Criminal Justice vs Criminology

How each major is officially classified

Both definitions below are the official U.S. Department of Education (NCES) CIP 2020 descriptions — not CampusPin summaries.

What you actually study

Where each major leads

The federal CIP–SOC crosswalk maps each academic program to the occupations it is designed to feed. Comparing the two lists shows where Criminal Justice and Criminology converge and where they part. Every wage below is the BLS 2024 national median for that occupation — not an outcome for the major, and not a starting salary.

A major does not restrict you to these occupations, and plenty of graduates work outside them. The mapping describes what each program is built to prepare you for.

Which one tends to suit which student

This part is CampusPin’s judgement, not a measurement. Neither major is better; they suit different temperaments.

What to ask each department

Curricula vary far more between institutions than between these two majors. These questions surface the differences that actually matter for this choice.

1. 1Does the criminal justice program have agency partnerships, internships, or academy credit?
2. 2How much research methods and statistics does the criminology degree require?
3. 3Which major do the agencies I am interested in actually prefer, if either?
4. 4Does either program address current debates in policing and sentencing, or is the coverage purely procedural?

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a Criminal Justice and a Criminology major?

Criminal justice studies the system — policing, courts, and corrections — and is oriented toward practice inside it. Criminology studies crime itself as a social phenomenon: why it happens, how it is distributed, and what actually reduces it. One is largely professional preparation; the other is a social science.

Do Criminal Justice and Criminology lead to the same jobs?

Partly. The federal CIP–SOC crosswalk maps both programs to 3 of the same occupations — including Managers, All Other, Life, Physical, and Social Science Technicians, All Other, Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Teachers, Postsecondary. It also maps 6 occupations to Criminal Justice that it does not map to Criminology, and 2 to Criminology that it does not map to Criminal Justice. A degree is not a restriction — graduates work outside these lists routinely — but the mapping shows where each program is designed to lead.

Which pays more, Criminal Justice or Criminology?

CampusPin does not publish a "higher-paying major" answer, because the data does not support one. BLS reports median wages by OCCUPATION, not by college major, and both of these majors lead to a range of occupations that overlap. The per-occupation medians on this page are the honest version of that question: compare the specific roles you are actually interested in, and remember that pay varies widely by employer, region, and experience.

Is there anything commonly misunderstood about choosing between Criminal Justice and Criminology?

The federal crosswalk maps criminal justice to the operational occupations — police, detectives, corrections — while criminology maps to sociologist and psychologist roles that generally require graduate degrees. That gap matters more than the similar-sounding names suggest.