Choosing the Right Degree: A Guide for Aspiring Law Enforcement Officers

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• High­er edu­ca­tion can boost your career in law enforce­ment, help­ing you qual­i­fy for high­er posi­tions like a sergeant, detec­tive, or even a chief of police.
• Dif­fer­ent degree options like crim­i­nal jus­tice, crim­i­nol­o­gy, psy­chol­o­gy, soci­ol­o­gy, and pub­lic admin­is­tra­tion offer unique skills and oppor­tu­ni­ties in var­i­ous law enforce­ment roles, from patrol offi­cers to FBI agents.
• Con­tin­u­ing edu­ca­tion and pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment are essen­tial for stay­ing up-to-date with best prac­tices, improv­ing skills, and advanc­ing in your law enforce­ment career.
• Spe­cial­ized degrees such as cyber­se­cu­ri­ty, foren­sic sci­ence, and home­land secu­ri­ty are increas­ing­ly valu­able in mod­ern law enforce­ment, pro­vid­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties in dig­i­tal foren­sics, crime scene inves­ti­ga­tion, and nation­al security.

Law enforce­ment edu­ca­tion isn’t just impor­tant for under­stand­ing the legal ele­ments of the job; it’s also nec­es­sary to devel­op essen­tial com­mu­ni­ca­tion and lead­er­ship skills, com­pe­tence with firearms, and a deep under­stand­ing of criminology.

That being the case, it can be tough to decide between the var­i­ous pop­u­lar degrees for law enforce­ment. You can focus on psy­chol­o­gy in polic­ing, a crim­i­nal jus­tice degree, or foren­sic sci­ence, to name a few. This guide will help you get famil­iar with com­mon law enforce­ment edu­ca­tion options so you can choose a path that aligns most close­ly with your inter­ests, abil­i­ties, and career goals. 

Relat­ed:

• Career Paths With a Foren­sic Sci­ence Degree in Law Enforcement
• Best Degree For Police Careers: Crim­i­nal Jus­tice or Criminology?
• Ben­e­fits of Psy­chol­o­gy Degrees for Police Officers
• Is a Bachelor’s Degree Worth It for Police Officers?
• Emer­gency Man­age­ment vs. Crim­i­nal Jus­tice Degrees for Polic­ing Careers
• Foren­sic Sci­ence vs. Crim­i­nal Jus­tice Degrees: Which is Best for Future Detectives?

Importance of Higher Education in Law Enforcement

While some law enforce­ment careers don’t require a col­lege degree, hav­ing a degree can enhance your career prospects.

For exam­ple, local police agen­cies might only require basic law enforce­ment train­ing, like six weeks of class­es at the police acad­e­my, to qual­i­fy for a job as a patrol offi­cer. How­ev­er, with a bachelor’s degree in crim­i­nal jus­tice, you might qual­i­fy for a high­er posi­tion on the force, like a sergeant or detective.

Of course, hav­ing a col­lege edu­ca­tion also means you have an expand­ed skill set. Tak­ing foren­sic sci­ence class­es, for exam­ple, can help you devel­op improved crime scene inves­ti­ga­tion skills.

As anoth­er exam­ple, an edu­ca­tion in pub­lic admin­is­tra­tion can equip you with the knowl­edge and skills to assume high­er-rank­ing posi­tions with your police orga­ni­za­tion. In some cas­es, admin­is­tra­tive degrees are required for posi­tions like chief of police or sher­iff. Oth­er high-rank­ing law enforce­ment posi­tions that often require a degree include the following:

• Crim­i­nol­o­gist
• Crim­i­nal Profiler
• FBI or CIA Agent
• U.S. Mar­shall
• Cus­toms and Bor­der Pro­tec­tion Officer

Popular Degree Options for Law Enforcement

The beau­ty of work­ing in law enforce­ment is that there are many dif­fer­ent paths you can take with your edu­ca­tion. You can focus on crim­i­nal­i­ty, human behav­ior, law enforce­ment man­age­ment, and any oth­er num­ber of fields. Below are just a few pop­u­lar options you might con­sid­er as you pur­sue a career in law enforcement.

Criminal Justice

Crim­i­nal jus­tice is one of the most pop­u­lar degree options for law enforce­ment because of its focus on cor­rec­tions, the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem, and polic­ing. Each of these fields is rel­e­vant to any job in law enforce­ment, and with exper­tise in these areas, you’ll be a bet­ter-informed and bet­ter-equipped offi­cer of the law.

Com­mon class­es in under­grad­u­ate crim­i­nal jus­tice pro­grams include the following:

• The Cor­rec­tion­al System
• The Judi­cial System
• Vic­ti­mol­o­gy
• Cul­tur­al Aware­ness in Crim­i­nal Justice
• Con­tem­po­rary Issues in Crim­i­nal Justice

You can pur­sue many dif­fer­ent career paths with stud­ies in these and oth­er crim­i­nal jus­tice-relat­ed top­ics. For exam­ple, you might seek employ­ment as a police offi­cer, a secu­ri­ty con­sul­tant, or a cor­rec­tions officer.

Criminology

Though some peo­ple use “crim­i­nol­o­gy” and “crim­i­nal jus­tice” inter­change­ably, they are dis­tinct fields. Crim­i­nol­o­gy stud­ies crim­i­nal behav­ior, specif­i­cal­ly the soci­o­log­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal under­pin­nings of crim­i­nal­i­ty. Crim­i­nal jus­tice is much broad­er. As dis­cussed above, it focus­es on judi­cial, cor­rec­tion­al, and polic­ing procedures.

The focus areas of crim­i­nol­o­gy are high­ly spe­cif­ic and include, but are not lim­it­ed to, the following:

• The nature of crime in chil­dren and adults
• Reha­bil­i­ta­tion of peo­ple charged with crimes
• Meth­ods of pre­vent­ing and con­trol­ling crime
• Judi­cial decision-making
• Gen­der and violence

A crim­i­nol­o­gy degree offers many of the same career oppor­tu­ni­ties as a crim­i­nal jus­tice degree. For exam­ple, you can use your stud­ies to become a law enforce­ment offi­cer, a pri­vate inves­ti­ga­tor, or a cor­rec­tions offi­cer. Some crim­i­nol­o­gy grad­u­ates hold high­er posi­tions in law enforce­ment, such as detec­tive or investigator.

Psychology

Under­stand­ing human behav­ior is crit­i­cal for law enforce­ment offi­cers for var­i­ous rea­sons. On the one hand, it’s nec­es­sary to rec­og­nize abnor­mal behav­ior, includ­ing symp­toms of men­tal ill­ness. Doing so allows you to inter­act with sus­pects, vic­tims, and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers with men­tal ill­ness in a com­pas­sion­ate and sup­port­ive way.

On the oth­er hand, study­ing psy­chol­o­gy can help you read peo­ple bet­ter — a skill essen­tial for an offi­cer of the law. While being a stu­dent of psy­chol­o­gy doesn’t make you a mind read­er, the insights you gain into moti­va­tion, per­son­al­i­ty, per­cep­tion, and human devel­op­ment can assist you in bet­ter-assess­ing someone’s behavior.

Addi­tion­al­ly, study­ing psy­chol­o­gy can help pre­pare you for the emo­tion­al rig­ors of police work. You can learn to rec­og­nize signs of stress, sad­ness, and burnout in your­self and take appro­pri­ate mea­sures to ensure you remain men­tal­ly healthy while on the job.

As a law enforce­ment offi­cer with a psy­chol­o­gy back­ground, you might be able to pur­sue spe­cial­ized roles. For exam­ple, a degree in foren­sic psy­chol­o­gy could qual­i­fy you for a job as a crim­i­nal pro­fil­er with the FBI. How­ev­er, every posi­tion in law enforce­ment, whether work­ing as a high­way patrol offi­cer, a cor­rec­tions offi­cer, or chief of police, ben­e­fits from hav­ing a sol­id under­stand­ing of human behavior.

Sociology

Soci­ol­o­gy for police is an impor­tant area of study because it sheds light on the deep­er soci­etal issues at play in the crim­i­nal jus­tice system.

For exam­ple, soci­o­log­i­cal research can be enlight­en­ing regard­ing why crime rates are high­er in spe­cif­ic areas or among spe­cif­ic groups. Like­wise, under­stand­ing social dynam­ics, group dif­fer­ences, and social trends allows law enforce­ment to address prob­lems in a more sup­port­ive and under­stand­ing way.

As anoth­er exam­ple, police offi­cers can use stud­ies of deviance to bet­ter under­stand why crime occurs and the con­se­quences of crime. Like­wise, study­ing soci­ol­o­gy is infor­ma­tive about social inequal­i­ty and how that inequal­i­ty leads to dis­pro­por­tion­ate expe­ri­ences with police for some demo­graph­ic groups.

There are career advan­tages to choos­ing to study soci­ol­o­gy, too. On the one hand, you can use your degree to advance your career to high­er ranks and high­er-pay­ing posi­tions. On the oth­er hand, you can use your under­stand­ing of social dynam­ics to seek spe­cial­ized law enforce­ment posi­tions, like a vic­tim advocate. 

Public Administration

A com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent path you might choose is the focus on man­age­ment and orga­ni­za­tion­al skills in a pub­lic admin­is­tra­tion degree. A degree in this field gives you a com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent set of skills com­ple­men­tary to those you gain on the job over a long career.

For exam­ple, let’s assume you’ve been a police offi­cer for ten years and have worked your way into a posi­tion as a detec­tive. If you aspire to become a leader in your depart­ment, a degree in pub­lic admin­is­tra­tion will give you insights into the lead­er­ship require­ments, pol­i­cy-mak­ing com­po­nents, and the man­age­ment and orga­ni­za­tion­al skills need­ed to be a chief of police, sher­iff, war­den, or anoth­er law enforce­ment administrator.

In oth­er words, this type of degree might be best reserved for expe­ri­enced cops. With the prac­ti­cal on-the-job expe­ri­ence and knowl­edge of crim­i­nal jus­tice already under your belt, a pub­lic admin­is­tra­tion degree adds anoth­er lay­er of skills that can lead to sig­nif­i­cant career advance­ments in this field.

Specialized Degrees and Certifications

In some instances, law enforce­ment jobs can be more eas­i­ly attained if you have a spe­cial­ized degree in a cut­ting-edge field. The table below iden­ti­fies areas of edu­ca­tion you might pur­sue and their rel­e­vance to work­ing in law enforcement.

Factors to Consider When Choosing a Degree

Choos­ing a col­lege degree to pre­pare you for a police career isn’t some­thing you want to do with­out plan­ning. There are many dif­fer­ent things to con­sid­er pri­or to enrolling in a program:

• Ensure the pro­gram aligns with your per­son­al inter­ests and career goals.
• Exam­ine the job mar­ket to see what law enforce­ment posi­tions are most in demand.
• Eval­u­ate the rep­u­ta­tion of the col­leges you’re inter­est­ed in attend­ing. Pay par­tic­u­lar atten­tion to their accred­i­ta­tion sta­tus — a degree from an accred­it­ed insti­tu­tion offers many more ben­e­fits than one from a non-accred­it­ed college. 
• Explore dif­fer­ent types of pro­grams, includ­ing on-cam­pus, online, and hybrid options, that give you the most flex­i­bil­i­ty for com­plet­ing your degree.
• Con­sid­er the program’s cost, includ­ing tuition, fees, books and sup­plies, and poten­tial finan­cial aid pack­ages avail­able from each school you’re inter­est­ed in.

Benefits of Continuing Education and Professional Development

Whether you choose to get a col­lege degree or not, one thing is for sure — you will have to par­tic­i­pate in con­tin­u­ing edu­ca­tion in law enforce­ment for as long as you’re on active duty.

Con­tin­u­ing edu­ca­tion and pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment are crit­i­cal for law enforce­ment offi­cers, if for no oth­er rea­son than to stay up to date on the best prac­tices in the indus­try. This might involve learn­ing new de-esca­la­tion tech­niques when deal­ing with an agi­tat­ed sus­pect, brush­ing up on weapons train­ing, or acquir­ing new inves­tiga­tive skills.

Oth­er train­ing pro­grams and cer­ti­fi­ca­tions focus on wide-rang­ing areas of prac­tice. For exam­ple, the Nation­al Sher­iffs’ Asso­ci­a­tion offers the fol­low­ing train­ing pro­grams and certifications:

• Crim­i­nal Inves­ti­ga­tor Certificate
• Jail Cer­tifi­cate
• Court and Judi­cial Secu­ri­ty Certificate
• Oral Flu­id Road­side Screening
• Nation­al Com­mand and Staff College

Main­tain­ing prop­er train­ing through­out your career is just one com­po­nent of this, though. Obtain­ing an advanced degree — like a master’s — can help you move up the ranks and into high­er posi­tions or spe­cial­ized roles.

For exam­ple, let’s say you begin as a patrol offi­cer, then move up to police cor­po­ral and even­tu­al­ly sergeant based on your years of ser­vice and per­for­mance on the job. But let’s say you want to move even high­er up the ranks so you get a master’s degree in pub­lic admin­is­tra­tion. Doing so might open the door to becom­ing a lieu­tenant, then a cap­tain, and poten­tial­ly deputy chief or even chief of police.

This is just one exam­ple, though. Grad­u­ate degrees are wide­ly avail­able in areas applic­a­ble to law enforce­ment. Depend­ing on your edu­ca­tion and career goals, you might qual­i­fy for posi­tions like prison war­den, spe­cial agent in charge of an FBI field office, or lead a spe­cial­ized unit like SWAT, homi­cide, or miss­ing persons.