Salary Expectations for Criminal Justice Careers

Criminal Justice Salary Statistics

• correctional officers and administrators: The average salary for correctional officers is $34,560. Administrators in the corrections field earn an average salary of $51,390. Treatment specialists and probation officers earn an average salary of $41,990. Agencies located in urban areas tend to offer higher wages.
  
  
• court reporters: Court reporters earn $39,670 on average. Oftentimes, court reporters will supplement their salaried income by taking on additional freelance work. Freelance jobs for court reporters generally offer a per-page fee for transcripts.
  
  
• criminologists: Criminologists possess a PhD in criminal justice or criminology and usually hold professorships in colleges or universities. Salaries for full-time criminology faculty members average $64,455. Tenured professors tend to make more than this average ($86,437), while associate professors average $61,732, and assistant professors make an average of $51,545.
  
  
• detectives and investigators: The average salary for a detective or investigator is $49,860 annually. The highest paid positions in this field are security/loss-prevention directors and vice presidents, who make far more than the median income at $77,500 per year. Positions that require less education, such as store detectives, can make much less than the average, with entry-level jobs beginning at $25,000.
  
  
• FBI agents: An entry-level salary for FBI agents is $39,115, not including overtime, which can add an average of about $10,000 more, per year, to the base salary. Advanced non-supervisory assignments provide a salary of $61,251, while FBI supervisory, management and executive positions offer a starting salary of $72,381 or $85,140 a year, respectively.
  
  
• forensic science technicians and forensic psychologists: An experienced forensic scientist can earn $46,080 per year, on average. Forensic psychologists earn between $38,560 and $66,970.
  
  
• legal secretaries: Legal secretaries, or paralegals, earn between $37,310 and $42,510. Most paralegals work assisting lawyers while completing their law degree. After completing their degree, paralegals usually advance to a higher salary bracket.
  
  
• police officers: Patrol officers in police and sheriff's departments make a median annual income of $45,470. Patrol officers are not generally required to possess a college degree. Police captain positions, on the other hand, usually require a bachelor's degree and average a higher salary, ranging from $46,900 to $75,000.
  
  
• sheriffs: A sheriff supervises the police force of a certain area or town. Sheriffs typically hold a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and have 10 years experience as patrolmen. Salaries range from $81,600 to $102,000.