What Can I Do with a Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice Degree?

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• A crim­i­nal jus­tice bach­e­lor’s opens up var­i­ous career oppor­tu­ni­ties in fields such as law enforce­ment, cyber­crime, foren­sic sci­ence, and juve­nile jus­tice.
• With a bachelor’s degree, you’re eli­gi­ble for high­er-rank­ing and more spe­cial­ized roles in the crim­i­nal jus­tice field.
• A bach­e­lor’s in crim­i­nal jus­tice pro­vides essen­tial knowl­edge and skills that are high­ly val­ued in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem, includ­ing under­stand­ing crim­i­nal behav­ior, legal pro­ce­dures, and effec­tive com­mu­ni­ca­tion.

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:

• Fastest Crim­i­nal Jus­tice Degree Programs
• Best Bachelor’s in Crim­i­nal Jus­tice Degree Programs
• Best Online Crim­i­nal Jus­tice Degree Bachelor’s Programs
• Fastest Online Crim­i­nal Jus­tice Degree Bachelor’s Programs
• Most Afford­able Crim­i­nal Jus­tice Degree Bach­e­lor Programs

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.