The School is committed to the following principles:
To contribute to the advancement of knowledge in general and of criminology in particular, through education and research;
To cater to the educational and professional needs of the community by producing action-oriented graduates, who are better prepared than any currently available, to work at various levels in the different sectors of the criminal justice system and within the community, to meet the challenge of crime in a free, democratic society;
To promote individual, social and organizational change by producing innovative and change-oriented graduates, not just to work in the criminal justice system, or to administer it as it stands, but be capable and willing to evaluate, analyze and change it;
To contribute to public education and public enlightenment about crime and justice, through the dissemination of scientific, unbiased information; to assess and eventually help to change public attitudes towards crime and punishment;
To accelerate the shaping of a fair, rational and responsive criminal justice system, and a criminal policy that establishes an equilibrium between individual liberties and the necessary social controls;
To promote understanding and co-operation among people in the social, legal and behavioural sciences, in and outside the university, through an interdisciplinary and integrative approach through team teaching and team research;
To contribute in various ways to social development and social reform.