Criminology is about average in terms of popularity for associate degrees programs. That is, it ranks #151 out of the 328 majors across the country that we analyze each year. So, you may have to do some digging around to find quality schools that offer the degree program. This list can help with that.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 3 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for criminology students pursuing a associate degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 201 associate degrees in criminology during the <nil> academic year.
Choosing a Great Criminology School for Your Associate Degree
The criminology associate degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality criminology program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
The overall quality of a associate degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Early-Career Salaries
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their associate degree from the school. After all, your associate degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on criminology students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other criminology students want to attend this school to pursue a associate degree.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How much debt criminology students go into to obtain their associate degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
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 schools for criminology students working on their associate degree.
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 Criminology Associate Degree Schools list to help you make the college decision.
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Featured Criminology Programs
Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.
Gain a solid foundation in the American justice system, criminal law and social science when you earn your associate degree in criminal justice online from Southern New Hampshire University.
Purdue University Global is one of the best schools in the country for getting an associate degree in criminology. Located in the small city of West Lafayette, Purdue University Global is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Associate recipients from the criminology program at Purdue University Global earn $3,890 more than the typical college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Central New Mexico Community College is a great option for individuals pursuing an associate degree in criminology. Located in the large city of Albuquerque, CNM is a public college with a fairly large student population.
Students who graduate with their associate from the criminology program report average early career income of $28,987.
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.