2024 Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Bachelor's Degree Schools in Alabama

If you pursue a bachelor's degree in criminal justice & corrections, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #7 most popular program in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.

College Factual reviewed 12 schools in Alabama to determine which ones were the best for bachelor's degree seekers in the field of criminal justice & corrections. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 924 bachelor's degrees in criminal justice & corrections during the 2020-2021 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Criminal Justice & Corrections School for Your Bachelor's Degree

The criminal justice bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:

Quality Overall Is Important

The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we include a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a combination of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Average Earnings

To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their bachelor's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their bachelor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.

Other Factors We Consider

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

• Major Focus - How much a school focuses on criminal justice & corrections students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other criminal justice & corrections students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
• 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.
• Student Debt - How easy is it for criminal justice & corrections to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized criminal justice & corrections related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for criminal justice & corrections students working on their bachelor's degree.

More Ways to Rank Criminal Justice & Corrections Schools

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Bachelor's Degree Schools in Alabama ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you. When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.

Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Criminal Justice & Corrections in Alabama

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

10 Top Alabama Schools for a Bachelor's in Criminal Justice

1

Columbia Southern University
Orange Beach, AL

263 Annual Graduates

$52,800 Median Starting Salary

$30,204 Median Student Debt

Columbia Southern University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in criminal justice & corrections. Columbia Southern University is a fairly large private for-profit university located in the town of Orange Beach.

Those criminal justice & corrections students who get their bachelor's degree from Columbia Southern University receive $19,330 more than the average criminal justice student.

More information about a bachelor’s in criminal justice & corrections from Columbia Southern University

2

University of Alabama at Birmingham
Birmingham, AL

92 Annual Graduates

$32,883 Median Starting Salary

$27,307 Median Student Debt

Every student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in criminal justice & corrections has to look into University of Alabama at Birmingham. UAB is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of Birmingham.

Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the criminal justice program state that they receive average early career earnings of $32,883.

More information about a bachelor’s in criminal justice & corrections from University of Alabama at Birmingham

3

Troy University
Troy, AL

185 Annual Graduates

$38,003 Median Starting Salary

$25,000 Median Student Debt

Troy University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in criminal justice & corrections. Located in the town of Troy, TROY is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Those criminal justice & corrections students who get their bachelor's degree from Troy University make $4,533 more than the typical criminal justice graduate.

More information about a bachelor’s in criminal justice & corrections from Troy University

4

Faulkner University
Montgomery, AL

78 Annual Graduates

$36,040 Median Starting Salary

$28,250 Median Student Debt

It's difficult to beat Faulkner University if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in criminal justice & corrections. Faulkner is a small private not-for-profit university located in the city of Montgomery.

Those criminal justice & corrections students who get their bachelor's degree from Faulkner University receive $2,570 more than the standard criminal justice grad.

More information about a bachelor’s in criminal justice & corrections from Faulkner University

5

University of South Alabama
Mobile, AL

47 Annual Graduates

$31,211 Median Starting Salary

$29,026 Median Student Debt

Located in the medium-sized city of Mobile, USA is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the criminal justice program report average early career income of $31,211.

More information about a bachelor’s in criminal justice & corrections from University of South Alabama

6

Jacksonville State University
Jacksonville, AL

23 Annual Graduates

$29,161 Median Starting Salary

$27,192 Median Student Debt

Jacksonville State University is a moderately-sized public university located in the suburb of Jacksonville.

Soon after graduating, criminal justice bachelor's recipients typically earn an average of $29,161 in their early careers.

More information about a bachelor’s in criminal justice & corrections from Jacksonville State University

7

University of North Alabama
Florence, AL

26 Annual Graduates

$28,688 Median Starting Salary

$24,125 Median Student Debt

UNA is a medium-sized public university located in the city of Florence.

After graduating, criminal justice bachelor's recipients typically earn about $28,688 in their early careers.

More information about a bachelor’s in criminal justice & corrections from University of North Alabama

8

Auburn University at Montgomery
Montgomery, AL

26 Annual Graduates

$24,957 Median Starting Salary

$25,635 Median Student Debt

AUM is a moderately-sized public university located in the medium-sized city of Montgomery.

Soon after graduating, criminal justice bachelor's recipients usually earn about $24,957 in the first five years of their career.

More information about a bachelor’s in criminal justice & corrections from Auburn University at Montgomery

9

Athens State University
Athens, AL

14 Annual Graduates

$30,841 Median Starting Salary

Located in the fringe town of Athens, Athens State University is a public university with a small student population.

Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the criminal justice program earn around $30,841 in the first couple years of working.

More information about a bachelor’s in criminal justice & corrections from Athens State University

10

Alabama State University
Montgomery, AL

49 Annual Graduates

$27,832 Median Starting Salary

$32,261 Median Student Debt

Alabama State is a small public university located in the midsize city of Montgomery.

Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the criminal justice program make an average of $27,832 in their early career salary.

More information about a bachelor’s in criminal justice & corrections from Alabama State University

Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Colleges in the Southeast Region

Explore all the Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Schools in the Southeast Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Florida	225	3,420
Georgia	224	1,380
Tennessee	220	893
North Carolina	213	1,831
Virginia	213	1,745
South Carolina	195	654
Kentucky	187	601
Louisiana	171	511
Mississippi	169	370
Arkansas	167	423
West Virginia	147	904

View All Rankings >

Criminal Justice & Corrections Related Rankings by Major

One of 4 majors within the Homeland Security, Law Enforcement & Firefighting area of study, Criminal Justice & Corrections has other similar majors worth exploring.

Criminal Justice Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
Criminal Justice Studies	382
Criminal Justice & Police Science	243
Criminal Justice	199
Other Corrections & Criminal Justice	100

Majors Similar to Criminal Justice

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Fire Protection	527
Homeland Security	107
Security Science and Technology	78
Other Homeland Security	2

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.