The online criminal justice program of Penn State World Campus recently became America’s first online program to be certified by the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS), an international organization that supports criminal justice research, education, and policy analysis, and certifies criminal justice programs based on faculty, curriculum, student resources, and six other criteria.

This certification by the ACJS shows that online criminal justice degrees are becoming not only increasingly popular but also more respected, paving the way for the official recognition of even more online criminal justice programs.

The Penn State World Campus online criminal justice program requires the completion of 120 credits, and students may be beginners or have already earned credits or associate degrees; the curriculum covers both theoretical and practical aspects of criminal justice and prepares students for a wide variety of careers, including law enforcement and corrections.

Guest post by freelance writer Michelle Fabio who shares tips on online colleges at OnlineCollege.org.

Everest University is a traditional and an online institution of higher learning that grants Master of Criminal Justice degrees. Although Everest University Online has no regional accreditation, as of yet, it is still a good school. Moreover, Everest University Online is accredited and facilitates this information freely:

The Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools is listed as a nationally recognized accrediting agency by the United States Department of Education and is recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. The Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) is located at 750 First Street, NE, Washington, D.C. 20002; (202) 336-6780.

The Online Master of Criminal Justice from Everest University is most likely run on an asynchronous basis. This means that you don’t have to be in class at any given hour, but rather, that you participate in forum based discussions and complete assignments within a given time frame.

Here are the types of Criminal Justice online courses you can expect in this Masters level program from Everest University:

• Introduction to Criminal Justice
• Criminal Evidence
• Criminal Procedure and the Constitution
• Criminal Investigations
• Criminal Justice Communications
• Introduction to Terrorism
• Introduction to Corrections
• Introduction to Interviews and Interrogations
• Policing in America
• Introduction to Victims Advocacy
• Current Issues in Criminal Justice
• Introduction to Forensics
• Career Choices in Criminal Justice

Some of the courses may be mandatory while others may be elective. If you are  on your quest to a law enforcement career then you will want to get familiar with as many Criminal Justice topics as possible. Most importantly, if Everest University Online is of an interest to you then you should request more information below. Good luck!

An important note – Everest also runs Everest University, Everest College, and Everest Institute. For the time being, Everest University online and Everest College online have differing accreditation. Everest College online is regionally accredited, but to the best of my knowledge doesn’t offer Master level programs in Criminal Justice – online.

As some of you have seen I have made changes to The Criminal Justice Online Blog, and I am still making them in 2009. The first few days of the year have finally sunk in and I got going to work.

My mission is to provide an online resource that is unmatched. This project will aid many many people for decades to come, who just like you, are interested in law enforcement and online criminal justice courses and online degree programs.

For the month of January I am planning on starting a significant criminal justice online school list. This will include every possible college and university that is serving up education in online academia. The schools will have a rating system that will look somewhat like this:

Regional accreditation for any college and university is one of the top things a school and/or a program strives for. Online schools are no different. Read this post on criminal justice online accreditation as it applies to any U.S. based higher-learning institution online and off.

This rating is very important for those that are strapped for time. Life has so many unexpected twists and turns and thus requires many to go into online education. An asynchronous criminal justice online course or program is one that you can complete at your own leisure, but within an allotted time frame set for turning in your assignments, discussions, and quizzes.

Synchronous online programs are those which you have to attend at a specified time. Such programs defeat the purpose of distance learning programs and are recommended for those that can make it to a lecture or a discussion at, for example, 7pm consistently. But in the end, synchronous criminal justice programs online are very very rare… just like Yeti.

Going to an online college or an online university for many rests on this final point. Does the school have a traditional, or a campus based, presence? It makes a tremendous difference if the school is purely online or the online program is an extension of a brick and mortar college or university. Even so, there are some online only schools that offer accredited criminal justice degrees, certifcates, and courses that do make an impression on the potential employer. I’ll be sure to mention that when the right time to do so comes.

Simple… The school and/or the program are highly respected. I am looking for the WOW factor, good praise, and chances for further learning in a graduate academic setting. Whenever you see me use this rating rest assured that the online school and/or program is golden. You just need to keep an A average. Look at the resources and essays to help you get some ideas.

This is obvious as well. The rating represents that the school or the program is good enough, even for me. It might not make the heads turn, like coveted “Highly Respected” rating, but it is worth pursuing.

Umm… this one is easy. The online school or the online program doesn’t meet my high standards. But in all likelihood, the school, program, or both are not properly accredited; may represent a scam or a “quick” online diploma promise; maybe it is going out of business. If you see this rating, you’ll also see my reasoning behind it.

In a meanwhile check out this eye-opening post on criminal justice online schools — it’s a must read.

So with the many changes at the Criminal Justice Online Blog we will start seeing an index of online schools and programs that pertain to the criminal justice field. Let me know how I can make this blog better for law enforcement professionals and those who aspire to be one. Hope to have you along for the ride.

In the off-line and online arena not all criminal justice schools are created equally. There is no mystical formula that brought me to this assertion, but there are hard facts that stood the test of time, especially when it comes to online education. You see, there are academic institutions out there that are very for-profit. Their main concern is how much money they make and not how many well-educated students they graduate. It is my opinion that this phenomenon is very well visible in the online world and much less visible off-line.

There are literally thousands of universities, colleges and other learning institutions, that offer degree programs, courses, and certificates. With the proliferation of the Internet these academic institutions started to become very competitive. Notice that when you search for terms like: online education, online university, online college, criminal justice online, criminal justice degree online, and other similar terms, that you are inundated with hundreds of offers from many great and not so great institutions.

If you are looking to start your career in law enforcement, go into the academic side of criminal justice, or venture into other CJ arenas, then you should consider your education to be one of the most important factors. This education should be filled with as much exploration as possible, yet affordable. Your college studies should be very interesting, engaging, and challenging. However, not all schools can do that. It takes a different breed of school to achieve those feats and the majority of online education institutions cannot deliver.

Several questions should be instilled in your mind when considering online education:

• Which institution is going to give me the best bang for my buck?
• Is the school I want to attend accredited nationally or regionally?
• Will my degree be recognized anywhere in the nation and overseas? – Meaning, will individuals and organizations know where I graduated from and accept my diploma’s credibility?
• Is it a fly-by-night type of school?
• Should I go to a public criminal justice school or a private criminal justice school?

An honest assertion needs to be made when selecting the type of school you would like to go to. You should pull out all the stops and make sure that the decision you are making is really the right decision. Consider the following to be the making or breaking points of your decision-making process:

1. It is not true that academic institutions that cost more are really better educational venues. Private universities set their own prices in their curriculum and may seem like the program is out of this world, but in reality, many public universities are the ones that are able to provide better education. Public colleges and universities in the criminal justice arena like University of Cincinnati, Boston University, and Michigan State University are very well known for their brick-and-mortar presence. However, these same institutions are not very visible in the online criminal justice circle, even though they offer Criminal Justice degrees online. The only exceptions to this are the universities that are also well-known brick-and-mortar universities, but are privately administered. The reason I make this point is because there are hundreds upon hundreds of privately owned universities and colleges that smear the image of online education. In the end, it is very hard to distinguish which school is really good for you.
2. Accreditation is one of the most important things you need to worry about when selecting your criminal justice university or college online. My rule of thumb, when it comes to educational institutions both online and off, is that the institution is accredited regionally. Regional accreditation is one of the best ways of knowing that your school is not serving up damaged goods. While you search for your criminal justice program online, you will find that many universities are accredited. However, accreditation doesn’t mean anything. There are plenty of those that are accredited, but they only maybe accredited locally or statewide. This is not good if you’re going to be looking for a job or farther education out-of-state or out of the country.
3. That brings us to the degree recognition fiasco. Will my degree be recognized everywhere? This depends on a couple things. First, is the accreditation mentioned above. Second, is the prominence and prestige of the educational institution you are planning on attending. If you go to some online university, which is not well known in the criminal justice field, both nationally and internationally, then you are setting yourself for possible problems that may be detrimental to your career seeking, career advancement, or farther educational pursuit. You want to go to a university or college which has a great track record in education.
4. How do you determine if your school is a fly-by-night type of deal? You would be very surprised to how many schools there are online that have no business to exist in the education field. Trust me, they are there. If you don’t know how to spot them, let me help you. They are the type of schools that offer a degree choice to the students for little or no work at all. They are the type of schools that offer life experience credit. I know some of you might be very immersed in the criminal justice field, and would like your experience to count towards your graduation credits. However, I personally don’t advise going to a school that offers such a deal. In the end it may cost you more than your hard earned money. It may cost you precious time, career opportunities, promotions, and farther academic advancement.

My best recommendation, which will help you avoid any unnecessary dilemma, is to research each college or university you plan on attending, thoroughly. Don’t pick the easy school over the harder school. Lookout for scams or lures. And last but not least, make sure that you have some spare change left after you finish your schooling. All these steps plus an ounce of common sense will aid you in your journey to obtaining your criminal Justice degree. Good luck!

University and college accreditation offering Criminal Justice degree programs online, or at a traditional campus, is one of the most important steps in your research of universities and colleges. Don’t take take this step lightly, as it may cost you tens of thousands of dollars and your precious time. Your hard earned diploma may be worthless or worth little if the school you are going to is not properly accredited. This may be detrimental to your career seeking and advancement efforts, or in your pursuit of graduate studies.

The goal of accreditation

The purpose of accreditation is to certify that education made available by institutions of higher learning meets satisfactory levels of quality. Accrediting organizations, which are private educational associations of regional or national scope, produce evaluation standards and conduct peer assessments to examine whether or not those standards are satisfied. Institutions and/or programs that request an agency’s evaluation and that satisfy an agency’s criteria are then “accredited” by that agency.

Regional Accreditation vs. National Accreditation

Regional accreditation or national accreditation are the standard forms of accreditation that are approved by the U.S. Department of Education. This in part means that both forms of accreditation allow the schools to provide federally approved financial aid.

Despite the name difference between regional and national forms of accreditation it is wise to look at schools that have the regional accreditation. So, don’t be fooled by the smaller scope of regional accreditation or the all-encompassing reach of national accreditation, it’s the regional accreditation you want.

Why? I can’t begin to tell you how many students, of all ages, approached me about how they couldn’t transfer ANY credits or get into a graduate program because the school they went to was nationally accredited, or even worse not accredited at all. The untold rule is:

• nationally accredited schools will generally accept credits from a regionally or nationally accredited schools
• regionally accredited schools most often will not accept transfer credit from a nationally accredited college or university
• most graduate schools, where you can get a Master’s or a PhD, tend to be regionally accredited and will gladly take in qualified applicants who possess a Bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited school. The same isn’t true if you obtained a degree from a nationally accredited institution.
• there are exceptions to all those points, but generally it is the student from a regionally accredited college or university who has less scrutiny ahead of him or her. In any event, grades and GPA matter a lot.
• if for any reason you can’t go to a regionally accredited school, a nationally accredited college, university, or institute can be a viable option. Whatever you do, make sure the school you go to has at least one of these forms of accreditation. Any other forms of accreditation should be considered as additional to regional and/or national accreditation.
• Most employers do not pay attention to the form of accreditation, although some Inc. 500 firms do. In hind-sight, to them, a Bachelor’s degree is a Bachelor’s degree. But don’t be fooled! Recruiters and managers often look at the school’s name and reputation when making the final hiring decision. I can assure you that it is those school that have regional accreditation that always pop up as the ones carrying more weight.

There are great schools with national accreditation, and if you prefer to go to a school that has this form of accreditation just be aware of these points. Nationally accredited schools are great if you will never have to transfer credit – leave to another school – or if you are not planning on graduate studies.

Under any circumstances, do not go to a school that is a degree mill or one that is unaccredited. In short, a degree mill is a school that claims to be PROPERLY ACCREDITED, but has no meaningful accreditation. In the end, students with degrees from those institutions will usually pay to get a degree (with no work), or perform little or all the work and receive the degree. In either scenario, the student is the one that always loses. He or she can be demoted or fired from work if the employer was to find out that the degree was not real. Precious time and money are lost, and if you personally were a victim of such a scam, get in line with hundreds and even thousands of swindled students to TRY to get the money back.

Before you start researching degree options and courses, first find out if the school is accredited by either one of the six regional accreditation agencies or nationally accredited.

Links to higher education accrediting agencies

• Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) – is an association of 3,000 degree-granting colleges and universities and recognizes 60 institutional and programmatic accrediting organizations. This is a national accreditation agency which works very closely with the U.S. Department of Education. An excellent place to perform your search. Look in the “Databases and Directories” section.
• North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA), aka (NCACS) – is a regional accreditation body which covers the division of the North Central states. It is crucial that the college or university that grants a Criminal Justice degree is accredited regionally and/or by the CHEA (above). Look in the “Affiliated Institutions” section.
• New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) – this regional agency covers accreditation of the educational institutions in the New England States. Check out the “Membership Roster” for more info on your criminal justice school’s accreditation.
• Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACSCOC) – is actually named The Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (where the acronym “SACSCOC” comes from). This is a regional accreditation agency for Southern states. Click the state your college or university is stationed to find out if it is regionally accredited (located on the main home page).
• Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) – this accreditation agency is also regional. California and Hawaii schools can be explored here.
• Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) – this regional accreditation institution includes the upper Western states, including Alaska. Check out “Directory of Institutions” for more details.
• Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) – is the unit of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools that accredits degree-granting colleges and universities in the Middle States region, which includes Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and several locations internationally.

Final words on Criminal Justice college accreditation & degree certification

It is your responsibility to find out as much as possible on whether or not the college or university is properly accredited for your Criminal Justice degree.

Make a note that a school may be accredited, but certain programs might not be may need or may optionally seek further accreditation or certification ( thank you Dr. Jerin for pointing this out ). Program accreditation / certification is separate from school accreditation, and it is optional/required usually within specialized programs.

F.Y.I. – The Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) is an international organization that supports criminal justice research, education, and policy analysis, and certifies criminal justice programs based on faculty, curriculum, student resources, and six other criteria. This is a noteworthy certification, but don’t worry if your school isn’t certified as only a handful of schools have this honor bestowed on them.

In most cases you won’t need the Criminal Justice program to have specific accreditation or certification. So in the end, it is the school accreditation you should worry about the most.

The best way to find out about your school’s accreditation is to contact the school’s representative directly, visit the school’s official website, or browse the aforementioned accreditation websites. Often the information you are seeking on accreditation standards is readily available online.

Don’t cut corners during this process. It is an essential part of your educational journey. You will save yourself tons of money and countless hours just by making sure that you are covered when it comes to accreditation. Good luck!

Clarification – Presto!

If what I say about accreditation doesn’t make sense, which it didn’t for me when I was browsing for colleges and programs, please see the glossary below (provided by the U.S. Department of Education):

• Accreditation - accreditation is the recognition that an institution maintains standards requisite for its graduates to gain admission to other reputable institutions of higher learning or to achieve credentials for professional practice. The goal of accreditation is to ensure that education provided by institutions of higher education meets acceptable levels of quality
• Accredited – institutions and/or programs that request an agency’s evaluation and that meet an agency’s criteria are then “accredited” by that agency
• Accrediting agencies – organizations (or bodies) that establish operating standards for educational or professional institutions and programs , determine the extent to which the standards are met, and publicly announce their findings
• Nationally recognized accrediting agencies – national accrediting agencies are recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education as reliable authorities concerning the quality of education or training offered by the institutions of higher education they accredit. These agencies accredit single-purpose institutions
• Pre-accreditation – the status of public recognition that an accrediting agency grants to an institution or program for a limited period of time that signifies the agency has determined that the institution or program is progressing towards accreditation and is likely to gain accreditation before the expiration of that limited period of time
• Programmatic accrediting agencies – agencies that accredit specific educational programs that prepare students for entry into a profession, occupation, or vocation. These agencies are also known as specialized accreditors
• Regional accrediting agencies
  Regional accrediting agencies are recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education as reliable authorities concerning the quality of education or training offered by the institutions of higher education they accredit. The individual agencies accredit institutions in specific geographic regions of the country
• Specialized accreditation
  Specialized accreditation normally applies to the evaluation of programs, departments, or schools which usually are parts of a total collegiate or other postsecondary institution. The unit accredited may be as large as a college or school within a university or as small as a curriculum within a discipline. Most of the specialized accrediting agencies review units within a postsecondary institution which is accredited by one of the regional accrediting commissions. However, certain of the specialized accrediting agencies accredit professional schools and other specialized or vocational or other postsecondary institutions which are free-standing in their operations. Thus, a “specialized” or “programmatic” accrediting agency may also function in the capacity of an “institutional” accrediting agency. In addition, a number of specialized accrediting agencies accredit educational programs within non-educational settings, such as hospitals
• State accrediting agencies
  There are two types of state agencies: those recognized for the approval of postsecondary vocational education, and those recognized for the approval of nurse education
• Terminated
  The status of an institution or program that an agency no longer accredits – I added this one so you are aware that termination can happen, at times resulting in invalidation of the courses you have taken, as well as the degree.

As always, I welcome any comments, ideas, and your personal experiences with accreditation.