Criminal Justice Programs in the U.S. - Western

All Degrees | Only Associates Degrees | Only Bachelor's Degrees

The map shows all college programs in the United States offering degrees in criminal justice, law enforcement, police science, corrections, or criminology. We judge their viability as a recruiting target by the number of police officers and sheriff deputies within 100 miles of the college relative to the number of graduates. Programs with fewer than 100 officers per graduate (the smallest 25%) are marked with green pushpins. They are most likely to have graduates with interest in policing careers that cannot be absorbed into the local law enforcement job market. Programs with more than 270 officers per graduate (the largest 50%) have red pushpins, indicating that policing jobs in the vicinity of the program are likely to be plentiful relative to the number of graduates. These recruiting markets are likely to be more competitive. The remaining programs are marked with yellow pushpins. Clicking on a program's pushpin gives more detail about the program including its number of graduates, the college's or university's web site, and the number of officers per graduate within 50, 100, and 200 miles.

Due to the large number of programs represented, this map has been split into the Western U.S. map and the Eastern U.S. map. Click on the link at the top of the map to change regions.

This information is intended to give recruiting efforts some guidance about programs that may be viable recruiting sites. Depending on the local policing job market, recruiting from these programs may or may not be cost-effective. Also, targeting criminal justice programs alone may limit a department's access to recruits with other in-demand skills. A mixed strategy that targets a college with a strong criminal justice program and is supplemented with an effort to attract graduates from other programs at the same college may offer a more balanced approach.

Using this Map

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