At the beginning of the twentieth century, there were 2,262 homicides committed in New York City. In 2008, there were only 523 homicides. The precipitous drop of 76.9 percent in the murder rate has demonstrated that a scientific approach to public safety, the NYPD's deployment of COMPSTAT, can make a profound difference in our lives and on the criminal justice system.
In New York State, Criminal Justice Services have been instrumental in encouraging police departments to adapt effective crime fighting strategies. As a result, there is now a worldwide interest in the application of scientific techniques. For example, DNA is now in widespread use to help apprehend the criminal and to exonerate the innocent.
Further, our collective sense of public safety was shattered with the loss of nearly three thousand lives on September 11, 2001 as we witnessed the collapse of the World Trade Center and a sea change in the safety of our world.
The sum total is that the landscape of the criminal justice system had been irrevocably transformed. The ever-present danger of terrorism and other forms of transnational crimes necessitates a closer collaboration among criminal justice agencies on all levels: federal, state, local, and even international levels. The criminal justice professional today must not only understand the dialectics of the neighborhood, but of the larger world as well.
The curriculum of the Master of Science degree program in Criminal Justice has been expressly designed to prepare the criminal justice professional for success in this new climate. Graduates will emerge with a firm understanding of crime reduction strategies and dexterity in research and crime mapping skills and the ability to ascend to leadership roles in the industry.
Career opportunities in criminal justice abound, particularly on the federal level where hiring is occurring at a rapid pace. For example, recently the FBI embarked on a hiring blitz. In 1973 the Drug Enforcement Administration had 2,898 employees and by 2007,there were more than 11,000 employees. The DEA now has 227 offices in the United States and 87 foreign offices in 63 countries.
As the nature of the work in the criminal justice system becomes increasingly complex and the job market more competitive, emphasis will be placed on the credential a graduate degree brings. Already in the Secret Service an appointment to a GL-7 requires a graduate degree. These careers are recession-proof, provide living wages, competitive benefits, and there is great satisfaction working in an industry that is central to the survival of basic democratic principles.
We are in need of highly educated criminal justice professionals to enhance public safety at home and abroad and the King Graduate School's Master's degree program in Criminal Justice is a passport toward those high-level careers. On that note, I welcome you!
Dr. Basil Wilson,
Dean, Criminal Justice Program | 
