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 that 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 & Criminology

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.