What Is the Job and Salary Outlook for Criminal Justice Graduates?

The criminal justice field is expecting a prosperous future. Already, spending trends indicate that the demand for criminal justice occupations is on the rise. In the 2006 fiscal year, federal, state, and local governments spent approximately $214 billion on police protection, corrections, judicial activities, and legal activities, according to the latest information from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. This was a 5.1 percent increase in spending from the previous year. That figure has risen since then, pouring more money into the criminal justice field and opening up more opportunities for new candidates to join.

Major criminal justice sectors, such as law enforcement, paralegal work, legal assistants, and lawyers, are all expecting favorable outlooks in terms of employment opportunity growth. The law enforcement sector, which includes uniformed police officers, police detectives, homeland security officers, and probation and parole officers, will see a positive 11 percent increase in job opportunities by 2016, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As the population grows, pushing more people into already densely populated cities and spilling the city limits over into surrounding areas, criminal activity will inevitably rise as a simple result of more people being available to commit more crimes. Police officers and detectives will be needed to handle the increase in crime as well as to develop ways to combat criminal activity and keep the area’s residents and property safe. Parole and probation officers will also be needed in the coming years as more non-violent offenders are offered probation or parole to relieve overcrowded jail houses. Homeland security work will grow as well with the increased concerns over the safety of the country’s borders. The average salary for police and homeland security officers is $47,460, and for police detectives, the average salary is $69,310, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Probation and parole officers make an average salary of $42,500.

Paralegals and legal assistants are expecting to see a 22 percent increase in job opportunities, and lawyers are expecting to experience an 11 percent increase. With the increase in population and crime comes an increase in legal cases. Lawyers will need to hire more legal assistants and paralegals to help them tackle the increased workload and to ensure that the entire legal process runs smoothly, efficiently, and with as little room for error as possible. Paralegals and legal assistants make an average salary of $43,040 annually, and lawyers make an average salary of $102,470 annually. With such promising figures across all the major sectors of the criminal justice field, now is a better time than ever to join.