subject: Earning Yourself A Criminal Justice Degree [print this page] If you are interested in starting a career in law enforcement, you might as well prepare your path right set your goals to attain a criminal justice degree. The best place to start would be from high school, if not college.
There are no specific requirements to take the degree; however, getting a head start in high school by taking criminal justice, social studies, and U.S. Government subjects as an elective would definitely help. Taking such subjects is useful as they can serve as an introduction or base idea to the degree later on. Apart from that, you can take up writing and communication classes which will also come in handy in this career.
Next, you can choose a criminal justice school. In order to determine the right type of school for you, you will need to know what type of degree you are interested in. An associates degree takes about two years to complete, and can be taken in a community college. On the other hand, a criminal justice degree of bachelors level will take about four years to complete, and is completed at a university, although you can actually start out at a community college for the first couple of years.
The first two years in college would cover the general and basic courses on criminal justice and criminology. It is important to understand the basics before entering the more advanced components of the program, as most of their contents are based on the basic fundamentals. It would be wise to decide on a specific major when you start so that you will be able to arrange your path properly to attain that goal. If you are unsure of what you would want to major in, you can always seek an academic advisor. Taking the right major will help you become the type of law enforcer you hope to be.
