Criminal Justice & Corrections is of the hottest associate degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #4 most popular major in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 42 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Associate Degree Schools in the Southwest Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 3,583 associate degrees in criminal justice & corrections to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Criminal Justice & Corrections School for Your Associate Degree
The criminal justice associate degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality criminal justice program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
The overall quality of a associate degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Early-Career Earnings
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their associate degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. That is, everyone wants their associate degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to criminal justice & corrections students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other criminal justice & corrections students want to attend this school to pursue a associate degree.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How much debt criminal justice & corrections students go into to obtain their associate degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized criminal justice & corrections related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for criminal justice & corrections students working on their associate degree.
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 & Corrections Associate Degree Schools in the Southwest Region.
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University of Phoenix - Arizona is a great decision for individuals interested in an associate degree in criminal justice & corrections. UOPX - Arizona is a fairly large private for-profit university located in the large city of Phoenix.
Associate recipients from the criminal justice & corrections major at University of Phoenix - Arizona make $9,980 more than the typical college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Any student who is interested in an associate degree in criminal justice & corrections needs to look into South Texas College. South Texas College is a fairly large public college located in the medium-sized city of McAllen.
Associate graduates who receive their degree from the criminal justice program make an average of $25,738 in the first couple years of working.
It is difficult to beat American InterContinental University - Online if you want to pursue an associate degree in criminal justice & corrections. Located in the large city of Chandler, AIU Online is a private for-profit university with a large student population.
After graduation, criminal justice associate recipients usually earn around $28,600 at the beginning of their careers.
Located in the city of Waco, MCC is a public college with a medium-sized student population.
Criminal Justice & Corrections associate degree recipients from McLennan Community College get an earnings boost of approximately $3,295 over the typical income of criminal justice & corrections graduates.
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.
The criminal justice associate degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality criminal justice program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
