Criminal Justice
A Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice provides students with a comprehensive understanding of the criminal justice system, including its structures, processes and the social issues related to crime and justice.
Criminal Justice
Outcomes
USF’s criminal justice graduates have abundant career opportunities across various fields, including roles as correctional officers, detectives, lawyers, police officers, private investigators, probation officers and social workers.
These roles offer a wide range of responsibilities and settings, from law enforcement to legal practice and social services, providing graduates with diverse paths to pursue their professional goals in the criminal justice system.
Career Outlook
- Average Salary: $41,650
- Job Postings: 6,865
Average salary is based on a criminal justice specialist position from Salary.com. Job posting data is for detectives and criminal investigator positions and is provided by Lightcast. This number represents unique job postings from companies looking to hire in the last 30 days as of May 2024.
Criminal Justice Degree Options
At USF, you will have the advantage of small class sizes with engaged professors, who will give you a personalized education and expose you to a Christian environment centered on service.
Criminal Justice
A minor in criminal justice offers students from various majors an opportunity to gain foundational knowledge and skills in the field of criminal justice.
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Internships
An internship is required for criminal justice majors. Our dedicated faculty will help you find internship opportunities that match your interests. These real-world experiences will build your resume and increase your professional network. Students have been placed with the following organizations:
- City of Sioux Falls: Sioux Falls Police Department
- Federal: United States Probation, FBI, U.S. Marshals
- Minnehaha County: Sheriff's Department, State Attorney’s Office, Public Defender's Office, Juvenile Detention Center
- Private: Local law firms, Lutheran Social Services, Volunteers of America, McCrossan's Boys Ranch, Glory House
- State of South Dakota: Department of Corrections (State Penitentiary, Division of Pardons and Paroles or Juvenile Division), Highway Patrol, Court Services
Experiential Learning Opportunities
Because the University's motto is Culture for Service, many academic programs and faculty members incorporate service-learning into their curriculums and pedagogy. Professor of criminal justice Beth O'Toole is one of these faculty members. In 2006, she started a school-based mentor program between USF and Terry Redlin Elementary School. The growth and success of the program since then has been phenomenal. Historically, USF provides anywhere from 40 to 100 mentors each year.
Although Professor O'Toole originally began the program with USF students who were enrolled in her Juvenile Justice course, the program has greatly impacted USF's campus and has evolved to include USF mentors from many academic majors and backgrounds, as well as faculty and staff members. The goals of the Terry Redlin Mentor Program are three-fold: (1) to provide assistance, role modeling, and positive interaction between adults and students; (2) to promote the importance of education; and (3) to help students achieve short-term goals that will eventually lead to school and lifetime success.
Our faculty attend and present at this conference every year, and they work with students to develop research and present as well. Professor Beth O’Toole has worked with 18 students to present at this conference in Seattle, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Chicago and New York City. In 2012, Professor O'Toole and six of her students were selected to present a full panel on current issues in Capital Punishment in New York City. This opportunity is available for junior/senior criminal justice students every spring.
The National Mediation Tournament affords students the opportunity to compete against other colleges and universities.
At the 2012 National Intercollegiate Mediation Tournament in Gainesville, GA, at Brenau University, USF's mediation team placed 10th in Advocacy and 6th in Mediation out of 38 teams. According to Assistant Criminal Justice Professor Mike Thompson, the essence of mediation is dispute resolution.
"The communication skills that a mediator must cultivate and utilize are assets in any relational situation," said Thompson. "Students who participate in mediation activities learn the value of active listening while they identify parties' needs that can be addressed in a resolution."
Additional Resources
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