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Criminology

$75,000

Median Salary

4%

Job Growth

Graduate

in Three Years–Optional

Criminology

Explore the complexities of crime, justice, and rehabilitation with a criminology degree. You’ll gain a deep understanding of the criminal justice system—including law enforcement, courts, corrections, and social services—while examining the root causes of crime and effective societal responses.

With an interdisciplinary approach that includes history, sociology, political science, and psychology, this program equips you with the critical thinking and ethical reasoning skills needed to address real-world challenges in criminal justice and beyond.

Experiential Learning

Gain a well-rounded understanding of crime and justice through coursework and hands-on experiences. You’ll explore topics like criminal law, diversity, ethics, psychology, and violence while building a strong foundation in sociology, political science, and history.

Outside the classroom, you’ll engage in:

  • A Living Learning Community for first-year students interested in social justice, featuring a common course and shared housing.
  • Guest speakers from Illinois State Police, probation services, juvenile justice, victim advocacy, and corrections.
  • Field trips to sites like the Federal Correctional Institute in Pekin, Peoria County Juvenile Detention Center, and Central Illinois Police Training Center, where students train using the same VirTra simulator as law enforcement officers.

Program Details

Course Requirements

Career Opportunities

  • Law enforcement – Police officer, detective, federal agent
  • Corrections & rehabilitation – Probation officer, parole officer, offender re-entry specialist
  • Legal & advocacy roles – Victim advocate, pre-trial supervision officer, DCFS caseworker
  • Private sector & investigations – Private investigator, insurance fraud investigator

Minors

Learn more about this discipline’s history, its research methods, and topics of interest. Open to all students, the minor pairs well with majors in business, the health sciences, criminal justice studies, political science or pre-law, social work, psychology, or marketing.

See full course requirements and minor details

Ready to see how parts of the criminal justice system interact? This minor will help you understand factors for crime and how different parts of the justice system address issues. The minor, which is open to all students, works well with sociology, psychology, computer information systems and political science majors.

See full course requirements and minor details

Explore the scientific study of human activities. This minor introduces you to cross-cultural variations in values, worldviews and ways of life.

You’ll be exposed to topics such as religion, art, kinship, gender roles, communication styles and body modifications. The minor, which is open to all students, often is paired with biology, history, psychology and sociology.

See full course requirements and minor details

Student and alumni stories

Stories from the Sociology, Criminology & Social Work Department

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