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.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 535 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Bachelor's Degree Schools ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 48,312 bachelor's degrees in criminal justice & corrections during the <nil> academic year.
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 account for this we include a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a host of different 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 complete 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
The criminal justice school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Bachelor's Degree Schools.
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 the United States
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in criminal justice & corrections. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
25 Top Schools for a Bachelor's in Criminal Justice
Union Institute & University is a wonderful decision for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in criminal justice & corrections. Union is a small private not-for-profit university located in the city of Cincinnati.
Bachelor's recipients from the criminal justice & corrections program at Union Institute & University make $85,537 above the average graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
George Mason University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in criminal justice & corrections. Located in the suburb of Fairfax, GMU is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the criminal justice & corrections degree program at George Mason University earn $4,913 above the standard graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in criminal justice & corrections needs to look into Arizona State University - Tempe. Located in the midsize city of Tempe, ASU - Tempe is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the criminal justice & corrections major at Arizona State University - Tempe make $3,488 above the standard college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in criminal justice & corrections has to take a look at George Washington University. Located in the large city of Washington, GWU is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Criminal Justice & Corrections bachelor's degree recipients from George Washington University get an earnings boost of approximately $12,557 over the typical earnings of criminal justice & corrections graduates.
Located in the large city of Boston, Northeastern is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Criminal Justice & Corrections bachelor's degree recipients from Northeastern University receive an earnings boost of about $12,664 above the average earnings of criminal justice & corrections majors.
ASU - Skysong is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of Scottsdale.
Bachelor's recipients from the criminal justice & corrections degree program at Arizona State University - Skysong get $3,488 above the typical college graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
American Military University is a very large private for-profit university located in the town of Charles Town.
Criminal Justice & Corrections bachelor's degree recipients from American Public University System receive an earnings boost of around $18,710 above the typical earnings of criminal justice & corrections graduates.
Located in the city of Phoenix, UOPX - Arizona is a private for-profit university with a very large student population.
Criminal Justice & Corrections bachelor's degree recipients from University of Phoenix - Arizona earn a boost of about $9,288 above the typical income of criminal justice & corrections majors.
Minnesota State Mankato is a fairly large public university located in the small city of Mankato.
Those criminal justice & corrections students who get their bachelor's degree from Minnesota State University - Mankato make $10,320 more than the standard criminal justice grad.
Located in the midsize city of Fort Lauderdale, Keiser University - Ft Lauderdale is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
After graduation, criminal justice bachelor's recipients usually make around $40,390 in the first five years of their career.
UMass Lowell is a large public university located in the suburb of Lowell.
Criminal Justice & Corrections bachelor's degree recipients from University of Massachusetts - Lowell get an earnings boost of approximately $3,239 over the average earnings of criminal justice & corrections graduates.
Columbia Southern University is a fairly large private for-profit university located in the town of Orange Beach.
Criminal Justice & Corrections bachelor's degree recipients from Columbia Southern University earn a boost of about $21,762 above the average income of criminal justice & corrections majors.
Liberty University is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Lynchburg.
Criminal Justice & Corrections bachelor's degree recipients from Liberty University earn a boost of around $10,156 above the average earnings of criminal justice & corrections majors.
RWU is a small private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Bristol.
Bachelor's recipients from the criminal justice & corrections program at Roger Williams University earn $6,657 above the average college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
This section represents the rest of the colleges awarded a Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Bachelor's Degree Schools badge.
Showing in this list means the school was ranked in the top 20% of the 535 different United States criminal justice & corrections schools we analyzed.
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Bachelor's Degree Schools award.
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.
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:
