2024 Best Criminal Justice Master's Degree Schools in California

Ranked #69 in popularity, criminal justice is one of the most sought-after master's degree programs in the nation. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.

For its 2024 ranking, College Factual looked at 2 schools in California to determine which ones were the best for criminal justice students pursuing a master's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 169 master's degrees in criminal justice during the 2020-2021 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Other Factors We Consider

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to criminal justice students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of criminal justice students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
• Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized criminal justice related body.

Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for criminal justice students working on their master's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Criminal Justice Master's Degree Schools in California list, to help you choose the best school for you.

 

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Criminal Justice in California

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in criminal justice.

Top California Schools for a Master's in Criminal Justice

1

University of San Diego
San Diego, CA

Master's Degree Highest Degree Type

131 Annual Graduates

Any student who is interested in a master's degree in criminal justice has to look into University of San Diego. Located in the city of San Diego, USD is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population.More information about a master’s in criminal justice from University of San Diego

2

National University
San Diego, CA

Master's Degree Highest Degree Type

37 Annual Graduates

It is difficult to beat National University if you wish to pursue a master's degree in criminal justice. National University is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of San Diego.More information about a master’s in criminal justice from National University

Best Criminal Justice Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Criminal Justice Schools in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Hawaii	110	14
Alaska	65	7

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Criminal Justice

One of 21 majors within the Criminal Justice & Corrections area of study, Criminal Justice has other similar majors worth exploring.

Majors Similar to Criminal Justice

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Criminal Justice Studies	183

Notes and References

• The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
• The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
• Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard). More about our data sources and methodologies.