• Find a bachelor's degree




    Bachelors Degree Center is an advertising-supported site. Featured or trusted partner programs and all school search, finder, or match results are for schools that compensate us. This compensation does not influence our school rankings, resource guides, or other editorially-independent information published on this site.

Why study crim­i­nal jus­tice? If TV and movies have taught us any­thing, it’s that crime­fight­ing takes guts and con­fi­dence — not a col­lege degree. But in the real world, is a crim­i­nal jus­tice degree worth it? Is a crim­i­nol­o­gy degree use­ful? Heck yeah.

Why Study Criminal Justice?

A career in Crim­i­nal Jus­tice reach­es far beyond dis­patch­ers and cor­rec­tions offi­cers, and crim­i­nal jus­tice degree ben­e­fits are many. It’s typ­i­cal­ly thought of as the process of catch­ing, try­ing and pun­ish­ing crim­i­nals, but it also includes the study of crime. Why study crim­i­nal jus­tice? The study of crim­i­nal jus­tice includes study­ing the caus­es of crime and crim­i­nal behav­ior. It digs deep into the social aspects of crime, mak­ing crim­i­nal jus­tice degree ben­e­fits to a pro­fes­sion­al invaluable.

Relat­ed:

Criminal Justice Degree Benefits

Some of the crim­i­nal jus­tice degree ben­e­fits are jobs in cyber­crime, juve­nile jus­tice, crime scene inves­ti­ga­tor, and law enforce­ment — jobs you don’t get with guts and con­fi­dence alone. The Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics pre­dicts increased growth in the need for crim­i­nal jus­tice careers, which makes it worth­while to pur­sue a crim­i­nal jus­tice degree. Job growth for police and detec­tives is expect­ed to increase by about 7% through 2026. The crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem is empha­siz­ing reha­bil­i­ta­tion ver­sus incar­cer­a­tion, so the need for pro­ba­tion offi­cers and crim­i­nal treat­ment spe­cial­ist is increasing.

These aren’t the only jobs on the rise that ben­e­fit from a crim­i­nal jus­tice degree. There are prob­a­bly some jobs that are rarely heard of, such as foren­sic sci­ence tech­ni­cians and com­mu­ni­ty con­trol offi­cers that require bachelor’s degrees. Pro­fes­sors, foren­sic phys­i­ol­o­gists and crim­i­nol­o­gists need a master’s degree or high­er. Recent­ly, there have been unmet demands with­in the law enforce­ment field for employ­ees with high­er education.

So is a crim­i­nol­o­gy degree use­ful? Obtain­ing a degree in crim­i­nal jus­tice lays the foun­da­tion to devel­op the skills need­ed to do the job. Hav­ing a degree shows that an indi­vid­ual has to abil­i­ty to learn, take ini­tia­tive, and have dis­ci­pline. Study today also incor­po­rates the use of tech­nol­o­gy which is more read­i­ly used in the field. For these rea­sons, a can­di­date with a degree is in a bet­ter posi­tion when apply­ing for a job.

Is a crim­i­nal jus­tice degree worth it? The trends in job growth, salary, and edu­ca­tion all point the wor­thi­ness of a degree in crim­i­nal jus­tice. The demand for high­er edu­ca­tion is increas­ing by record speed, and a crim­i­nal jus­tice degree puts can­di­dates on the right path for success.

Criminal Justice Colleges, Education, and Career Preparation

Accord­ing to the Coun­cil for High­er Edu­ca­tion Accred­i­ta­tion (CHEA), accred­i­ta­tion is the review of the qual­i­ty of insti­tu­tions and pro­grams. This is how stu­dents and the gov­ern­ment know the qual­i­ty of what an insti­tu­tion is pro­vid­ing. The most rec­og­nized type of accred­i­ta­tion in the US is region­al accred­i­ta­tion. This means that typ­i­cal­ly cred­its or degrees received at one region­al­ly accred­it­ed college/university are accept­ed by oth­er region­al­ly accred­it­ed colleges/universities.

There are 6 region­al accred­it­ing orga­ni­za­tions in the US that pro­vide the accred­i­ta­tion for colleges/universities. These orga­ni­za­tions have been reviewed by CHEA for qual­i­ty. These accred­i­tors are pri­vate orga­ni­za­tions that aren’t attached to or run by any gov­ern­ment agency. Their whole pur­pose is to review college/university pro­grams for quality.

Accred­i­ta­tion is impor­tant when a stu­dent is in need of fed­er­al fund­ing because the gov­ern­ment requires it for a stu­dent to be eli­gi­ble for grants and loans. Employ­ers pro­vid­ing tuition assis­tance to an employ­ee require the college/university is accred­it­ed. The CHEA Data­base of Insti­tu­tions and Pro­grams Accred­it­ed by Rec­og­nized Unit­ed States Accred­it­ing Orga­ni­za­tions con­tains qual­i­ty infor­ma­tion about more than 8,200 insti­tu­tions and 20,000 pro­grams in the US.

Criminal Justice Accreditation at the Program Level

Accred­i­ta­tion cer­ti­fies that qual­i­ty schools and pro­grams are rec­og­nized and fraud­u­lent schools, often known as diplo­ma mills, are not. A pro­gram with crim­i­nal jus­tice accred­i­ta­tion pro­vides the skills need­ed for jobs in the indus­try. Regard­less of the job with­in the crim­i­nal jus­tice field, all stu­dents need an in-depth under­stand­ing and back­ground on the legal sys­tem. This is con­stant­ly chang­ing as laws are changed and cre­at­ed every day, which changes the infor­ma­tion thought in class. This is one of the rea­sons why crim­i­nal jus­tice accred­i­ta­tion is impor­tant. Employ­ers expect that job can­di­dates with degrees in crim­i­nal jus­tice will have the need­ed under­stand­ing and background.

Prospec­tive crim­i­nal jus­tice stu­dents should always make sure they are attend­ing a school with region­al accred­i­ta­tion, and the school they want to attend is on the Depart­ment of Education’s list. A region­al­ly-accred­it­ed school with crim­i­nal jus­tice accred­i­ta­tion is even bet­ter. Diplo­ma mills are an increas­ing prob­lem with many online pro­grams lack­ing cred­i­bil­i­ty in the indus­try. This often means stu­dents pay a large price for a fake degree. These places often claim to be accred­it­ed, so stu­dents should always research the insti­tu­tion to ensure they tru­ly are. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, places like this ben­e­fit from those look­ing for a quick solu­tion at a less­er price. They often promise degrees in mere months with very lit­tle work involved. Stu­dents should real­ize that this isn’t pos­si­ble. There is a rea­son why degrees take a spec­i­fied amount of time and you can’t short­cut your way to a suc­cess­ful career field.

The accred­it­ing agen­cies devel­op cri­te­ria to eval­u­ate school and pro­grams. Accred­i­ta­tion leads true colleges/universities to devel­op qual­i­ty cours­es, pro­vide rel­e­vant mate­r­i­al and qual­i­fied instruc­tors to help them meet the require­ments. Employ­ers will seek can­di­dates with degrees from accred­it­ed colleges/universities. The U.S. Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion pub­lish­es a list of nation­al­ly rec­og­nized accred­it­ing agen­cies that are author­i­ties about the qual­i­ty of edu­ca­tion pro­vid­ed by the insti­tu­tions and pro­grams they accredit.

Getting a Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice: Is Criminal Justice a Good Major?

A career in crim­i­nal jus­tice doesn’t have to begin with a bachelor’s in crim­i­nal jus­tice — there are plen­ty of jobs in the field that don’t require a col­lege degree at all, with just a high school diplo­ma associate’s degree, or a crim­i­nal jus­tice cer­tifi­cate. But crim­i­nal jus­tice edu­ca­tion require­ments increase with high­er-rank­ing posi­tions. If you want real author­i­ty or advance­ment, a bachelor’s in crim­i­nal jus­tice or a bachelor’s in crim­i­nol­o­gy is the way to go.

The most valu­able thing about a bachelor’s in crim­i­nal jus­tice or a bachelor’s in crim­i­nol­o­gy is the enor­mous range of options they give you. Crim­i­nal jus­tice jobs can put you on the street as an inves­ti­ga­tor or safe in an office as an admin­is­tra­tor; you may work in a lab, a class­room, or any num­ber of oth­er set­tings. There are mul­ti­ple spe­cial­iza­tions in a col­lege of crim­i­nol­o­gy and crim­i­nal jus­tice, and the best crim­i­nal jus­tice schools pro­vide a lot of guid­ance and sup­port in help­ing stu­dents fig­ure out what spe­cial­iza­tions are right for them.

Is crim­i­nal jus­tice a social sci­ence? In many col­leges, crim­i­nal jus­tice is classed in the social sci­ences, but there’s no real stan­dard for crim­i­nal jus­tice the way there may be in nurs­ing or account­ing, for instance (you’d nev­er find a nurs­ing pro­gram in the human­i­ties depart­ment, for instance). But crim­i­nal jus­tice is such a large field that some schools have their own ded­i­cat­ed col­lege of crim­i­nol­o­gy and crim­i­nal jus­tice, but var­i­ous ele­ments of crim­i­nal jus­tice can fit into all kinds of areas.

The best crim­i­nal jus­tice schools are inter­dis­ci­pli­nary by neces­si­ty, but in col­leges or uni­ver­si­ties that don’t have their own col­lege of crim­i­nol­o­gy and crim­i­nal jus­tice, pro­grams may be scat­tered through sev­er­al dif­fer­ent depart­ments. Many com­put­er sci­ence depart­ments, for instance, will offer cyber secu­ri­ty and foren­sics, a crim­i­nal jus­tice spe­cial­iza­tion. On the oth­er hand, human­i­ties schools may offer psy­chol­o­gy degrees ori­ent­ed toward crim­i­nal jus­tice. The best col­leges for crim­i­nal jus­tice and law enforce­ment put all of these pro­grams togeth­er to inform and enrich each other.

So is crim­i­nal jus­tice a BA or BS? Yes, both, depend­ing on what depart­ment awards it, and some­times a BAS (Bach­e­lor of Applied Sci­ence), a Bach­e­lor of Crim­i­nal Jus­tice, or one of many oth­er pos­si­ble names. Is crim­i­nal jus­tice a hard major? Every major has its chal­lenges, but pas­sion and ded­i­ca­tion will help you get through the chal­lenges. Is crim­i­nal jus­tice a hard major? That depends on how bad­ly you want it.

Criminal Justice Education Requirements

A bach­e­lor’s degree in crim­i­nal jus­tice at the best col­leges for crim­i­nal jus­tice and law enforce­ment is usu­al­ly a 4‑year degree that requires 120 cred­its. A crim­i­nal jus­tice cer­tifi­cate or degree can be the start­ing point for many careers. A bach­e­lor’s in crim­i­nal jus­tice cov­ers research to crim­i­nal law and gives stu­dents work­ing knowl­edge of the court sys­tem. This degree also gives the stu­dent a deep­er under­stand­ing of cor­rec­tions insti­tu­tions and law enforce­ment agen­cies. Stu­dents also learn the tools, meth­ods, and insti­tu­tions deployed with­in the crim­i­nal jus­tice system.

Some crim­i­nal jus­tice degree schools stress the­o­ry and research while encour­ag­ing sci­en­tif­ic inquiry, abstract log­i­cal think­ing, and crit­i­cal analy­sis. Stu­dents gain an under­stand­ing of the prob­lems of crime and the jus­tice sys­tem. Oth­er pro­grams study the issues of crime and jus­tice and how their prop­er func­tion­ing is crit­i­cal to a healthy soci­ety. Stu­dents will under­stand the pat­terns and caus­es of crime, along with the chal­lenges that crim­i­nal jus­tice agen­cies face as they attempt to bal­ance con­trol with hon­or­ing civ­il lib­er­ties. Stu­dents will also study the need for secu­ri­ty man­age­ment as soci­ety is fac­ing new safe­ty risks every day and how that impacts the community.

All stu­dents will take gen­er­al crim­i­nal jus­tice cours­es in areas like

  • Crime scene investigation
  • Crime sta­tis­tics
  • Crim­i­nal psychology
  • Crim­i­nol­o­gy theory
  • Ethics
  • Law enforce­ment procedure

From there, crim­i­nal jus­tice edu­ca­tion require­ments will depend on the degree spe­cial­iza­tion you choose; those going into admin­is­tra­tive work may have more cours­es in law and man­age­ment, while stu­dents look­ing for tech­nol­o­gy-relat­ed crim­i­nal jus­tice careers will have more com­put­er sci­ence courses.

The crim­i­nal jus­tice class­es to take are taught by those who are a blend of researchers and prac­ti­tion­ers with exten­sive knowl­edge of the crim­i­nal jus­tice field. They aim to cre­ate a well-round­ed, prin­ci­pled group of grad­u­ates at every lev­el of edu­ca­tion. Class sizes in the best crim­i­nal jus­tice schools will usu­al­ly be kept small, allow­ing stu­dents to focus on obtain­ing a deep knowl­edge of the social sci­ence of crim­i­nol­o­gy. Stu­dents have a fac­ul­ty men­tor that fol­lows them close­ly to pre­pare them to begin a suc­cess­ful career upon grad­u­a­tion. The stu­dents are able to cus­tomize their degree to pick stud­ies, like pair­ing crim­i­nol­o­gy with sta­tis­tics, that fit their desired career path. The stu­dents and the com­mu­ni­ty ben­e­fit from com­mu­ni­ty-engaged learn­ing where they go into the com­mu­ni­ty to apply what they’ve learned in var­i­ous set­tings like pris­ons to at-risk youth programs.

Can I Get An Online Criminal Justice Degree?

Many schools under­stand the new chal­lenges that face stu­dents as the preva­lence of work­ing stu­dents is on the rise, and there­fore have made crim­i­nal jus­tice degree online pro­grams more acces­si­ble and afford­able. Some offer 100% online and some offer a hybrid solu­tion, which is a com­bi­na­tion of online and class­room work. An online crim­i­nal jus­tice bach­e­lor degree is an ide­al solu­tion for work­ing peo­ple already in the crim­i­nal jus­tice field who need a degree for advancement.

The best online crim­i­nal jus­tice degree pro­grams are geared towards edu­cat­ing stu­dents on every phase of the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem from when a per­son enters the sys­tem to the tri­al. The pro­fes­sors have court­room or cor­rec­tions field expe­ri­ence and bring that knowl­edge to the class­room. The online crim­i­nal jus­tice degree offers var­i­ous spe­cial­iza­tions to allow stu­dents to tai­lor their degree to their career goals.

What about crim­i­nal jus­tice accred­i­ta­tion? With rep­utable col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties every­where offer­ing online crim­i­nal jus­tice degree pro­grams, it’s easy to find an accred­it­ed crim­i­nal jus­tice degree online from some of the most trust­ed crim­i­nal jus­tice schools in the US.

Fast, Cheap, and Under Control

With the demand for crim­i­nal jus­tice degree online pro­grams, many crim­i­nal jus­tice schools have made con­ces­sions to meet stu­dents’ needs, includ­ing accel­er­at­ed degree pro­grams and low-tuition pro­grams. Whether you’re look­ing for the fastest crim­i­nal jus­tice degree online, for an afford­able crim­i­nal jus­tice degree online, or for the rock-bot­tom cheap­est crim­i­nal jus­tice degree, the best online col­leges for law enforce­ment are work­ing to reach stu­dents where they are.

Online crim­i­nal jus­tice cer­tifi­cate pro­grams and crim­i­nal jus­tice class­es online can also be an afford­able alter­na­tive, though they have their lim­i­ta­tions. You may earn cred­its from online crim­i­nal jus­tice cer­tifi­cate pro­grams that you can lat­er trans­fer to an online crim­i­nal jus­tice degree pro­gram, and crim­i­nal jus­tice class­es online may be trans­fer­able as well. These can help short­en your time to get a crim­i­nal jus­tice degree online, some­times to as lit­tle as two years or less since you start out ahead.

But can you get an online crim­i­nal jus­tice degree free? Kind of. It’s entire­ly pos­si­ble to find schol­ar­ships, grants, and oth­er finan­cial aid for your online degree, and it may even be pos­si­ble to find enough to make your online crim­i­nal jus­tice degree free. Alter­nate­ly, if you’re look­ing for the cheap­est crim­i­nal jus­tice degree, you may seek out free online law enforce­ment class­es. Some free online law enforce­ment class­es can serve for con­tin­u­ing edu­ca­tion cred­it or meet require­ments for cer­ti­fi­ca­tion or licen­sure, but may not offer col­lege cred­it toward an online crim­i­nal jus­tice degree.

Criminal Justice Certification

There are many types of crim­i­nal jus­tice cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in the field that focus on course­work in a spe­cif­ic area, such as secu­ri­ty man­age­ment, cor­rec­tions lead­er­ship, and juve­nile jus­tice lead­er­ship. There are also crim­i­nal jus­tice cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­grams that spe­cial­ize in youth inter­ven­tion, as well as cer­tifi­cates in tech­ni­cal crime spe­cial­iza­tion. Any of these cer­ti­fi­ca­tions offer a chance to retain advanced knowl­edge and learn ways to begin mak­ing a dif­fer­ence to the peo­ple in the community.

Secu­ri­ty man­age­ment cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­vides train­ing in white-col­lar crime, home­land secu­ri­ty, spe­cial secu­ri­ty prob­lems, ter­ror­ism, crim­i­nal jus­tice orga­ni­za­tions, and pri­vate secu­ri­ty. Cor­rec­tions lead­er­ship cours­es will give a greater under­stand­ing of crim­i­nal jus­tice sen­tenc­ing, law, social con­trol, and human resources. A juve­nile jus­tice cer­ti­fi­ca­tion focus­es on inter­ven­tion fun­da­men­tals and sup­port. These crim­i­nal jus­tice cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­grams are heav­i­ly cen­tered around child abuse treat­ment, sub­stance abuse inter­ven­tion, social work the­o­ry, cri­sis inter­ven­tion, and youth advo­ca­cy. There is also a focus on sex offend­ers in the crim­i­nal jus­tice system.

Among law enforce­ment cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­grams, vic­tim advo­ca­cy cer­tifi­cates take a deep­er dive in the social work side of crim­i­nal jus­tice with a focus on domes­tic vio­lence, cri­sis inter­ven­tion, vic­tim’s rights, and vic­tim­iza­tion. On the oppo­site side, tech­ni­cal crime spe­cial­iza­tion cer­tifi­cates focus on crime analy­sis, crime scene inves­ti­ga­tion, crim­i­nal pro­fil­ing, and dig­i­tal foren­sics and crime. These law enforce­ment cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­grams help offi­cers pro­vide more hands-on expe­ri­ence in areas such as inves­tiga­tive analy­sis, crime intel­li­gence, crime map­ping, and crim­i­nal jus­tice technologies.

What are Some Bachelor of Criminal Justice Jobs?

The beau­ty of a bachelor’s in crim­i­nal jus­tice is that there are so many poten­tial careers in law enforce­ment. Bach­e­lor of crim­i­nal jus­tice jobs can be found in every sec­tor, not just in gov­ern­ment; pri­vate indus­try employs peo­ple with crim­i­nal jus­tice degrees for secu­ri­ty, crim­i­nal jus­tice experts work in edu­ca­tion, and pro­fes­sion­als with a crim­i­nal jus­tice degree can go into pri­vate inves­ti­ga­tion and consulting.

But of course, the gov­ern­ment is the pri­ma­ry employ­er of crim­i­nal jus­tice jobs. From the local and state lev­el to fed­er­al law enforce­ment and secu­ri­ty agen­cies — the DEA and ATF, Home­land Secu­ri­ty, and the NSA — crim­i­nal jus­tice jobs are at the heart of government.

Just a few of the career oppor­tu­ni­ties form crim­i­nal jus­tice majors include:

  • para­le­gal
  • parole offi­cers
  • secret ser­vices
  • social ser­vices
  • foren­sic psychologist
  • pri­vate detectives
  • vic­tim advocates
  • bor­der patrol

It’s not all crim­i­nal cas­es and cor­rec­tion­al facil­i­ties. Not all jobs require phys­i­cal fit­ness, though some jobs in police depart­ments, like patrol offi­cers and oth­er law enforce­ment offi­cers, may require basic fit­ness. Crim­i­nal jus­tice pro­grams should empha­size deci­sion-mak­ing and crit­i­cal think­ing, from the crime lab to the Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty, from the local lev­el to the fed­er­al level.

Federal Criminal Justice Jobs

One of the best known — and most pres­ti­gious — crim­i­nal jus­tice jobs are with the Fed­er­al Bureau of Inves­ti­ga­tion (FBI). FBI Agents are required to have a Bach­e­lor’s Degree, so you must have some type of school­ing beyond high school for this career. They begin their career with new agent train­ing and then pick one area in which to spe­cial­ize. The new agent train­ing includes 1,000 more hours of train­ing in aca­d­e­mics, cas­es, firearms train­ing, and oper­a­tions. FBI agents are high­ly trained and spe­cial­ized and only the best are picked. The areas in which they can start include Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy, Intel­li­gence Analy­sis, Lan­guage, and Applied Sci­ence, Engi­neer­ing, and Technology.

Cen­tral Intel­li­gence Agency (CIA) spe­cial agents are also high­ly spe­cial­ized and trained for crim­i­nal jus­tice jobs. These agents help the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment inves­ti­gate law vio­la­tions. They col­lab­o­rate with many oth­er law enforce­ment agen­cies reg­u­lar­ly. CIA agents must have a bach­e­lor’s degree, which can be a bach­e­lor’s in crim­i­nal jus­tice, but does­n’t have to be. They also are required to have at least five years of inves­ti­ga­tion experience.

A bach­e­lor’s degree is also need­ed to obtain a job as a postal inspec­tor. They work for the Unit­ed States Postal Ser­vice (USPS) and inves­ti­gate crime involv­ing the mail. This includes theft, fraud, and van­dal­ism. If a mail crime has been com­mit­ted, the postal inspec­tor will get involved. Postal inspec­tors are high­ly trained and receive an addi­tion­al 12 weeks of training.

Drug Enforce­ment Admin­is­tra­tion (DEA) agents, work for the US Jus­tice Depart­ment to enforce the drug laws of the US. They inves­ti­gate, track, and arrest drug traf­fick­ers. This job requires a bach­e­lor’s degree in crim­i­nal jus­tice, or oth­er relat­ed fields. Once select­ed for the posi­tion, appli­cants receive 18 weeks of basic agent train­ing at the DEA Train­ing Academy.

What Kind of Forensic Technician Jobs Are Available?

There are many var­i­ous foren­sic tech­ni­cian jobs avail­able, such as a blood-spat­ter ana­lyst, which requires a high­ly spe­cif­ic edu­ca­tion in biol­o­gy, physics, and chem­istry. These can­di­dates are foren­sic sci­en­tists and aim to under­stand how the blood arrived at the crime scene and to whom it belonged. They will locate and pre­serve the blood and do an in-depth analy­sis of it. They often try to repro­duce the spat­ter pat­tern, which can vary based on motion, grav­i­ty, air pres­sure, among many oth­er things.

Crime Scene Inves­ti­ga­tors are also part of the foren­sic sci­ence area of crime. Accord­ing to the Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics, the demand for crime scene inves­ti­ga­tors will grow by 17% over the next eight years. They col­lect evi­dence and ana­lyze it in a lab to iden­ti­fy sus­pects or cor­rob­o­rate eye­wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny. They also can prove the inno­cence of those who are wrong­ly accused.

Com­put­er foren­sics spe­cial­ists use foren­sic sci­ence, com­put­er sci­ence, and crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion. They are high­ly trained at using advanced data extrac­tion to piece togeth­er infor­ma­tion that may have seemed lost. Crimes are more fre­quent­ly being com­mit­ted with elec­tron­ic devices, and com­put­er foren­sics focus­es on those type of crimes.

Entry Level Criminal Justice Jobs

A foren­sic tech­ni­cian is an entry-lev­el crim­i­nal jus­tice job focused on the tech­ni­cal aspects of crime inves­ti­ga­tion. School­ing for crim­i­nal jus­tice to become a foren­sic tech­ni­cian can start as ear­ly as high school by focus­ing on sci­ence and math. A degree in foren­sic sci­ence will allow foren­sic tech­ni­cian can­di­dates to achieve more suc­cess in their careers. A foren­sic tech­ni­cian works in labs, court­rooms, and oth­er places where they recon­struct events and crime scenes based on things like hair sam­ples, bro­ken mate­r­i­al, and fingerprints.

Accord­ing to the Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics, the demand for pro­ba­tion offi­cers — anoth­er of the many entry-lev­el crim­i­nal jus­tice jobs in law enforce­ment — will increase by 6% through 2026. They need a bach­e­lor’s degree in crim­i­nal jus­tice and they mon­i­tor those released from the cor­rec­tions sys­tem to make sure they fol­low the rules of their pro­ba­tion. They also assist those recent­ly released with adjust­ing to life after incarceration.

Anoth­er of the entry-lev­el crim­i­nal jus­tice jobs that can pre­pare a can­di­date for more expe­ri­enced law enforce­ment is a secu­ri­ty guard posi­tion. Due to the con­stant, high demand for secu­ri­ty guards the Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics projects a 6% job growth in the next eight years. They patrol assigned areas watch­ing for sus­pi­cious activ­i­ty, ensur­ing all guide­lines required by their employ­ers are enforced. Secu­ri­ty guards often work con­certs in con­junc­tion with law enforce­ment to deter crime and ensure safety.

How Much Does a Criminal Justice Degree Make? Criminal Justice Salary Expectations

A degree in crim­i­nal jus­tice allows a prospec­tive employ­ee the option of many types of jobs. The crim­i­nal jus­tice salary relat­ed to these jobs varies great­ly as well. Those with a crim­i­nal jus­tice degree start at a high­er salary than those with­out a bach­e­lor’s in crim­i­nal justice.

The Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics offers the medi­an wages of jobs that fall under a crim­i­nal jus­tice salary. For exam­ple, a pro­ba­tion offi­cer in 2017 could expect to make around $51,410 per year. The esti­mat­ed annu­al crim­i­nal jus­tice salary of foren­sic sci­ence tech­ni­cians is $61,220, but in states like Cal­i­for­nia, Neva­da, and Illi­nois where the demand is high­er, the aver­age salary is between $76,160 and $82,650.

The Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics states the demand for police offi­cers will grow by 7% through 2026 and have an aver­age salary of $62,960. How­ev­er, homi­cide detec­tives have an annu­al aver­age salary of $62,960. Cor­rec­tions offi­cers earn an aver­age salary of $43,510 work­ing in jails and super­vis­ing those who’ve com­mit­ted crimes. Pri­vate inves­ti­ga­tors tend to work on cas­es in the pri­vate sec­tor that typ­i­cal­ly do not involve a crime, aver­age a salary around $55,080.

The fed­er­al gov­ern­men­t’s FBI agents start around $45,771, but depend­ing on their loca­tion could earn as much as $73,634 annu­al­ly. DEA agents typ­i­cal­ly start around $49,746 but with­in four years can increase to $92,592. CIA spe­cial agents tend to make more com­ing in between $74,872 and $136,771 per year. Foren­sic sci­en­tists earn a medi­an salary of $57,850.

Criminal Justice Associations and Professional Organizations

The learn­ing does­n’t stop after obtain­ing a degree in crim­i­nal jus­tice. In real­i­ty, it has just begun. The law is flu­id, as it is con­stant­ly chang­ing. As a mem­ber of the crim­i­nal jus­tice com­mu­ni­ty, those with crim­i­nal jus­tice degrees must always strive to improve the process and ensure the laws are fair and just. Main­tain­ing mem­ber­ship in pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions is one way to con­nect with like-mind­ed indi­vid­u­als to be a vehi­cle for change.

This is where the ques­tion, is a crim­i­nal jus­tice degree worth it, real­ly comes to the fore. It’s worth it if you make it worth it, and one of the key ways of mak­ing a crim­i­nal jus­tice degree worth it is tak­ing advan­tage of the pro­fes­sion­al crim­i­nal jus­tice asso­ci­a­tions out there. Mem­ber­ship in crim­i­nal jus­tice asso­ci­a­tions like the Acad­e­my of Crim­i­nal Jus­tice Sci­ences offers many benefits:

  • Net­work­ing
  • Con­tin­u­ing Education
  • Job Mar­ket Access
  • Extra Perqs (insur­ance, dis­counts, retire­ment ben­e­fits, etc)

There are many pro­fes­sion­al crim­i­nal jus­tice asso­ci­a­tions with­in the field. Some of the most influ­en­tial include:

Acad­e­my of Crim­i­nal Jus­tice Sci­ences (ACJS), whose intent is to fos­ter pro­fes­sion­al and schol­ar­ly activ­i­ties. They believe in crim­i­nal jus­tice edu­ca­tion, research, and pol­i­cy analy­sis. This group exchanges ideas and gain a bet­ter under­stand­ing of crit­i­cal issues in crim­i­nal and social jus­tice. As a group they seek crim­i­nal jus­tice reform.

The Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Foren­sic Sci­ences (AAFS) is a mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tion that pro­vides lead­er­ship and guid­ance to advance sci­ence and how it’s used in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem. The objec­tives are to fos­ter pro­fes­sion­al net­work­ing, integri­ty, improve prac­tice and encour­age col­lab­o­ra­tion in foren­sic science.

The Nation­al Crim­i­nal Jus­tice Asso­ci­a­tion (NCJA) is ded­i­cat­ed to assist­ing crim­i­nal jus­tice agen­cies in devel­op­ing and imple­ment­ing effec­tive crim­i­nal jus­tice pol­i­cy. Mem­bers cov­er a wide range of ser­vices with­in the crim­i­nal jus­tice com­mu­ni­ty. They pro­mote a crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem that improves pub­lic safe­ty, pre­vents the dev­as­tat­ing effects of crim­i­nal behav­ior, and sanc­tions offend­ers fair­ly. Mem­bers are con­tin­u­al­ly edu­cat­ed on fed­er­al activ­i­ties, oppor­tu­ni­ties for fund­ing, and improv­ing poli­cies and practices.