2025 Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Bachelor's Degree Schools in Pennsylvania
If you pursue a bachelor's degree in
criminal justice & corrections, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #7 most popular program in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 28 schools in Pennsylvania to determine which ones were the best for criminal justice & corrections students pursuing a bachelor's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 1,999 bachelor's degrees in criminal justice & corrections during the 2022-2023 academic year.
What's on this page: * Our Methodology
Choosing a Great Criminal Justice & Corrections School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The criminal justice bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we consider a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a combination of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their bachelor's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their bachelor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
- Major Focus - How much a school focuses on criminal justice & corrections students vs. other majors.
- Major Demand - How many other criminal justice & corrections students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
- Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
- Student Debt - How easy is it for criminal justice & corrections to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
- Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized criminal justice & corrections related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for criminal justice & corrections students working on their bachelor's degree.
More Ways to Rank Criminal Justice & Corrections Schools
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Bachelor's Degree Schools in Pennsylvania list, to help you choose the best school for 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.
Located in the fringe town of Kutztown, Kutztown University is a public university with a medium-sized student population.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the criminal justice program state that they receive average early career earnings of $37,311.
More information about a bachelor’s in criminal justice & corrections from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
Located in the city of Erie, Mercyhurst is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the criminal justice program report average early career income of $38,557.
More information about a bachelor’s in criminal justice & corrections from Mercyhurst University
Located in the suburb of Center Valley, DeSales is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Those criminal justice & corrections students who get their bachelor's degree from DeSales University make $7,357 more than the standard criminal justice graduate.
More information about a bachelor’s in criminal justice & corrections from DeSales University
Located in the suburb of Chester, Widener is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population.
After graduation, criminal justice bachelor's recipients generally make about $31,663 in the first five years of their career.
More information about a bachelor’s in criminal justice & corrections from Widener University
Located in the medium-sized suburb of York, YCP is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.
Criminal Justice & Corrections bachelor's degree recipients from York College of Pennsylvania receive an earnings boost of around $4,027 over the typical earnings of criminal justice & corrections graduates.
More information about a bachelor’s in criminal justice & corrections from York College of Pennsylvania