2025 Best Criminal Justice & Police Science Schools in California
8Colleges in California
1,924Police Science Degrees Awarded
Criminal Justice & Police Science is of the hottest degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #74 most popular major in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
College Factual reviewed 8 schools in California to determine which ones were the best for degree seekers in the field of criminal justice & police science. Combined, these schools handed out 1,924 degrees in criminal justice & police science to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Criminal Justice & Police Science School
Your choice of criminal justice & police science school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. For our Best Overall Criminal Justice & Police Science School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.
Pick Your Criminal Justice & Police Science Degree Level
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Criminal Justice & Police Science Schools in California list, to help you choose the best school for you.
More interested in schools in a specific area of the country? Filter this list by region or state.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
Best Schools for Criminal Justice & Police Science in California
If you aren't interested in a particular degree level and want to know which schools are the overall best at delivering an education for the police science degrees they offer, see the list below.
Butte College is a wonderful choice for students pursuing a degree in criminal justice & police science. Located in the rural area of Oroville, Butte College is a public college with a large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #475 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Butte College is a great college overall.
There were about 96 criminal justice & police science students who graduated with this degree at Butte College in the most recent data year.
Any student who is interested in criminal justice & police science needs to check out Moreno Valley College. Located in the suburb of Moreno Valley, Moreno Valley College is a public college with a large student population. This college ranks 146th out of 161 schools for overall quality in the state of California.
There were approximately 5 criminal justice & police science students who graduated with this degree at Moreno Valley College in the most recent year we have data available.
BS in Criminal Justice - Police Administration & OperationsProgram Name
Explore the demands, functions, goals and leadership opportunities in the modern police agency with this specialized online bachelor's from Southern New Hampshire University.
It is difficult to beat College of the Desert if you want to pursue a degree in criminal justice & police science. College of the Desert is a large public college located in the small city of Palm Desert. A Best Colleges rank of #602 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means College of the Desert is a great college overall.
There were about 95 criminal justice & police science students who graduated with this degree at College of the Desert in the most recent year we have data available.
Every student who is interested in criminal justice & police science has to take a look at Yuba College. Yuba College is a medium-sized public college located in the suburb of Marysville. A Best Colleges rank of #715 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Yuba College is a great college overall.
There were approximately 118 criminal justice & police science students who graduated with this degree at Yuba College in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the city of Santa Ana, SAC is a public college with a very large student population. This college ranks 109th out of 161 colleges for overall quality in the state of California.
There were about 356 criminal justice & police science students who graduated with this degree at SAC in the most recent year we have data available.
Gavilan College is a medium-sized public college located in the rural area of Gilroy. This college ranks 105th out of 161 schools for overall quality in the state of California.
There were approximately 103 criminal justice & police science students who graduated with this degree at Gavilan College in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the large suburb of Clovis, Fresno Institute of Technology is a private for-profit school with a small student population. This school ranks 2113th out of 2,152 schools for overall quality nationwide.
There were approximately 20 criminal justice & police science students who graduated with this degree at Fresno Institute of Technology in the most recent year we have data available.
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).