The BYU-Idaho sociology department has announced plans to create a new minor in criminology, which will become active in Spring 2026.

The university recently approved the new minor, which sociology professor Jeffrey Oliver said had been in the works for a few years now.

“We’ve had this in our minds for about three years,” said Oliver. “As we were trying to put this together, we had a lot of different versions, a lot of different possibilities, a lot of different classes.”

Oliver said that having this new program to offer is exciting for students who may be looking for something just like this to study in college.

“This is a really exciting program for me personally, because I’ve heard a lot of students over the years wishing we had criminology," Oliver said. "We’ve even heard about students that don’t even attend the university that were looking to do something with criminology, but there was nothing on offer. We’re hoping that having this on offer will be something that’s exciting to a lot of people, and there’ll be a thriving community of students that can find each other and have a really strong, valid career option."

The criminology minor will consist of 24 credits, eight different classes from fields like sociology, anthropology, political science and more.

Oliver said that having a mix of classes allows this minor to pair with several different majors.

“This final version of it, we really wanted it to be exciting, high value, impactful,” Oliver said. “We want it to be something that has a really clear path from start to finish that gives students the absolute necessities and that they can package it up with another major.”

Oliver said that the point of criminology is to learn about cultures and what the norms within those cultures are, and then why crime happens in these cultures.

“All the classes are aimed at understanding culture and norms, because then you can understand deviance and then how to improve things,” Oliver said.

Oliver said this minor seeks to answer three questions: What is culture? What are the norms we’re working with? Why do people become deviant and commit crimes?

By answering these questions, Oliver says, students can find ways to understand and diminish crime within society.

“What are the systems and structures that we can change to try and improve things and reduce crime, or understand why it happens?” Oliver said.

When creating a new program such as this, the sponsoring department (sociology, in this case) puts together the itinerary, having conversations with other departments to see which of their classes could fit into the program.

“These things take a bit of time,” Oliver said. “Once a year, they’ll look at new programs potentially being approved. So the university looks at it, the board approves it, and the accrediting body approves it. It’s a process that takes a while, and we’re excited it’s here.”

Oliver said that these days, people expect education to have some sort of return, either intangible or tangible skills.

“As we’re looking to add a program to the university,” Oliver said,“we want it to be impactful now and into the future in terms of skills and a direct route to jobs, and jobs that are increasing in demand and have good salaries when you get out, and criminology fits the bill for that.”

Oliver hopes that big events, like major fairs and freshman connection, as well as word of mouth, will spread the word of the criminology minor to people who might be interested in this.

“Word of mouth might be one of the most powerful ways this spreads,” Oliver said. “We’re also hoping that if you’re interested in criminology, you probably have a bunch of friends who are maybe true crime junkies or interested in criminology, and we’re hoping word of mouth will also be in place. We’re definitely hitting every avenue we can think of.”

Oliver said that criminology is important because there are all kinds of high-paying jobs relating to the field that are becoming more relevant.

“With the growth of the internet, AI and all this stuff, companies are looking at criminologists to help solve their puzzles with, for example, risk management, shoplifting,” Oliver said. “As things move toward a more automated front, they want more and more people who can help reduce deviance and reduce risk.”

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article misquoted Jeffrey Oliver. Edit was made June 4, 2026.