Hi everyone -
I have been considering majoring in either political science or criminal justice, and I have gone through a myriad of different possible schools.
Something I have noticed is that near 90% of the schools I have looked at do NOT have a criminal justice major at all. However, 100% of them have a political science major offering.
Why is it that so many schools do not have a criminal justice major offered?
That’s a good question, and I think it’s because criminal justice is a pretty specialized offering. In order to support a full major in criminal justice, you would have to maintain the faculty and staff support - you’d have to hire a cadre of faculty that have teaching and research areas in criminal justice, hire staff to support them, and funnel money into that program. It’s far easier to staff a political science or sociology department - any sociologist in any discipline can teach most of the freshman and sophomore level classes, so you just have to balance out interests in the top-level courses.
Add to that the fact that criminal justice is not a cash cow degree. Accounting and finance are relatively specialized, too, but students are drawn to them because of the prestige and money you can earn in those fields. Criminal justice is specialized but doesn’t have those benefits, so a lot of schools choose not to do the work to staff the department.
(This is just an educated guess, mind you - I don’t know the answer.)
My advice is that you don’t pick a school based solely or primarily on major at this point, given your interests. Political science is just as likely to get you where you want to go as a criminal justice degree.
What state do you live in? If you do not want to stay in your state, do you wish to go to any private school? If so, what cities?
Criminal justice degree programs are often oriented toward those going into careers such as police, probation, parole, or corrections officers. See http://criminaljustice.csusb.edu/majorsprograms/ba_criminal_justice.htm and http://catalog.csueastbay.edu/preview_entity.php?catoid=2&ent_oid=102&returnto=99 .
However, police departments often do not require applicants to have bachelor’s degrees, and those that have requirements for college degrees or course work do not necessarily require criminal justice as a major or course work*. I.e. it is a pre-professional major that is focused on a class of professions that do not generally require a degree in that major. So the demand for such a major may not be all that high, since many aspiring police, probation, parole, or corrections officers can enter such jobs without going to a college to study for a criminal justice bachelor’s degree.
*Checked several local police departments’ recruiting pages. Most list high school graduation or GED as the educational requirement. A few list some college, with 60 credits (the typical amount for an associates degree and half of the typical amount for a bachelor’s degree) being the most. If you are looking at specific police departments or related jobs, you may want to check the education requirements of the specific departments and agencies of interest.