2024 Best Criminology Master's Degree Schools

If you plan on getting your master's degree in criminology, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #130 in the country in terms of popularity. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.

For its 2024 ranking, College Factual looked at 40 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for criminology students pursuing a master's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 789 master's degrees in criminology to qualified students.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Criminology School for Your Master's Degree

The criminology master'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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.

A Great Overall School

The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we include a school's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree 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.

Early-Career Earnings

One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of master's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their master's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.

Other Factors We Consider

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to criminology students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of criminology students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
• 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 criminology to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized criminology related body.

Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for criminology students working on their master's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Criminology Master's Degree Schools ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Criminology in the United States

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in criminology.

10 Top Schools for a Master's in Criminology

1

University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA

15 Annual Graduates

$50,778 Median Starting Salary

University of Pennsylvania is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in criminology. UPenn is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Philadelphia.

Master's recipients from the criminology degree program at University of Pennsylvania get $4,449 more than the average college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.

More information about a master’s in criminology from University of Pennsylvania

2

University of California - Irvine
Irvine, CA

41 Annual Graduates

$56,448 Median Starting Salary

University of California - Irvine is a great choice for students pursuing a master's degree in criminology. Located in the large city of Irvine, UC Irvine is a public university with a very large student population.

Master's recipients from the criminology program at University of California - Irvine get $10,119 more than the average college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.

More information about a master’s in criminology from University of California - Irvine

3

University of Maryland - College Park
College Park, MD

7 Annual Graduates

Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in criminology needs to look into University of Maryland - College Park. Located in the large suburb of College Park, UMCP is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in criminology from University of Maryland - College Park

4

Lasell University
Newton, MA

64 Annual Graduates

It is difficult to beat Lasell University if you want to pursue a master's degree in criminology. Located in the city of Newton, Lasell is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.More information about a master’s in criminology from Lasell University

5

Saint Joseph's University
Philadelphia, PA

100 Annual Graduates

$47,307 Median Starting Salary

Located in the large city of Philadelphia, St. Joe's is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population.

After graduation, criminology master's recipients generally earn an average of $47,307 in their early careers.

More information about a master’s in criminology from Saint Joseph’s University

6

University of South Florida - Main Campus
Tampa, FL

34 Annual Graduates

Located in the large city of Tampa, USF Tampa is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a master’s in criminology from University of South Florida - Main Campus

7

University of Miami
Coral Gables, FL

6 Annual Graduates

U Miami is a large private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Coral Gables.More information about a master’s in criminology from University of Miami

8

University of New Hampshire - Main Campus
Durham, NH

6 Annual Graduates

UNH is a large public university located in the suburb of Durham.More information about a master’s in criminology from University of New Hampshire - Main Campus

9

The University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, AL

9 Annual Graduates

UA is a very large public university located in the city of Tuscaloosa.More information about a master’s in criminology from The University of Alabama

10

Saint Vincent College
Latrobe, PA

8 Annual Graduates

Saint Vincent is a small private not-for-profit college located in the suburb of Latrobe.More information about a master’s in criminology from Saint Vincent College

Criminology by Region

View the Best Criminology Master's Degree Schools for a specific region near you.

Region
Southeast
New England
Rocky Mountains
Plains States
Middle Atlantic
Far Western US
Southwest
Other U.S. Territories
Great Lakes

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Criminology Related Rankings by Major

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Criminology Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
Criminology	789

Notes and References

• 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). More about our data sources and methodologies.