Founded in 1962, the Department of Criminal Justice at New Mexico State University is one of the oldest Criminal Justice programs in the nation. It is the largest academic department in the College of Arts and Sciences with over 600 Bachelor of Criminal Justice students and 80 Master of Criminal Justice students. The mission of the Department is based upon the understanding of Criminal Justice as a broad-based interdisciplinary social science field. Students graduating from the Department are prepared for careers at the federal, state, and local levels throughout the criminal justice profession, in both the private and public sectors. Graduates have also gone on for advanced education in law schools and graduate programs in criminal justice, criminology, justice studies, and political science.