Criminal justice is an intellectual focus or a field of study which cuts across other aspects of society. All other disciplines and fields have some responsibility for it as a problem area and have definite responsibilities for dealing with it. In formulating an interdisciplinary approach to criminal justice education, it is necessary to reflect on the almost total absence of great leadership in the police ranks since mid-1800's. Police have traditionally seen themselves as men of action and have not rewarded intellectual achievement or encouraged abstract thinking regarding the police role in society and in the local community. However, there seems to be a growing support for professional law enforcement in community decision-making. Police decisionmaking will be expected to be grounded in a wide moral and ethical base which recognizes widely varying interest groups in society. To produce such an educated police officer, the criminal justice curriculum must be based on an intellectual blend of the humanities, social sciences, and liberal arts with crucial criminal justice problems, issues, and policies. The criminal justice student should have a dual major -- one in criminal justice and one in a special discipline or field. A good criminal justice program must make it possible for the other academic components of the university to relate to criminal justice as a field and commit some of their resources to identifying and solving its problem. No more than 25 percent of coursework should be taken in criminal justice. The components of specific curriculum are outlined. Explanatory footnotes appear throughout.