Quick answer: Criminal justice is a widely offered online bachelor’s degree, and a common credential for security workers, corrections officers, and veterans moving toward probation, federal, and investigative careers. Programs, the careers this degree opens, and what they pay are covered below.
What the Degree Unlocks
Probation and parole: a bachelor’s is the standard minimum for probation officer roles in nearly all states ($66,270 median, BLS OEWS May 2025).
Federal careers: FBI, DEA, ATF, HSI, and U.S. Marshals postings list a bachelor’s as the baseline; criminal justice is a common qualifying major.
Investigations and leadership: detective tracks and supervisory promotions in many departments weight or require degrees.
The counseling adjacency: corrections and recovery experience pairs with the substance abuse counselor ladder if rehabilitation is your lane.
Before you request information anywhere, confirm institutional accreditation and ask how academy or military training credit would be evaluated. With that filter set, compare online criminal justice programs enrolling now:
Colleges Offering This Degree
Every school listed is verified in federal IPEDS data both to award this degree and to offer programs that can be completed entirely by distance education at this level. Whether this exact degree is delivered fully online varies by school, so confirm the format before you apply.
How we rank schools – graduation rate, graduate earnings, cost and retention.
Advertising plays no part.
This page lists 10 schools, closest group first, then ordered by
BOC Score with the highest at the top.
10 of them carry a score.
LOCAL RANK
Location / proximity to this page
Defines the local group
Graduation rate how often students finish
30%
Median earnings, 10 years after entry whether it paid off
25%
Average net price what students actually pay after aid; lower ranks higher
20%
Retention rate how many come back for year two
15%
Fully online availability whether you can study while working
10%
Scores come from IPEDS (2024) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard.
Earnings are for all graduates of a school, not one program, so treat them as a signal
about the institution rather than about this subject.
Sponsored listings are paid placements and are labelled as such; they are separate from
this ranking and never change it. Read the full methodology.
Institutional accreditation. The gate for federal hiring and graduate school; check it before anything else.
Fully online is normal. Criminal justice has no lab component; 100% online delivery from accredited public universities is standard and affordable.
Credit for academy and military training. Many programs award credit for POST academy hours, corrections training, and military service; credit decisions rest with each school, so request a written evaluation, and veterans should confirm education-benefit details with the school’s certifying official.
Internship pipelines. Programs with agency partnerships convert to jobs; ask where last year’s graduates landed.
Match the concentration to the goal. Corrections, homeland security, forensics, and criminology concentrations lead different places; pick from the job posting backward.
What These Careers Pay
Probation officers and correctional treatment specialists carry a $66,270 BLS median, and most federal agent roles list the bachelor’s as a hard requirement.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is an online criminal justice degree respected by agencies?
Accredited online criminal justice degrees are accepted by state and federal agencies; what matters to hiring boards is the accreditation and your background investigation, not the delivery format.
Do probation officers really need a bachelor's?
In nearly all states, yes: BLS lists the bachelor's as the typical entry-level education for probation officers and correctional treatment specialists.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections, 2024-34
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook
About this guide: Researched and written by the TradeCareerPath Editorial Team. Our editorial team researches and sources every trade school and career guide using federal labor and education data, including BLS OEWS and Employment Projections, DOL apprenticeship records, IPEDS, College Scorecard, and state licensing boards. We follow the editorial standards documented at /editorial-policy/.
