Creighton University

Department of Sociology and Anthropology

The Department of Sociology, Anthropology & Social Work has developed and received approval for a new graduate program in Medical Anthropology. The program is designed to provide a usable skill set for health and health care in an increasingly complex world through taking seriously the important factor of culture. This cultural approach to health and health care makes the program unique and complementary with other health-related programs. With its emphasis on fieldwork and cultural analysis in the light of biomedical knowledge, the program furthers the excellence of healthcare professionals. The program promotes strategies for equitable access to effective health care both domestically and globally. The courses are primarily offered online. The master’s program consists of twelve courses (36 credit hours). Students select one of the following program paths: the thesis tracks are (1) the Field Research Track and (2) the Library Research Track. The non-thesis track is (3) the Practicum Track, which includes a capstone paper. The graduate certificate program consists of six courses (18 credit hours). Creighton undergraduate students can, in their final semester, take 600-level courses in this program.

The book Mission Based Policing, by Drs. Rebecca Murray (left) and Dawn Irlbeck (right) of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, with Dr. John Crank and Mr. Mark Sundermeier, has been nominated as the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Outstanding Book for 2011.


Mission Based Policing introduces a different way to organize police departments to more efficiently and effectively fight serious crime. As police forces, like many government structures, are struggling amidst budget cuts, they must look to new models of policing that minimize resource drain and more efficiently address serious crime. Using a combination of several theoretical perspectives, including community policing, problem oriented policing and hot spot policing, this book creates a framework for "serious crime" deployment priority guided by an "intelligence led policing" notion of information processing.

The book will be published in July by CRC Press.

The Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Outstanding Book Award is given annually to the book which has provided an extraordinary contribution to the study of crime and criminal justice, and will be awarded in March 2012 at the academy?s Annual Meeting in New York. For more information on the award, please see www.acjs.org

Mission Based Policing can be purchased at crcpress.com