Police Science

Types of Degrees Police Science Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many criminal justice & police science graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Basic Certificate	8,443
Associate Degree	6,379
Undergraduate Certificate	2,753
Bachelor’s Degree	2,270
Master’s Degree	99
Graduate Certificate	80

What Police Science Majors Need to Know

People with careers related to police science were asked what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. They weighted these areas on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest.

Knowledge Areas for Police Science Majors

According to O*NET survey takers, a major in police science should prepare you for careers in which you will need to be knowledgeable in the following areas:

• Law and Government - Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
• Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.

Skills for Police Science Majors

The following list of skills has been highlighted as some of the most essential for careers related to police science:

• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
• Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others’ reactions and understanding why they react as they do.

Abilities for Police Science Majors

As a police science major, you will find yourself needing the following abilities:

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.

What Can You Do With a Police Science Major?

People with a police science degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Criminal Investigators and Special Agents	4.5%	$81,920
Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Professors	12.1%	$61,900
Immigration and Customs Inspectors	4.5%	$81,920
Police Detectives	4.5%	$81,920
Police Identification and Records Officers	4.5%	$81,920
Police Patrol Officers	7.0%	$61,380
Private Detectives and Investigators	10.6%	$50,090
Sheriffs and Deputy Sheriffs	7.0%	$61,380

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Police Science?

The major attracts more women than men. About 56% of the recent graduates in this field are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of police science majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	75
Black or African American	310
Hispanic or Latino	683
White	993
International Students	17
Other Races/Ethnicities	192

Geographic Diversity

Students from other countries are interested in Police Science, too. About 0.7% of those with this major are international students.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Police Science

Some degrees associated with police science may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to police science have obtained the following education levels.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	35.8%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	14.4%
Some College Courses	13.9%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	15.7%
Bachelor’s Degree	13.0%
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Baccalaureate degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees carrying the title of Master.	0.7%
Master’s Degree	4.5%
Post-Master’s Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Master’s degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees at the doctoral level.	0.7%
First Professional Degree - awarded for completion of a program that: requires at least 2 years of college work before entrance into the program, includes a total of at least 6 academic years of work to complete, and provides all remaining academic requirements to begin practice in a profession.	0.1%
Doctoral Degree	2.0%

Online Police Science Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	209	17
Certificate (2-4 Years)	4	0
Associate’s Degree	461	76
Bachelor’s Degree	5	1
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	11	5
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	1	1
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Majors Related to Police Science

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to police science.

Major	Number of Grads
Criminal Justice Studies	44,029
Criminal Justice	27,988
Other Corrections & Criminal Justice	4,118
Corrections	3,449
Criminal Justice and Corrections, General	2,000
Securities Services Administration/Management	696
Security & Loss Prevention Services	500
Law Enforcement Investigation & Interviewing	269
Corrections Administration	104
Protective Services Operations	57
Juvenile Corrections	56
Critical Incident Response/Special Police Operations	12

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020

More about our data sources and methodologies.