Criminal Justice Careers and Salaries

If you are considering a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice from Colorado Christian University, there are a number of careers from which to choose upon completion of your degree program. Police work, government agency work, and security guard positions are some of the most popular (and rewarding) jobs graduates with a Criminal Justice degree pursue. If you have dreamed about becoming a lawyer, a criminal justice degree will certainly help prepare you for law school, also. Some criminal justice-related careers require an Associate’s Degree, which CCU offers, and still others only require a Criminal Justice Certificate, which will provide you with accredited college credits that can be used to complete a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice at a later time in your life.

While salaries for criminal justice degree-related positions will not put you in the same tax bracket as Donald Trump, many jobs in this field pay a comfortable salary with intrinsic rewards being plentiful. Working in a helping profession such as law enforcement means you are changing lives by assisting others on a daily basis. Not many millionaires can claim to have saved a life at the end of their work day. While many jobs associated with criminal justice can be stressful and dangerous, the feeling of serving your community and individuals is one many public servants relish. If you are a born leader and value service to others, then criminal justice may be the degree program for you.

The U.S. Department of Labor indicates that earning potential for criminal justice positions is good. Here is a list of criminal justice careers and salaries from the Department of Labor’s May 2010 report:

Occupation                                     Mean Hourly                            Mean Annual

Lawyer                                                  $62.23                                              $129,440

Judicial law clerk                                  21.18                                                  44,060

Hearing officer                                      43.14                                                   89,740

Mediator                                                 31.95                                                 66,460

Judge/Magistrate                                  50.67                                                 105,390

Paralegal/Legal Assistant                     23.87                                                 49,640

Court reporter                                        25.61                                                  53, 270

Police supervisor                                     38.83                                                  80,770

Firefighter supervisor                             34.56                                                  71, 890

Firefighter                                                 22.95                                                  47,730

Fire inspector/fire investigator              27.80                                                  56,160

Forest fire prevention specialist             19.33                                                   40,200

Bailiff                                                            19.67                                                   40,910

Corrections officers/jailer                        20.57                                                   42,780

Detective                                                    35.10                                                    73,010

Police officer                                               26.74                                                    55,620

Security guard                                           12.92                                                    26,870

Fed Transportation Security Officer      18.10                                                    37,650

Selecting the right criminal justice degree for your particular talents requires evaluating reliable information from trusted sources. If you are interested in pursuing a criminal justice degree in a Christ-centered community of students and educators with a commitment to academics and spiritual growth, Colorado Christian University may be the school for you. Founded on traditional values and high academic standards, CCU strives to “impact our culture in support of traditional family values, sanctity of life, compassion for the poor, biblical view of human nature, limited government, personal freedom, and other such causes that preserve and promote high moral and ethical standards.”