A bachelor’s degree in criminal justice takes at least 120 semester credits, which is four years of full-time study. Across the
745 ranked bachelor’s programs, the median program charges a resident $14,184 a year in tuition and
required fees, and the median school graduates 49% of its entering students.
Most bachelor’s degrees take at least 120 semester credits, and most associate degrees about 60. At 15 credits a semester,
120 credits are eight semesters, or four years. Credit transferred from an associate degree can shorten that, and each school sets
how much of it counts. If you want the two-year route, the associate’s page
covers 683 ranked associate’s programs.
Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice
Nothing this site uses ranks one letter above the other. The federal data counts a B.A. and a B.S. as the same bachelor’s award in the same
criminal justice codes. ACJS applies one set of standards to the bachelor’s level, written for
“BA/BS” programs together, and its endorsed list includes
3 B.A. and 6 B.S. programs. What differs is the coursework a school requires for each, which the school sets in its own catalog.
What a Criminal Justice Bachelor’s Degree Costs
Among the 745 ranked bachelor’s programs, a full-time year of in-state tuition and required fees runs from
$2,340 to $67,680. The middle half of programs charge between $9,039 and $33,082, and the median is $14,184.
The table splits the programs by school type.
Ranked bachelor’s programs by school type: tuition and graduation rate
School type
Programs
Median in-state tuition, a year
Median graduation rate
Public
343
$9,142
48%
Private nonprofit
365
$33,332
54%
Private for-profit
37
$13,920
34%
Tuition and fees are what each school reported to IPEDS for a full-time year in 2023-24, tuition plus required fees, before books, housing or financial aid. They are the price scored on the national lists and the state pages, where the resident rate is used; the online lists score the price of one credit instead. Schools set new rates every year, and many price their online programs separately; where a school's own page publishes its rate, the program's card shows it with its source. The online lists score what an online student from another state pays, and
the cheapest online criminal justice degree page orders those programs by their price per credit.
Cal State East Bay's Criminal Justice, B.S. pairs a core in criminal law, investigation, research methods and crime theory with one course from each of the department's groups: crime prevention, policing and forensics; corrections, community-based programs and youth; the impact of crime and victimization; and justice, equity and diversity.
120 units, including a 48-unit major
The catalog lists the delivery format as face to face
Cal State East Bay publishes four-year freshman and two-year ADT roadmaps
Columbia Southern University's online Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice Administration spans law enforcement, courts and corrections and offers optional concentrations from Arson Investigation to Forensic Psychology.
120 credit hours
Courses are 100% online and available 24/7
Optional concentrations include Forensics, Criminology and Arson Investigation
UPR Carolina says its criminal justice bachelor's can be taken completely at a distance, in person, or as a mix of both, and calls it an online program unique in the University of Puerto Rico system.
127 credits
Concentrations in Psicología Forense and Ley y Sociedad
The program can be completed fully at a distance or in person
Western Carolina University runs its Criminal Justice, B.S. as a residential program and as an online program for transfer students with criminal justice work experience, which carries an Administration of Justice concentration for distance learning students.
120 semester hours
Residential or online
The online program requires one year of documented criminal justice experience
Sacramento State teaches its criminal justice bachelor's on campus and also runs it as a fully online degree completion program through its College of Continuing Education, with the same degree awarded either way.
The degree requires 120 total units, including a 60-unit major
Freshmen are admitted as criminal justice pre-majors
The online version is a 60-unit degree completion program taught in accelerated eight-week courses
CSULB offers its criminology and criminal justice bachelor’s both as the standard major and as a fully online, cohort-based degree completion program for transfer students who live in California and have already finished 60 lower-division units.
61 units of criminology and criminal justice courses
The online program is a 100% online asynchronous program
Online students take 12 to 16 units each fall and spring semester
College Scorecard reports graduate earnings for 600 of the 745 ranked bachelor’s programs.
The median of those programs is $54,228 a year, and the middle half run from $49,417 to $58,926. Earnings are College Scorecard's median for the school's criminal justice and corrections graduates (federal field 43.01) at the level who received federal aid, four years after finishing, or one year after where that is the only figure Scorecard publishes. Scorecard reports a median only where enough graduates can be counted, and it covers every program the school reports in that field.
The jobs a degree leads to pay differently. These are BLS medians for May 2025, and each job has its own page.
Median annual pay for four criminal justice jobs, May 2025
A degree is not a peace officer license. The police degree guide gives each state board’s rule, and
the salary page compares pay across jobs and states.
Associate, Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Criminal Justice
A state page is the national ranking at each level, kept to the state's programs, in the national order and with the national scores, numbered from 1 within the state. The price scored is the one a resident pays. Each state page also gives the state’s own rules for becoming an officer.
The state rankings page lists them all with each state’s program count.
Questions About a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice
Which Is Better, BA or BS in Criminal Justice?
Nothing this site uses ranks one above the other. The federal data counts both as a bachelor’s award in the same criminal justice codes, and ACJS reviews both against one set of standards for the bachelor’s level: its list of endorsed programs includes 3 B.A. and 6 B.S. programs. What differs is the coursework a school requires for each letter, and every school sets that in its own catalog.
How Long Does a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice Take?
A bachelor’s degree takes at least 120 credits, or four years of full-time study. An associate degree takes about 60 credits, or two. Both levels are ranked here: 683 ranked associate’s programs and 745 ranked bachelor’s programs.
How Many Credits Is a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice?
Most bachelor’s degrees take at least 120 semester credits. At 15 credits a semester that’s eight semesters, and credit transferred from an associate degree or earlier college work comes off the total.
How Much Does a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice Cost?
The median ranked program charges $14,184 a year in tuition and required fees for a resident, which is $56,736 over four years before books, housing and financial aid. The middle half of programs run from $9,039 to $33,082 a year.
Can You Get an Online Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice?
Yes. 187 ranked online bachelor’s programs can be finished online, which the school’s own page says. The online criminal justice degree ranking scores them on what an online student from another state pays for a credit, along with five other factors, and the cheapest page orders them by that price.
What Can You Do With a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice?
BLS lists a bachelor’s degree as the typical entry-level education for probation officers and correctional treatment specialists (SOC 21-1092), who earned a median $66,270 in May 2025. Police departments set their own education rules, and a degree is not a peace officer license. The careers section covers the jobs one at a time.
Sources for the Bachelor’s Degree Figures
Awards, charges, completion and online enrollment: the Department of Education's IPEDS data:
IPEDS completions and distance education, 2023-24; IPEDS tuition and fees and per-credit charges, 2023-24; IPEDS
graduation rates; and IPEDS Outcome Measures and fall 2024 enrollment, from the 2024 provisional release.
Programs are counted under the criminal justice codes in the federal CIP 43.01 series.
Program names, credit counts, formats, entry requirements and published prices: each school's own program pages, read between October 7, 2026 and October 14, 2026.
