project was very personal: she drew on her own life experience, and the final project was shaped by the lens of someone who was abroad for the duration of 2019’s 'season of discontent.’ For Hana, the essay has become something to continually return to and expand upon as the situation back home worsens. The title of the essay is ‘The Revolution of Our Time’, which she borrowed from a popular translation of one of the leading slogans of the movement: “Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of our Time”（光復香港，時代革命). “光復” however, takes on a different meaning based off of one's choice of translation — ‘reclaim’, ‘recover’ … all signifying to a ‘return’ when Hong Kong still has the rule of law.

Hala El Solh

Hala’s capstone was rooted in her observation that oftentimes, when we learn about a place, a time, or an event, we refer to nonfiction sources. We read news articles and research books, but rarely do we read fiction as a lens into various world events, outside of the occasional English class. Hala chose a fictional short story to challenge this notion and recognize that fiction is often more compatible with human rights than we may think, especially in that we encounter different perspectives and empathize. Additionally, Hala has found, victims of conflict are often viewed as passive characters, defined by what they are subjected to as opposed to who they are and what they do. Informed by the class Introduction to Refugee Studies, Hala wanted to write a story where victims of the Syrian conflict were at the forefront, and in positions to speak out. For example, the main character is an op-ed journalist. Hala was particularly interested in the rise of citizen journalism, especially with the use of social media during the Arab Spring. This story is about the disappearance of a Syrian journalist, and the following search for him. Hala had many motivations for this project, including her own Syrian heritage and her research with The Carter Center’s Syrian Conflict Mapping Project.

Michael Borger

In his project, Michael sought to explore, contextualize, and comment on the deaths of journalists in Mexico, with the intent of elucidating the conditions and structures in which these journalists operated. The study centered on homicides that had transpired since December 2018, which marked the start of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s presidency. Michael pinpointed many of the common and historical threads that ran through that year’s killings, including the characteristics targeted journalists shared, the extent of their coverage, and their nexuses with illicit or even illegal activity. Michael commented on these murders in light of pervasive structures by integrating these journalists’ words and circumstances into the documentation of their cases. By incorporating an analysis of textual, auditory, and visual primary sources, Michael could better reconcile the writings and words of the deceased journalists with the alleged reasons for which they were targeted according to civic watchdogs, national media outlets, and government agencies. He could then connect the journalists’ coverage with broader implications regarding crime, corruption, and impunity in the country, particularly as they continue under the current presidency. His study articulated theories and frameworks that undergird the basic protections to which Mexican journalists are entitled; incorporated an examination of how different levels of investigation and prosecution have failed in their stated quests for justice; and addressed the calculus of the López Obrador administration’s policies as they concern members of the press and the violence they encounter. Ultimately, Michael’s capstone called for greater attention to a problem that, he said, did not begin under López Obrador, but that the administration should seek to resolve.

Lisa’s project focused on studying labor automation's impact on workers at a micro-level. Using Yale as a case study, Lisa sought to understand the university's labor automation decision-making process, the likelihood of automation-induced unemployment and the effects of automation on capital-labor relationships. She was inspired to choose this topic for her Capstone because she felt that existing automation literature either spoke in the abstract — examining labor automation's potential impact with potentially apocalyptic unemployment — or was focused on the macro-level, with little attention paid to understanding the changing relationships within a specific community. For her project, Lisa interviewed people from across Yale's operations and spoke with researchers at various NYC think tanks with similar focuses. Her research was also rooted in existing literature and an analysis of Yale union contracts. Ultimately, Lisa found that there were several factors that constrained labor automation at Yale -- wealth, reputation and union strength — which all fed into each other to create a feedback loop that made it harder and harder to automate jobs. However, she noted that this loop was precarious and that Yale's decision-making calculus could change with any shock to the system, such as the current pandemic. Lisa also found that automation asked workers to take on additional duties with no corresponding increase in pay.

Class of 2019

Major: Political Science Capstone Project: Transformative Justice for Sexual Violence - Seeking Reconciliation between Two Movements

Maddy had the idea for her capstone project while she was interning at an organization that advocates for people in solitary confinement. At work, she was troubled to learn that some of her clients were perpetrators of sexual violence. But it was just as disquieting to see friends who usually supported criminal justice reform arguing on social media that perpetrators of sexual assault should be “locked up.” Maddy viewed her capstone project as a way to reconcile the tensions between the movements for criminal justice reform and increased accountability for those who commit sexual violence and her commitments to both causes. Through analyzing documents relevant to both movements, such as statements by Time’s Up and the Violence Against Women Act, Maddy’s project suggests that prisons, as sites of sexual violence and toxic masculinity, are not the right way to hold perpetrators of sexual violence accountable. She made her work publicly accessible on a website she created. In the video above, Maddy explains the challenges she encountered while completing the project. She reflected that when she first entered the Human Rights Program, she believed that “once you commit yourself to human rights, you know where you should go from there.” But, she said, this project taught her that “human rights are not always consistent. Sometimes you feel like you have to pick one right over another right—or the rights of certain communities over others—if you want to be part of the overall mission of a movement…Navigating those complications was a much more difficult and convoluted process than I had ever imagined before I attempted it.”

Folasade (Sadé) Kammen

Major: Political Science Capstone Project: Human Rights, Media, and the Kibera Experience

For her capstone project, Sadé is putting together an exhibit of 25 photographs she has taken over the last few years in Kibera, Kenya, the largest urban slum in Africa. Sadé first went to Kibera as part of her work with the Human Needs Project, which provides Kibera with basic services and programming. Sadé’s exhibit will also feature informational handouts on Kibera and recordings of different people reacting to the photographs – residents of Kibera, a Kenyan-based photographer, staff at the Human Needs Project. Sadé plans to use the exhibit as an opportunity to collect soccer balls, sanitary pads, school supplies, and other materials to benefit the communities she has worked with in Kibera. As she discusses in the video above, Sadé’s project was informed by discussions she had in the Human Rights Program about ethics surrounding the use of images and narratives in human rights advocacy. Sadé was initially uncomfortable with showing her own photos in the exhibit, but her advisors and classmates in the Human Rights Program encouraged her to display her own photographs and work through her ethical qualms about photographing sites of poverty. In this video, Sadé talks more about her work with Kibera and what she learned from the project.

Class of 2018

Julia char gilbert.

Major: Political Science Capstone Project: Towards an Ethical Human Rights Photography—Community-Based Photography with Immigrant Women in Greater New Haven

While photography is a uniquely powerful medium for advocacy work, traditional human rights photography presents a variety of problems and limitations for activists. Julia Char Gilbert’s capstone project sought to rethink the terms and possibilities of visual human rights advocacy by designing and implementing a photography project with immigrant women in Greater New Haven. Project participants made photographs of their communities using disposable cameras, and met regularly to share and discuss their work and then exhibited their photos to the public. Read Julia's full capstone project .

Wellington Mackey

Class of 2018 Major: Political Science Capstone Project: R.I.S.E @ St. John's: Refugee Interactive Sessions in English

For his capstone project, Wellington helped launch the Refugee Interactive Sessions in English (R.I.S.E.) Project at St. John’s Episcopal Church - an English tutoring program designed to promote community-building and to facilitate participative community integration strategies, as refugee clients increase their knowledge of the English language. R.I.S.E.'s model is informed by extensive research to suggest that it is essential for refugees to become proficient in the language of their host country, in order to create and sustain lasting relationships outside their immediate circles, find and sustain adequate employment, and maintain social and psychological well-being. R.I.S.E also serves as a platform for cultural self-expression: participants share recipes, engage in the performing and visual arts, and discuss their goals and aspirations. R.I.S.E. is a family-oriented program that emphasizes plurality, tolerance, and acceptance - the pillars of a healthy and diverse community. Read an excerpt of Wellington's project.

Major: History Capstone Project: Gun Buyback Program in New Haven

For his capstone project, Rohan considered the role of human rights in the gun violence crisis and organized a gun buyback program in New Haven. Rohan was motivated to pursue the project after reading about a gun buyback in Los Angeles during the summer of 2017, and decided to help organize one in New Haven. He worked alongside the New Haven Police Department, Yale New Haven Hospital, the Injury Free Coalition for Kids, and religious and community-based groups in the city. He also enrolled the support of the national nonprofit Gun by Gun for the program. During the semester, Rohan met with representatives from the aforementioned groups, as well as community organizers in the city, to help craft the event and target it to vulnerable communities. The buyback occurred on December 16, 2017 and netted 141 weapons—the most ever collected in New Haven. In addition to organizing the event, Rohan wrote an academic essay that looked at the role of human rights rhetoric in debates around gun violence in the U.S. and Australia. As a result of his work, Rohan concluded that while gun violence constitutes a human rights crisis, invoking human rights language is unlikely to bring about domestic reform. Instead, he argued that those in favor of gun control should use the lessons of human rights—from working respectfully with vulnerable communities to building citizen power—to make lasting change. Read an excerpt of Rohan's capstone project.

Alejandra Padin-Dujon

Class of 2018 Major: Math & Philosophy and Modern Middle East Studies Capstone Project: Revolutionizing Human Rights -- Women and Democracy in Northern Syria

Kyle Ranieri

Major: Global Affairs & History Capstone Project: The Diné Marriage Act—A Colonial Relic and Human Rights Violation

Kyle (Navajo) created a research and advocacy project that sought to work towards the repeal of the Diné Marriage Act on the Navajo Nation, which prohibits same-sex marriage. The research component compiled and articulated arguments against the Act from tradition, history, law, and politics. He also articulated a human rights argument which leveraged self-determination as its normative basis. Read Kyle's full paper. On the advocacy side, Kyle used his research to produce documents accessible to the Navajo public, including an Op-Ed for the Navajo Times. Going forward, Kyle will use his research to continue advocacy on the Navajo Nation and work towards the repeal of the Act or litigation against it.

Alexis Williams

Class of 2018 Major: African American Studies Capstone Project: Human Rights in the African American Imagination

Alexis’s capstone project explores the role human rights claim-making and institutions in African American’s struggles for racial justice in the United States, both in the immediate aftermath of the formation of the United Nations and continuing into the present day. The project is concerned with questions of motivation – when human rights language is evoked, is it a strategic decision or a result in a personal identification with the international human rights project? A key method for exploring that is deploying imagination, as conceived by African American historian and theorist Saidiya Hartman, which challenges traditional methods of responding to archival silences. As such, Alexis’s project uses the personal, the possible, as well as the known to grasp a firmer understanding of how African Americans understand themselves in relationship with human rights structures.

Matthew Wrocklage

Class of 2018 Major: Sociology Capstone Project: Mending a Broken Mirror -- Collective Self-Understanding and the Strategic Meaning of Claims to 'Indigenousness' in West Papua and Beyond

Class of 2017

Carmen baskauf.

Class of 2017 Major: History Capstone Project: Vulnerability to Trafficking in Protracted and Post-Crisis Situations – Considerations for Scenario Planning in the MENA Region

Jade Harvey

Class of 2017 Major: Ethnicity, Race & Migration Capstone Project: Human Rights in the 2016 Election – An Op-Ed Series on Current Debates, Rhetoric, and the Years Ahead

Elena Hodges

Class of 2017 Major: Political Science Capstone Project: Resource Access Mapping Project (RAMP)

Robert LaRose

Class of 2017 Major: Global Affairs Capstone Project: Bridge International Academies – An Expanding Business and Expanding Controversy

Ava Tomasula y Garcia

Class of 2017 Major: American Studies Capstone Project: Slow Burn – The Future as Seen from Wolf Lake // Humans, Persons, Water, and Volcanoes in Indiana’s Rust Belt

IMAGES

Receive a Brilliant Criminal Justice Capstone & Succeed
Receive a Brilliant Criminal Justice Capstone & Succeed
Capstone Project Samples on Behance
Receive a Brilliant Criminal Justice Capstone & Succeed
Data For Criminal Justice
Receive a Brilliant Criminal Justice Capstone & Succeed

VIDEO

Senior Symposium Orientation 2023
YEl describes prison atmosphere in jail (compares it to projects )
Goochland Senior Capstone Presentations Day 1 2023
Students gain new perspectives on criminal justice
Capstone project EDA on hotel booking analysis
Criminal Justice Program

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Thesis and Capstone Requirements for Criminal Justice Programs
In criminal justice programs, theses and capstones assignments often coincide with a final practicum or internship period at a local police department or related field office, allowing for hands-on experience and practical research
Capstone Projects
In the fall of their senior year, Human Rights Scholars undertake a capstone project that is informed by their extracurricular experience and developed in consultation with the Program Director. Students' capstone projects cover a range of topics
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