Should I major or minor in criminal justice? I am currently majoring in public administration and minoring in criminal justice, but I was wondering if I would have better job opportunities with a B.S. in criminal justice instead of a minor.
Great question. It all depends on what it is that you want to eventually do as a career. If your plan is to get into a career in Law Enforcement, then you really don’t need a degree in Criminal Justice unless you plan on working at the federal level, which is what I’d suggest anyway. The job market for someone with a degree in criminal justice is not that high, in my opinion. My suggestion would be to get your degree in public administration with a minor in criminal justice as I believe there are more opportunities in that market. You could always attend a 6 month police academy if that is something you’d want to try and gain some experience. I hope this feedback helps you make an informed decision, and great job in attending college for a post secondary education. Best of luck. Data Trail Services & Investigations
Best major and minor for a police detective?
All police departments have different educational reqyuirements. Some will accept applications from persons with a HS diploma or a GED. Others require some college (or military service in lieu of college) others require a degree (either Associates or Bachelors). None require that you major in any particular course of study. Federal agencies, like the FBI, place a good deal of signifcance on you GPA, but police departments are only concerned that you meet the minimum requirements. In order to become a detective, you need to be hired as a police officer. That means passing written and oral tests, backgound checks, credit checks physical exams and agility tests. After working for a period of time as a police officer in uniform, different departments have differenmt ways of promoting/transfering personnel to investigations. Again, those processes do not involve any particular college major. I became a police officer nearly 40 years ago, fresh out of the service with a HS diploma. Atter about 10 years in patrol, I made detective. I went to night school for years, and finally earned a Masters Degree. My udergraduate degree was in History, so, you can see the course of study had nothing to do with becoming a detective. In around 30 years as a detective, I have worked with hundreds of detectives (from my own and other agencies), and run into many different levels of formal education in a lot of diffrent disciplines. And, police (and Federal Agent) salaries are set by labor contract and/or legislation. You may be paid a bonus in some agencies for having a higher level of education, however, there is no bonus or differential offered based on course of study. A Ecomonics major gets paid the same as does a Criminal Justice major. Being a real detective is nothing at all like what you see on TV. And, working in police work is not like working in the private sector. You are hired and promoted based on established civil service rules. Everybody of the same rank and pay grade gets paid the same amount. The only financial benefit to being a detective is that there is often a substantial amount of overtime to be worked, which when computed at time and half, adds up to a lot more money every year.
Is kinesiology a good major getting into law enforcement?
I want to become a police officer and I wanted to major in criminal justice but That would definitely not make me stand out. I am really into fitness too! Would kinesiology be a good major? I can minor in criminal justice.
How useful is a psychology degree in the law enforcement career field [in both federal (FBI, DEA, etc.) and local/state law enforcement]?
Special Agents | FBIJOBShttps://www.drugenforcementedu.org/You can read the requirements for Special Agents and see that a four year degree is a minimum requirement in addition to work experience. I have not seen any federal law enforcement particularly recruiting for a psychology degree. Ask yourself what use that degree would be in obtaining any job if for some reason you could not pursue any type of law enforcement field position due to a major joint injury for example or an eyesight problem. My answer is that degree is not useful above meeting the requirement that one have a degree of some kind.The agencies that require a four year degree for all applicants don't typically care what field the degree is in. The FBI does like certain advanced and professional degrees like accounting and law, so those areas of preparation are not only useful in law enforcement but for many other career options as well. I completed a bachelor's degree in journalism then went to law school. Both of those degree programs allowed me to gather skills that were useful in law enforcement. My suggestion is that you think about useful skills that can be articulated clearly to potential employers and that you get relevant work experience while in school if possible.I graduated with a bachelor's degree and three years of working in a medium sized university police department with my certifications on the NCIC and state computer systems from being in Communications for a while and quite a bit of field experience in handling interviews, taking reports, responding to emergencies and processing simple crime scenes. I was lucky that they took pride in being a training department that prepared interested students for careers in law enforcement. We were not simply used as cheap labor, so that is something to consider when planning for school and student jobs. Competing against someone with any undergraduate degree and nothing more, guess who would look more useful as a new hire?
Political Science Major and Criminology Minor?
If that's what you're interested in, go for it! You'd probably work for the government, a non-profit, prisons, teacher, or go into the business world. You could also go to law school. A degree in political science will also teach you how to analyze and write better, which is very important for many careers. People will tell you that you can't do anything with that degree, but there really are only a few career specific degrees, so that's not true at all! Just use your time wisely in college - get work experience, intern, volunteer, learn another language, and keep your GPA up.
What doors can a major in Criminal Justice with a minor psychology open for me?
Do you like begin a probation officer?… Because getting a Bachelors in Criminal Justice is how you become a probation officer… maybe a position in a police department as a patrol officer.Why would you spend $100,000 for a generally at best $40,000-$50,000 a year job starting?There are a few agencies that require 4 year degrees, but policing is generally learned at an academy or through community college continuing education. That criminal justice degree may earn you a few more bucks on patrol (maybe a 10% per year raise) , but more likely the money would be better spent on some sort of different degree. Criminal Justice degrees are fairly useless. They are the modern day equivalent of a Phys Ed degree. Useless for law school and have no real world application outside policing or related jobs like probation. They can’t teach you anything you won’t learn in your first year on the job as a cop and there is a huge difference between reading about the application of criminal law and actually applying it. Despite what some would have you believe, dealing with criminals and justicing them is a fairly hands on activity. You would be better served as a cop getting almost any other degree, including a degree in adult or business education or government administration. Heck, the FBI likes accountants historically almost as much as it likes Mormons. If you are interested in forensics you would be better served by getting a BS in some analytical science or chemistry. A Criminal Justice degree is sunk time and money.
What should an aspiring police detective or drug enforcement agent major in?
First of all, no matter what you’re planning to make a career in, choose a UC rather than a CSU if you can.Second, no matter what department you get into, municipal, county, state, or federal, they’re going to teach you how to be a cop, anyway, so why spend your four undergrad years learning how to be a cop? Choose a a major that’s something you’re interested in. No matter what it is, it’s likely to be useful in law enforcement?You like reading novels? Choose English Lit. You’ll do a lot of reading which will get you used to the way the language works. And you’ll do a lot of writing. This will help you later on, because you’ll be spending so much time writing reports. Your reports will be a lot more impressive to your superiors if they’re readable and grammatical.You interested in foreign cultures? Major in a foreign language. Drug traffic is international. Being fluent in Spanish or Italian or French can be invaluable. Terrorists are getting into the drug trade to fund their operations. Federal law enforcement loves getting people who are fluent in Arabic.You’re a history buff? Major in US history, or military history, or maybe even see if you can specialize in law enforcement history.Get a degree in whatever you love that will broaden your horizons. That’s what the undergrad experience is supposed to be for.If you decide to go for a master’s or a PhD. that’s the time to pick a professional specialty.In the meantime, work on your actual professional bullet points. See about becoming a part-time reserve officer in the local department that serves the city in which your school is located. Or take ROTC, and specify that you want to get into the military police. This guarantees you a JOB when you graduate, plus professional law enforcement experience, and that experience will be management experience. And if you do wind up making your career in federal law enforcement, your military time can be applied to your retirement (that will come one of these days). Also, you’ll be a veteran, which adds points to your score when you’re taking entry tests for police work.
How many times did you change your university major or minor and do you think you made the right choice?
I have changed it once so far. After the first year of college, majoring in law enforcement, I decided to switch. As a cop, I would get paid $40,000, and cap out somewhere around $60,000. Not exactly a luxurious salary for someone who’d be risking their life essentially every day on the job. What really convinced me to switch, however, was listening to officers who would come in as guest speakers to our classes. They told of how gruesome, dirty, and unrewarding it can be. Responding to scene after scene of car accidents and seeing the reactions of loved ones when they find out their child/parent/sibling was a victim, is a horribly depressing sequence. From these events, officers will head home full of stress, which then strains the family life, often leading to divorce.So what did I switch to?Mechanical Engineering baby. Now my starting salary will be around $60,000, which as I stated, would’ve been my career high in law enforcement. The job field is fantastic. The job itself is immensely rewarding. The classes may be much harder, but it will all be worth it. I absolutely made the right choice.
Should i major in criminal justice and minor in accounting?
What job do you want? If you want to be a cop forget cj and go with soc or psych as a major or minor. One of the FBI's preferred degrees for special agent is accounting (with a bunch of years experience auditing or such). Lot of cops on my job are accountants, CPAs and lawyers who work at their other field part time
What should I know before doing a major in Criminal Justice and minor in psychology? What advice would you give me?
I have to agree with all the other answers. You need to form a long term strategy. Criminal Justice will help make law school easier. Especially, in the 1st year. It’s also great if you can, and will, go into law enforcement or forensics. I wouldn’t waste too much effort on the minor in psychology. There is no shortage of BAs in psychology and sociology. No one is recruiting for a person with a minor in those. If you don’t intend to go to law school or advance in a law enforcement field, you might question why you’re going to college in the 1st place. At the very least, you should start with junior college 1st. In California, the 1st year is free. Where ever you live, JC is almost nothing compared to a 4-year college. If you get a BS or a BA, no one is going to look at what you did as a freshman. You’ll find it much easier to transfer into the University of your choice AND you’ll end up with much higher GPA from that University, without the wasted time and expense.I went to UCLA straight out of high school, but it was much more cost effective 30 years ago. Now it’s a 100% rip off, especially for a BA in Psych, with a minor in the History of Rock & Roll (an actual class I took). Men in my fraternity at UCLA, who transferred in as Juniors, became the most successful people of my generation. They breezed through their 1st 2 years of college, at the local JC, and never got burned out, becoming successful lawyers, politicians and real estate tycoons. So again, ask yourself the question, “What do you want to be when you grow?” Too many people today use the college finance system to put off growing up. The result is a lot of 30 somethings who are bankrupt. Not the best long term plan.