2025 Best Criminal Justice Associate Degree Schools in Massachusetts

Ranked #10 in popularity, criminal justice is one of the most sought-after associate degree programs in the nation. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 3 schools in Massachusetts to determine which ones were the best for criminal justice students pursuing a associate degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 61 associate degrees in criminal justice during the 2022-2023 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Associate Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Criminal Justice School for Your Associate Degree

The criminal justice associate degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:

Quality Overall Is Important

A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To account for this we include a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a collection of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Other Factors We Consider

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to criminal justice students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other criminal justice students want to attend this school to pursue a associate degree.
• Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized criminal justice related body.

Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for criminal justice students working on their associate degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

The criminal justice school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Criminal Justice Associate Degree Schools in Massachusetts.

Best Schools for Associate Students to Study Criminal Justice in Massachusetts

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing an associate degree in criminal justice.

Top Massachusetts Schools for an Associate in Criminal Justice

1

Quincy College
Quincy, MA

Associate Degree Highest Degree Type

23 Annual Graduates

Any student pursuing a degree in an associate degree in criminal justice has to take a look at Quincy College. Quincy College is a small public college located in the large suburb of Quincy.More information about a associate in criminal justice from Quincy College

2

Massachusetts Bay Community College
Wellesley Hills, MA

Associate Degree Highest Degree Type

24 Annual Graduates

Massachusetts Bay Community College is one of the best schools in the country for getting an associate degree in criminal justice. Located in the large suburb of Wellesley Hills, MassBay Community College is a public college with a small student population.More information about a associate in criminal justice from Massachusetts Bay Community College

3

Roxbury Community College
Roxbury Crossing, MA

Associate Degree Highest Degree Type

11 Annual Graduates

Roxbury Community College is a good option for individuals interested in an associate degree in criminal justice. Roxbury Community College is a small public college located in the large city of Roxbury Crossing.More information about a associate in criminal justice from Roxbury Community College

Best Criminal Justice Colleges in the New England Region

Explore all the Best Criminal Justice Colleges in the New England Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Connecticut	156	11
New Hampshire	114	61
Rhode Island	101	4
Maine	94	11

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Criminal Justice

One of 21 majors within the Criminal Justice & Corrections area of study, Criminal Justice has other similar majors worth exploring.

Majors Similar to Criminal Justice

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Criminal Justice & Police Science	196
Criminal Justice Studies	121
Securities Services Administration/Management	1

Notes and References

• The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
• The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
• Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard). More about our data sources and methodologies.