What Jobs Require Criminal Justice Degrees?
Careers for Graduates With Bachelor's, Master's Education
Oct 17, 2009
Positive employment results from the investment in a university or college education to earn a degree in criminal justice. Graduate often experience a rock-solid career with plenty of jobs and lots to learn throughout a working life.
Criminal justice is one of North America's growth career fields. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that employment for correctional officers, law enforcement officers and security officers is projected to increase as much as 35% through 2010.
Criminal Justice Careers Include Wide Range
These days, those interested in pursuing a criminal justice career can earn a degree online or at a traditional university or college campus. Graduate can expect as much variety in the specialty field chosen as the type of employers.
Criminal justice degree graduates can be found in court systems at the local and broader levels, in correctional facilities, police forces, military, security, educational institutions, the non-profit sector, government and a spectrum of other justice related workplaces.
In many ways, the deepening complexity of a country’s laws means that the number and style of criminal justice related jobs will continue to shift and expand. Certainly, the need for highly educated, trained professionals, usually possessing a university or college degree in criminal justice, will continue to grow.
Those interested in criminal justice careers are usually people who enjoy seeing justice done, have good problem-solving skills, are disciplined individuals and like having a career that demands good physical and mental conditioning.
Jobs in Criminal Justice in High Demand
The Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that criminal justice degree graduates will continue to be in high demand by police forces alone. It reports, for example, that the employment of police and detectives is expected to grow 11% in the decade between 2006 to 2016.
The Bureau credits a more security conscious society and population growth as the largest contributors to the increasing demand for these types of police services careers.
Other jobs available to criminal justice degree earners include those as:
- Correctional Case Management Officer
- Correctional Officer working in a correctional facility
- Bailiff
- Criminologist, whose career is spent studying crime
- Customs or Border Agency Officer
- Deputy Sheriff
- Paralegal or Legal Assistant
- Parole Officer
- Youth Justice Worker
- Insurance Adjuster
- Investigator for an insurance or fraud agency
- Victim Service Officer
- Domestic Violence Counselor
- Military Officer
- Public Service Administrator
- Security Officer for government, non-profit or private sector organizations
- Crime Scene Investigator
The volume of jobs available in many of these criminal justice degree careers is increasing. For example, the Bureau of Labor notes that probation officers and correctional treatment specialists held about 94,000 jobs in 2006.
Getting an education in criminal justice, such as a bachelor's or graduate degree, is necessary for anyone considering a career in this wide-ranging field. However, the job prospects from the educational investment appear to by rosy with no expected downturn in available positions.
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