Why should I major in Criminal Justice? at The Criminal Justice Careers Guide


Why should I major in Criminal Justice? CJC Staff

Why should I major in criminal justice? Of all the problems that the social sciences might address, the upgrading of our criminal justice system would seem to be among the most important. Yet, the complexity and enormity of this problem's well as the traditional boundaries of the liberal artsââ¬âhave imposed limits on efforts to study the criminal justice system, except within narrow technical and operational contexts. In recent years, however, concern with the quality of the personnel of the criminal justice system has become intensified by abrasive social upheaval in our society, rising street crime, and disorders related to the role of social and political protest in a democratic society. All of these combine as a catalyst encouraging renewed efforts to improve the educational backgrounds of our criminal justice professionals.

What can I do with a criminal justice degree?

Criminal justice programs are designed to educate students for leadership positions in the field of criminal justice. This field prepares students for a variety of professional settings, including law enforcement, correctional case management, correctional education, chemical dependency and substance abuse counseling, victim-offender mediation and alternative dispute resolution, or pre-law.

Employment is often found in government, the private sector, universities and nonprofit organizations. Government is the largest employer in the criminal justice field, with approximately 50% employed at the local level. The field of criminal justice is constantly changing to meet the new demands of a changing society. Employment opportunities are expected to increase faster than average for all other occupations. The most stringent competition is in intelligence and computer technology. Demands for both police and corrections professionals will continue to increase both in numbers of those employed and in the complexity of the job as this field assumes more sophisticated methods of handling duties.

Multidisciplinary by design, a Criminal Justice Major usually consists of a core of required courses in Criminal Justice, combined with a foundation and a theory-method sequence of courses in the social sciences. Most schools offer concentrations supplementing the Criminal Justice core requirements are in, for examples, Law Enforcement or Corrections.

Following the foundation courses in Sociology and Psychology, students can select theory-methods from either of those two Social Sciences. This foundation, together with the Criminal Justice core, a concentrated emphasis and related electives, provides a unique, comprehensive bachelor's degree program.

Additional options in Criminal Justice Programs include an Associate Degree and a Criminal Justice minor.
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