2024 Best Criminology Doctor's Degree Schools

Criminology isn't the most popular doctorate program in the world, but it's not the least popular either. To be more precise it ranks #139 in popularity out of 306 majors in the country. As such, the degree program isn't offered at every college in the United States, but there are schools that do have a program in the field that are top-notch when it comes to quality.

For its 2024 ranking, College Factual looked at 12 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for criminology students pursuing a doctor's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 56 doctor's degrees in criminology to qualified students.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Criminology School for Your Doctor's Degree

Your choice of criminology for getting your doctor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality criminology program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:

Quality Overall Is Important

The overall quality of a doctor's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.

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 doctor's degree from the school. After all, your doctor's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.

Other Factors We Consider

In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:

• Major Focus - How much a school focuses on criminology students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of criminology students who choose to seek a doctor's degree at the school.
• Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
• Student Debt - How easy is it for criminology to pay back their student loans after receiving their doctor's degree.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized criminology related body.

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

More Ways to Rank Criminology Schools

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

 

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Criminology in the United States

Explore the top ranked colleges and universities for criminology students seeking a a doctor's degree.

10 Top Schools for a Doctorate in Criminology

1

University of California - Irvine
Irvine, CA

9 Annual Graduates

It is hard to beat University of California - Irvine if you want to pursue a doctor's degree in criminology. UC Irvine is a very large public university located in the city of Irvine.More information about a doctorate in criminology from University of California - Irvine

2

University of Maryland - College Park
College Park, MD

4 Annual Graduates

University of Maryland - College Park is one of the best schools in the country for getting a doctor's degree in criminology. UMCP is a very large public university located in the suburb of College Park.More information about a doctorate in criminology from University of Maryland - College Park

3

University of Delaware
Newark, DE

2 Annual Graduates

University of Delaware is a good choice for individuals pursuing a doctor's degree in criminology. UD is a very large public university located in the large suburb of Newark.More information about a doctorate in criminology from University of Delaware

4

University of Florida
Gainesville, FL

4 Annual Graduates

Any student pursuing a degree in a doctor's degree in criminology has to look into University of Florida. Located in the city of Gainesville, UF is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in criminology from University of Florida

5

Arizona State University - Tempe
Tempe, AZ

5 Annual Graduates

ASU - Tempe is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of Tempe.More information about a doctorate in criminology from Arizona State University - Tempe

6

Washington State University
Pullman, WA

5 Annual Graduates

Located in the town of Pullman, Wazzu is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in criminology from Washington State University

7

Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Carbondale, IL

2 Annual Graduates

Located in the small city of Carbondale, SIUC is a public university with a large student population.More information about a doctorate in criminology from Southern Illinois University Carbondale

8

University of South Florida - Main Campus
Tampa, FL

3 Annual Graduates

USF Tampa is a very large public university located in the large city of Tampa.More information about a doctorate in criminology from University of South Florida - Main Campus

8

University of Missouri - St Louis
Saint Louis, MO

3 Annual Graduates

UMSL is a large public university located in the large suburb of Saint Louis.More information about a doctorate in criminology from University of Missouri - St Louis

9

Old Dominion University
Norfolk, VA

2 Annual Graduates

Located in the medium-sized city of Norfolk, Old Dominion is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in criminology from Old Dominion University

Criminology by Region

View the Best Criminology Doctor's Degree Schools for a specific region near you.

Region
Southeast
New England
Rocky Mountains
Plains States
Middle Atlantic
Far Western US
Southwest
Other U.S. Territories
Great Lakes

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Rankings in Majors Related to Criminology

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Criminology Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
Criminology	56

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.