Criminal Justice Education is the study of system of practices, and organizations, used by the federal, state and local governments, directed at maintaining social control, to control crime, and sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties. Criminal justice education is different from the field of criminology, which is more to do with the study of crime as a social phenomena, causes of crime, criminal behavior, and other aspects of crime. Criminal justice emerged as an academic discipline in the 1920s, beginning with Berkeley police chief August Vollmer who established a criminal justice program at the University of California, Berkeley in 1916.Other programs were established in the United States at Indiana University, Michigan State University, San Jose State University, and the University of Washington. As of 1950, criminal justice students were estimated to number less than 1,000. Until the 1960s, the primary focus of criminal justice in the United States was on policing and police science but now there is whole range of subjects to choose from and to do further specialization.

If you have average scores (no lower the 2.5, the higher the better), an average or above average score on the GRE, and good letters of recommendations, you should consider applying in graduate programmes in Criminal Justice in any of the universities in States. There is huge demand for people with graduate degrees in this field. Application deadlines for most places is January or March  at the least.

It is interesting to note that a master’s degree in criminal justice takes less time to complete as compared to the Bachelor’s degree, a doctorate in the field takes even less time if you do not opt for ABD which stands for “all but dissertation”. Graduate programmes cost are cheaper as compared to other programmes offered at the same place. Best time to apply for a graduate programme is when you are done with your undergraduate education.

Most important advice for anyone getting enrolled into a post grad school for criminal justice education is that “Don't apply to a grad program if there is only one professor there who specializes in your interest, no matter if it seems like a perfect match. He or she may move, get sick, or take a sabbatical during your stay, and you will have trouble putting together a thesis or dissertation committee. The rule of thumb is to find a critical mass of dependable faculty (at least three) with some overlap in specialties and then choose a common topic but one that none of them feels too strongly about. Your thesis or dissertation is going to eventually revolve around THEIR interests, not yours, but all the ideas up front are going to have to come from you. Expect revisions for revision's sake. They're testing you.

A typical post graduate programme in criminal justice requires 36 credit hours. This includes 15 hours in core courses, 15 hours in area of concentration, and 6 hours for a thesis or non-thesis independent research. Each course is usually 3 semester hours. You will be studying about a wide range of subjects e.g. white collar crime, environmental crime, as well as more general and politics courses.