Ranked #27 in popularity, criminal justice is one of the most sought-after degree programs in the nation. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
College Factual looked at 7 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Criminal Justice Schools in Ohio ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 431 degrees in criminal justice to qualified students.
Your choice of criminal justice school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. For our Best Overall Criminal Justice School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Criminal Justice Schools in Ohio list to help you make the college decision.
You can also filter this list by location to find schools closer to you.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
Although we recommend filtering by degree level first, you can view the list below to see which schools give the educational experience for the criminal justice degree levels they offer.
Every student who is interested in criminal justice has to check out Union Institute & University. Located in the large city of Cincinnati, Union is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly small student population. A Best Colleges rank of #124 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Union is a great university overall.
There were approximately 159 criminal justice students who graduated with this degree at Union in the most recent data year.
Tiffin University is a great choice for students interested in a degree in criminal justice. Tiffin University is a small private not-for-profit university located in the town of Tiffin. A Best Colleges rank of #1033 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Tiffin University is a great university overall.
There were roughly 48 criminal justice students who graduated with this degree at Tiffin University in the most recent data year.
Stark State College is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a degree in criminal justice. Located in the suburb of North Canton, Stark State College is a public college with a moderately-sized student population. This college ranks 58th out of 91 colleges for overall quality in the state of Ohio.
There were approximately 17 criminal justice students who graduated with this degree at Stark State College in the most recent data year.
Ashland University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a degree in criminal justice. Ashland is a small private not-for-profit university located in the fringe town of Ashland. A Best Colleges rank of #784 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Ashland is a great university overall.
There were approximately 22 criminal justice students who graduated with this degree at Ashland in the most recent data year.
Owens State Community College is a medium-sized public college located in the suburb of Perrysburg. This college ranks 44th out of 91 schools for overall quality in the state of Ohio.
There were approximately 12 criminal justice students who graduated with this degree at Owens State Community College in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the suburb of Hamilton, Miami University - Hamilton is a public university with a small student population. This university ranks 59th out of 91 colleges for overall quality in the state of Ohio.
There were roughly 28 criminal justice students who graduated with this degree at Miami University - Hamilton in the most recent data year.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
Your choice of criminal justice school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. For our Best Overall Criminal Justice School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
