6 More Useful College Degrees Than Criminal Justice for Law Enforcement Careers

Because degrees in criminal justice degrees are so common for those seeking careers in law enforcement, many students consider alternative options in order to help themselves stand out from the vast pool of job applicants and make themselves more desirable for potential employers.

Urgent: Should All Police Officers Have to Wear Body Cameras?

In addition, if for some reason a career in law enforcement does not pan out for you, an alternative degree to criminal justice would significantly aid you in your marketability and provide you with a more flexible fallback plan.

Below are listed 6 college degrees that may be more useful than a criminal justice degree:

1. Finance/Accounting
Many white collar crime investigations involve analyzing financial records and transactions from individuals and organizations alike, according to Police Link. A degree in finance or accounting would prepare you to gather and analyze the evidence. 

2. Biology/Chemistry/Physics
A degree in one of the hard sciences would prepare you to analyze evidence submitted for criminal investigations to aid in building criminal cases and files.

Vote Now: Does Media Coverage Make Police Officers' Jobs More Dangerous?

3. Engineering (all fields)
Besides having the initial appeal of already being a degree that offers high starting pay rates for graduates, an engineering degree is considered desirable by the FBI to aid in the cutting-edge advances of forensic science and surveillance techniques and activities. 

4. Foreign languages
A degree in a foreign language – especially if it’s Arabic, Korean, Chinese, or Russian – is especially useful in law enforcement careers if you are dealing with non-American citizens or international undertakings, according to the FBI. High proficiency in Spanish can also be useful, since it’s a popular language in the United States already. 

5. Information technology
This degree is especially useful in today’s internet-age with the new types of crime that are committed using modern technology – especially in sexual predator or hacking cases, according to Police Link. 

6. Intelligence/Counterintelligence
This degree is extremely beneficial in the post-9/11 era of national security and terrorism threats, according to Henley-Putnam University. 

Tell Us: Does Racism Play a Role in Police Officers' Actions?

Related Stories:

• Impacts of Prison Populations on Voting Districts
  
• Seattle Metropolitan Police Museum: Facts and History