Is criminal justice a more employable degree than psychology? (bachelors, skill, degrees)
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I made this thread because I have seen a lot of people over the years criticize the utility of psychology and sociology degrees while thinking criminal justice is more practical and leads directly to employment. This is simply not true.
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As recently as 2003, only 9 percent of police departments nationally required a 2-year college degree and 1 percent a 4-year degree.1
I can assure you that out of the very, very small percentage of police departments that require a degree, very few of them exclusively require a criminal justice degree. A person with a degree in astrobiology can become a police officer. So, where else would criminal justice majors have an advantage over psychology majors? The only fields I can think of are corporate and private security management. Even with those jobs, CJ majors might be competing with business majors. If the person has extensive law enforcement experience, they can still get the job with an unrelated major. I remember that a company that I worked with through a contractor was looking for a security specialist. The job ad specifically asked for a criminal justice or related degree. A former FBI agent with an engineering degree ended up getting the job. Warden and assistant warden applicants with CJ degrees might have an advantage. Only a few federal law enforcement agencies ask for a CJ degree and not a psychology or similar degree.
If you're thinking that CJ degrees are needed for parole and probation jobs, that is also not true. They will happily take counseling, psychology, social work, sociology, and similar majors along with CJ. All you need is a high school diploma or GED for security guard and most correctional jobs.
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I have two friends with Psych degrees, which I also have along with graduate work. All three of us are doing just fine, but not really in the field. One is in commercial real estate risk management, the other is a judge after being a cop and then a prosecutor. I am a manager in utilities.
I made this thread because I have seen a lot of people over the years criticize the utility of psychology and sociology degrees while thinking criminal justice is more practical and leads directly to employment. This is simply not true.
I can assure you that out of the very, very small percentage of police departments that require a degree, very few of them exclusively require a criminal justice degree. A person with a degree in astrobiology can become a police officer. So, where else would criminal justice majors have an advantage over psychology majors? The only fields I can think of are corporate and private security management. Even with those jobs, CJ majors might be competing with business majors. If the person has extensive law enforcement experience, they can still get the job with an unrelated major. I remember that a company that I worked with through a contractor was looking for a security specialist. The job ad specifically asked for a criminal justice or related degree. A former FBI agent with an engineering degree ended up getting the job. Warden and assistant warden applicants with CJ degrees might have an advantage. Only a few federal law enforcement agencies ask for a CJ degree and not a psychology or similar degree.
If you're thinking that CJ degrees are needed for parole and probation jobs, that is also not true. They will happily take counseling, psychology, social work, sociology, and similar majors along with CJ. All you need is a high school diploma or GED for security guard and most correctional jobs.
I think you should change "very few" to "none." Mentioning a preference for criminal justice degree is the farthest I've seen and even that is rare.
I think you should change "very few" to "none." Mentioning a preference for criminal justice degree is the farthest I've seen and even that is rare.
Yeah, I was being on the safe side since I haven't looked at every single job ad, but I have never seen a law enforcement agency require a CJ degree. I've seen a couple of state agencies prefer a CJ or related degree. I was able to land an interview with one of these agencies with a social science degree.
The thing with a CJ degree is that the degree itself is largely not applicable to real world police work, but the internship program attached to it is what will land you a job. I know there were several of my classmates and those in past classes who did their internships with a state, county, or municipal departments and then were hired and sponsored through the academy right after graduating. I on the other hand interned with a fed law enforcement agency (who almost never hire interns) and ended up sponsoring myself through the police academy after graduating. While it was fun, it obviously didn't land me a job after graduating; the academy did that. So its not the degree, its the internship that makes the degree worthwhile.
I would still agree that there are many other degrees that give you more versatility though. If I could do it all over again, I would have gotten my bachelors in Spanish and minored in CJ. That way, I could have possibly landed a CJ internship through my minor for some experience and then have the Spanish degree on my resume as a critical skill when it came time to apply for jobs.
If you're talking about BA, I would say neither. I have a psychology BA, and am in a field does not require a degree. To do anything directly requires a masters in a psychology-related field like counseling, or social work.
It's my understanding that a criminal justice degree is intended to prepare graduates for police work, but it doesn't guarantee acceptance, and just about any degree will do. I applied for police work, but I don't have enough upper-body strength.
I would argue that psychology is probably a little better because it enables you to branch out into other graduate-school areas. Once you get a degree in criminal justice, where can you go from there? Law school? That's about the only area I can think of.
An undergrad psych degree would probably get you the same as an undergrad sociology, communication studies or any other social science. To work in one of those fields you would have to go to grad school. But entry level in some industries one of those can work.
The thing with a CJ degree is that the degree itself is largely not applicable to real world police work, but the internship program attached to it is what will land you a job. I know there were several of my classmates and those in past classes who did their internships with a state, county, or municipal departments and then were hired and sponsored through the academy right after graduating. I on the other hand interned with a fed law enforcement agency (who almost never hire interns) and ended up sponsoring myself through the police academy after graduating. While it was fun, it obviously didn't land me a job after graduating; the academy did that. So its not the degree, its the internship that makes the degree worthwhile.
I would still agree that there are many other degrees that give you more versatility though. If I could do it all over again, I would have gotten my bachelors in Spanish and minored in CJ. That way, I could have possibly landed a CJ internship through my minor for some experience and then have the Spanish degree on my resume as a critical skill when it came time to apply for jobs.
I live in a metro area where the largest employers of police and correctional officers (and also with the most openings) don't care about internships. The correctional agency is not competitive. Anyone who can pass all of the testing will be hired. You also have to work in the jail before you can move to patrol, but the other agency chooses people based on written exam scores. They do add points to your score for military experience, education, and current licensure as an intermediate police officer or higher. We only have two agencies that will sponsor, and you need a bachelor's in anything. One of those agencies will hire those who are already licensed over those who need to be sponsored. Most of the agencies pay more for degrees, but again, these degrees can be in anything.
For all of our other small agencies that don't sponsor, they go by scores on the civil service exam and/or experience. Many self-sponsored officers here get their experience by working for free as reserves; and, I would say most of them don't have college degrees. Some of them still have trouble finding jobs with the small agencies because so many people are applying to them. They get bombarded by applicants who can't get into the large agencies or even some of the other small agencies that require a physical agility test. They graduated from the community college academy that has no physical training, and their graduates often don't care about getting in shape.
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