You will find below a listing of criminal justice degrees and courses to explore in greater depth. Criminal Justice is commonly understood to be an aggregation of processes, practices, and branches of government charged to mitigate crime, deter crime, enforce laws, uphold social control, enforce appropriate penalties, and provide rehabilitation services.
In today’s work force, a student graduating college with a criminal justice degree no longer is relegated to becoming a police officer or security guard. In fact, criminal justice majors will often specialize in any number of the following tracks:
Information Security Analyst, Court Paralegal, Deputy Sherriff, Parole Officer, DEA Agent, Fire Investigator, Legal Assistant, Bounty Hunter, Court Clerk, Sociologist, Blood Spatter Analyst, CIA Analyst, Conservation Officer, Crime Lab Analyst, Judge, Game Warden, Air Marshal, FBI Agent, Attorney, Court Reporter, Cybersecurity, Substance Abuse Counselor, Border Patrol Agent, Correctional Officer, Community Social Worker, Bailiff, or Private Security Guard.
Disciplines within criminal justice can be clustered into the following sub-specialties to help better grasp the breadth and depth of this career field.
Forensics & Criminology
Forensics involve the careful gathering, analysis and study of data for a variety of purposes. While criminology studies the nature, control, causes, and prevention of criminal behavior. Career examples within the criminology and forensics subset include the following tracks: Criminologist, Blood Spatter Analyst, Forensic Accountant, Forensic Documents Examiner, Forensic DNA Analyst, Forensic Toxicologist, Penologist, Forensic Odontologist, Criminalist, Forensic Ballistic Expert, Forensic Pathologist, Digital Forensic Expert, Crime Scene Investigator, Forensic Computer Investigator, Forensic Psychologist, Polygraph Examiner, and Forensic Anthropologist.
Corrections & Rehabilitation
Corrections focus on the systematizing of criminals and management holding facilities. On the other hand, rehabilitation is the psychological and sociological aspect of understanding and helping individuals at risk. Examples of common career paths within corrections and rehabilitation include: Corrections Officer, Correctional Treatment Specialist, Probation Officer, Prison Warden, Juvenile Probation Counselor, and Substance Abuse Counselor.
Law Enforcement
Law enforcement encompasses commonly known careers like a police officer all the way across the spectrum to a specialized position as a counterterrorism specialist. The bulk of career tracks within law enforcement require a deep understanding of analytics, attention to detail, and data-driven processes. A cross-section of career paths within law enforcement include: Compliance Officer, Sheriff, Information Security Agent, Fish and Game Warden, Fraud Investigator, Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Officer, Psychological Profiler, ATF Agent, Emergency Management Director, Diplomatic Security, Counter Terrorism, FBI Agent, Deportation Officer, ATF Investigator, Crime Scene Investigator, Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Agent, K9 Officer, ATF Technician, Police Officer, Federal Protective Service, and Crime Lab Analyst.
Homeland Security
As one of the fastest growing divisions within criminal justice, homeland security specialists account for approximately 10% of the total number federal employees according to the
Bureau of Labor Statistics. Due to terrorism threats and laws enacted around homeland security, there is a vigorous growth in jobs within this sector that include the following career tracks:
Cyber Network Analyst, Border Patrol Agent, CIA Officer, Federal Emergency Management Agent, US Coast Guard, US Citizenship and Immigration Agent,
United States Air Marshal, Federal Protective Services Agent, Transportation Security Screener, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agent, Homeland Security Investigator, Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) Officer, United States Secret Service Police Officer, and Domestic Nuclear Detection Officer.
Legal Sector
The legal division within criminal justice includes a variety of professions designed to help operate a court room along with a number of external agents navigating the legal process outside the courtroom. Professions in the legal sector include the following: Fraud Investigator, Judge & Magistrate, Paralegal, Law Librarian, Court Reporter, Lawyer, Bailiff, Court Clerk, Medical Examiner, and Security Guard.
The Private Sector
Within the private sector of criminal justice, the career paths can range from security guards to forensic data analysts. As the number of threats to private industry continues to mount, the demand for private sector security will surely grow year over year. Common examples of career tracks in the private sector include: Forensic Data Analyst, Cybersecurity, Private Detective, Security Guard, Private Investigator, and Information Security Analyst.
As you explore various
criminal justice and
political science courses and degree tracks, we have designed a manual process of learning more about online and traditional degree programs below. While not designed to be exhaustive, the meta-themes listed can be selected to further explore a topic or degree track. Within each degree program, you can elect to request information from any number of accredited colleges and universities across the country to learn more about a school-based criminal justice program. If you prefer automated matching, please use our proprietary matching model for online colleges and degree programs
here.