Criminology is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #130 most popular master's degree program in the country. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 4 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Criminology Master's Degree Schools in Missouri ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 51 master's degrees in criminology to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Criminology School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of criminology for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality criminology program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on criminology students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other criminology students want to attend this school to pursue a master's 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 criminology students go into to obtain their master's 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 criminology related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for criminology students working on their master's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Criminology Master's Degree Schools in Missouri ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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Gain the management, leadership, data analysis and budgeting skills you need to advance in the criminal justice field with this online master's from Southern New Hampshire University.
It is hard to beat Missouri State University - Springfield if you want to pursue a master's degree in criminology. Located in the medium-sized city of Springfield, Missouri State is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Soon after graduating, criminology master's recipients generally make around $41,747 in their early careers.
Any student who is interested in a master's degree in criminology needs to look into Lindenwood University. Lindenwood University is a medium-sized private not-for-profit university located in the city of Saint Charles.
Master's recipients from the criminology program at Lindenwood University make $2,851 more than the average graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
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.
Your choice of criminology for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality criminology program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
