What Jobs and Salaries Can I Get With a Criminal Justice Degree?

Convert this page to a PDF
Posted: Saturday, April 01, 2006

by Jim Greenberg
Jim Greenberg

The demand for qualified and efficient personnel in the field of criminal justice is on the rise. Depending on the level of your experience and education in any sphere that encompasses the basics and/or specifics of criminal justice, you will be eligible for jobs in federal agencies like the FBI, CIA, ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms), the Secret Service, Customs, DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency), INS, and the Border Patrol, in state and local government agencies as state troopers, SBI agents, local law enforcement officers, arson specialists, serology and fingerprinting specialists, in the private sector as detectives, investigators and security specialists, in the corrections department as wardens, as juvenile and adult psychologists, and as corrections, parole, and probation officers, in the legal profession as lawyers, legal assistants and secretaries, paralegals, court administrators, judges, and magistrates, in military and defense agencies as military police officers and investigators, in the field of criminology as criminologists, crime scene investigators, and forensic scientists, in gaming surveillance as conservation officers, in colleges and universities as lecturers and professors, and in the field of cyber crime and white-collar crime detection and prevention.

The salary you earn in any of these jobs will be commensurate to your skills and position up the administrative ladder. Federal and urban salaries are usually the highest, but the nature of the work is often demanding and stressful. On an average, police officers and others in the law enforcement division can expect to earn around $45,470 annually. On entry into the ATF, DEA, IRS, INS, Secret Service and the US Marshals, you can probably earn around $25,000, with chances of climbing to $50,000 in less than 5 years of service. Newcomers to federal service can hope to earn between $39,115 and $48,890, those in non-supervisory positions can take home between $61,251 and $76,560, while supervisory, management, and executive positions pay between $90,480 and $106,430.

Criminologists are paid between $38,560 and $66,970, forensic scientists net $46,080, while forensic psychologists earn between $38,560 and $66,970.

As a security guard in the federal government, you can usually earn between $21,950 and $28,960, while gaming investigators and conservation officers take home salaries in the range of $18,080 to $25,950. Detectives in the private sector can make an average of $49, 860, while administrative positions in the field will earn you around $77,500. Store detectives and investigators make between $25,000 and $39,800.

If you are a part of the corrections department, you can probably earn between $34, 560 and $51, 390, with the higher salaries reserved for administrative officers.

Paralegals and legal secretaries can bring in salaries ranging from $37, 310 to $42, 510, while law office managers earn around $43,000 and court reporters make $39, 670. Mediators with a doctorate in criminal justice are on the high end of the salary scale with a take-home pay of $130,170.

In the pedagogy department, professors who teach graduate and undergraduate classes earn more than those who teach associate students. Professors can hope to earn $86,437, assistant professors $51,545, associate professors $61,732, instructors $37,737, and lecturers $43,914.

Jim Greenberg recommends you visit the Online Criminal Justice Degree Guide for more information on online criminal justice degree jobs and salaries. See http://www.ocjdg.com/2006/02/what_career_and.html for more information.
This Article has been viewed 86,295 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
More comments
» left by luis
from bronx Ny
3 years 154 days ago.
yes very useful.. thanks so much for this info!
» left by johnny
from Lowell Ma
3 years 130 days ago.
very good info
» left by Anonymous 2 years 361 days ago.
very good info ty so much
» left by Elyas Taha
from Wheaton, IL
2 years 273 days ago.
so let's say i got an B.A./B.S. in Criminal Justice and i'm certified to write, read, and speak Arabic fluently. what kind of job in the law enforcement i can get except being a cop..?
» left by christine 2 years 270 days ago.
well i was researching the other day on the FBI site for jobs and stuff and i know i read something about them needing more people fluent in many languages. might wanna check out the site? if not the FBI, try CIA? a lot of government jobs probably need people with knowledge in other languages. hope i helped!
» left by marci 1 year 179 days ago.
If you received a BA in criminal justice and can write read and speak arabic fluently, there are fbi special agents who are linguists and you'd fit the criteria.
» left by Maged Qassem from Buffalo Ny 71 days 15 hours ago.
Hi elyas my name is maged and I know am way late to ask... But how are things going with the question you asked?.. Like did you ever find out what career you can persue with your skills(arabic language) and education?

Because am 18 and speak fluent Arabic and trying to get my B.S in criminlogy and I had the same question.

Thank you
» left by anthony douglas
from livingston texas
1 year 216 days ago.
i have miltary background of * years and 3 years correctional officer experience and have my associates degree... I do not want to be a patrol officer for the sheriffs dept. but more into an office position for them or i want to go back into corrections but not as an officer, i just came off disability and need to find a career with an associates degree in Criminal Justice. any suggestions.. pleas email me.. thank you
» left by Ty
from Shelby
1 year 4 days ago.
I am looking to get advice for careers with an A.A or B.A in Criminal Justice. I originally planned on going to law school after receiving my B.A in criminal justice but I got into an accident and my plans changed. So now I have an Associates in C.J. and will soon be starting classes to receive my B.A. I am not going to law school now. What jobs are available with a A.A.? I also thought about waiting until I got my B.A and looking into the FBI, but I am 38 years old now and I believe you have to be 35 or younger to qualify. I really don't want to be a police or corrections officer. I am looking for something more administrative. Can someone please advise as I am beginning to feel stuck. Feel free to email me and thanks much in advance?
» left by John
from Sudbury
325 days 5 hours ago.
I am a Criminal Justice Graduate, Criminology Stream. Graduated close to 6 years ago. I am also Bilingual speaking French/English. Soon after graduating I was able to obtain work as a Complaints and Information Officer in a Fraud agency. Soon after I obtain other contract positions and became a Intilligence Analsyt. "Sounds great so far right"? Well after continuing to work various contracts and close to 3 years full-time and paying my dues the Government decided to cutt back it's budget and thus, Laying me Off. After working for the Fed gov and having numerous years expereince in working as an Analyst along with my degree it is almost impossible to find a job that is not a Uniformed Police Officer. Even though a person has graduated in Criminal Justice they are not guranteed to secure the jobs mentioned in this article. It simply qualifies you meaning that almost all these jobs requires apptitude testing, polygraph, problem solving tests such as in Mathimatics and many other certifications and so forth to even be considered for these jobs. For example lets say you take Criminal Justice for the goal of obtaining employment as a Probation Officer and after graduating your intent is to apply to the local Probations Office. Self explanatory right? Not the case at all, for these positions they want you to be familiar with phsycological and mental aspects to implement strategic programs to high risk offenders, they also want proven experience in the Court Rooms. So before enrolling in Criminal Justice make sure you are ready to continue with your education upgrading and so forth because simply graduating from University in this day and age in this job market means tough compitition and almost zero chances of getting these jobs unless you can score extremely high in apptitude and math tests. I hope this is of some use to some of you.
» left by bob
295 days 17 hours ago.
i am interested in forensic scientist and seriology and fingerprinting specialists; what exactly do they do???

» left by Glenda Scott
from California
253 days 23 hours ago.
I just graduated with an associates degree in criminal justice. It seems like I am play tug-of-war as to what I want to do. Is there any suggestions for me to at least get a start in my career while I continue my bachelors degree?
» left by peter niilonga
from windhoek
91 days 8 hours ago.
what should i do if i want to became a lawyer or magistrate like in Namibia. don't know what are my career possibility in Namibia.

More comments
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.