What Is Criminal Justice
Criminal Justice Fields, Degrees & Jobs

What is criminal justice? Besides bringing justice to criminals, with a criminal justice degree the fields you can enter are noble, well-paying jobs & careers

The availability of criminal justice jobs has steadily been on the rise for years, and there are no signs of it stopping. But what is criminal justice?

The bare bones definition of criminal justice is just that: general and somewhat vague.

Criminal Justice: the study or application of laws dealing with criminal behavior.

The reason the definition is so general is that it encompasses a great many people doing a vast variety of jobs with regards to crime and the law.

People who work in the criminal justice fields include:

Police officers
Lawyers
And others employed in the judicial system

By being familiar and working with the law, these people strive to put criminals behind bars and keep innocent people away from them.

In the following sections, we'll take a closer look at the different criminal justice jobs available and what you need to do get one.

What is Criminal Justice
Jobs & Careers

As mentioned above, when you begin to answer the question 'What is criminology?' you find out that there are a lot of jobs available in the field.

Here's a sampling of just a few careers in criminal justice:

Paralegal
Legal Secretary
Law Office Manager
Mediator
Legal Nurse Consultant
Court Reporter
Police Officer
Federal Law Enforcement Agent
FBI Agent
Private Investigator
Criminal Justice Lawyer
Corrections Officer
And so much more

If you are interested in starting a career in any one of these fields, then you are looking to join the world of criminal justice.

But what about the specific requirements for joining any one of these professions?

What is criminal justice education like? What do you need to do to become a lawyer, paralegal, mediator, or police officer?

In the next section, we'll examine how you can go about getting your criminal justice degree.

Getting Your Criminal Justice Degree

Some low-level jobs in the criminal justice fields don't require more than a high school diploma or a GED. But most of them, however, need you to be more qualified than that.

This means getting a four-year degree.

In order to do that, you have a variety of options before you.

If you have the money, time, and inclination, you can certainly attend a four-year campus-based college and work towards your criminal justice degree in the traditional way.

Or, you can do what I did: enroll in an online college.

When I made the decision in my mid 40s to turn my back on my career in corporate America to join the ranks of our nation's paralegals (and actually do something worthwhile with my time and talents), I was petrified.

But I was dedicated to get a career in criminal justice as jobs in this field are stable, secure, and pay well.

I was older, had a family, a mortgage, and didn't think I'd be able to uproot my life so drastically to change the course of my career.

As it turned out, I didn't have to.

By attending an online university, I was able to get my degree in less than four years, save a lot of money on tuition and fees, keep my day job, and create my own class schedule.

It was the easiest way possible to make the shift from one life-focus to the next.