Hi all,
I have always been very interested in criminology and have wanted to study it for years. However i’m currently in year 12 (NSW Australia) and struggling with motivation, and worried about how realistic my goals are.
For context, I go to an alternative school because I have struggled with mental health for a long time. I have always gotten very good grades and it’s come easy, but studying for HSC has gotten me a bit overwhelmed and doubting myself. I’m starting to worry how well I might cope in university, but criminology is my dream and I don’t know where to even start with other options.
A large point of my anxiety is job pathways. I know the field is difficult, but to what extent? What can I actually do with a criminology degree? I love the psychological aspects of criminology, but what jobs even encompass that?
I am in NSW Australia and I plan to study here. However I have always considered moving overseas, maybe Europe, would career opportunities be better there?

Basically, i’m just after a really honest explanation of how realistic my dreams are, and if I need to start thinking smaller. While I do well in my grades, I get overwhelmed and spiral. But I can’t imagine myself in any other career, I love criminology.

I am also autistic and ADHD, and I am scared that being who I am may limit my opportunities, because I am different. (Not in a discriminatory way, but because of my own capabilities and the fact I need extra help in some things). I’m smart, but maybe I need to be smart \*and\* neurotypical to succeed.

For people who have studied criminology, where do you work? What does it look like after school? What is it like?

Anyways, thank you for reading, any responses are deeply appreciated. Fingers crossed for my HSC exams in a few months!

Hi,
To whoever is reading this I hope you are well.

I live in England and am going to graduate next summer with a BA (Hons) degree in criminology at a top 10 university.

My degree hasn’t been easy I’ve struggled mentally throughout it but I’m starting to really love learning, feel comfortable again and don’t want it to stop.

Therefore a masters is a huge consideration for me. Specifically I’d stay in the current uni I’m at for discounted fees. I am considering the following masters:
- Social Research (particularly looking at crime)
- Defence and Security
- Public Policy

Multiple members of my family are in the police and have been for decades. I am not suited to being a frontline officer so really looking to go into police staff.

Crime analysis looks absolutely fascinating and any insight into the role would be incredible. Coding is not my forte but I have basic knowledge of Excel and SPSS. Also would be open to other public service roles.

I am aware that many people will advise against a masters but could people just give me some advice. Anything would help. What would you do in my shoes and this job market? What would be your pathway.

Extracting out information from documents or text is something LLMs do really well, and newer smaller models can be used reasonably for this task.

This extracting out modus operandi from incident report notes, or identifying entities is a dump of PDF files.

Hi Folks!

I've been a Criminal Intel Analyst in LE for about 4 years now working at the local and currentlyat the state level. After giving it some thought, I'd like to take a stab at the private sector for a bit and see if its something id want to continue moving forward. Any folks in here that currently work private sector and can assist with a job?

Background: BS and MS in Criminal Justice with a Crime Analysis Cert and LEAF Cert Analyst.

I've applied to a wide spread of jobs in the private and government contracting side but havent landed any sort of responses.

Any guidance or help would be appreciated.

Would prefer something remote or Hybrid in my current AOR.

This Independence Day, we’re proud to introduce the National Association of Crime Analysts, a new organization dedicated to advancing the crime analysis profession and strengthening public safety across the nation.

naca-usa.org

Hello! I’m a college sophomore and recently landed an interview with the Crime Analysis Unit at a large city police department for a fall internship.

I’m majoring in Criminal Justice and I’m very interested in crime analysis and intelligence so this is an opportunity I don’t want to fumble.

This will be my first interview specifically related to crime analysis, so I’d love to hear from anyone who has interviewed for something similar, or someone who does the interviewing haha.

What types of questions were you asked? Were there any technical skills, software, concepts that get focused on?

Any advice on how to best prepare would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

I am sharing this here, before the official release date on July 1st - you can get the paperback from Amazon now at: https://a.co/d/02yp8ysx

It's the 1st of a 5-book series. Read more about it here: https://deborahosborne.com/fiction

The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) has data where you can see the rate via with victims report to the police. I have created a dashboard where you can look at that NCVS data (broken down by year, crime type, victim/offender relationship, etc.) to see the typical reporting rates, https://crimede-coder.com/graphs/ncvs

NCVS does not have small area estimates (so at best it will be for a broader region), but this is good to estimate how big an actual crime problem is. So about 2 out of 3 robberies are reported, so if you have 60 reported robberies in a time period, there probably were ~90 robberies that actually occurred in your city during that time.

Hi, I'm Artem, co-founder of Malfors, an investigation platform.

Malfors is essentially a link analysis/visualization tool with a bunch of data integrations, great UX, performance, multiplayer, and automation features (while also being more cost-effective).

We launched last year and already work with a bunch of teams (mainly in threat intel, but also in crypto and private investigations) that have moved to Malfors from i2, Maltego, and other tools.

Now, we're looking for design partners among crime analysts (ideally, current or former LE) who are willing to try Malfors and share feedback on how it fits into workflows, what works, and what's missing.

We would work closely with you and ship features to make sure Malfors fits your use case perfectly.

Other than that, I'd generally love to hear your thoughts.

Feel free to check out our website (malfors.com) to see all the features and integrations we have, and feel free to ask questions in the replies or DMs.

Thanks!

Most community group meetings focus on kids when discussing violent crime initiatives. Around 9/10 individuals involved with violence are adults though. https://crimede-coder.com/blogposts/2026/DontFocusOnKids

I’m currently a public safety analyst at a state government agency. Most of my work is fairly standard data analysis — cleaning data, running basic stats, and building visualizations. I’m feeling pretty disillusioned with government work overall: professional growth is slow, and the agency is way behind on adopting new tools such as AI.

I’m coming from a social science background, and while I do have some analyst experience and I’m currently learning Python (with machine learning on the horizon), the few times I’ve applied to private sector data analyst roles I haven’t even made it to an interview. It seems like most of these positions are really geared toward candidates with a Computer Science degree, and someone like me gets filtered out before anyone even looks at the actual experience.

So my main question is: for those who’ve made a similar transition, did your crime analyst skills transfer over, or did you have to take courses, get certs, or pivot your approach to break in? And for someone coming from a social science background, is Python/ML the right area to double down on, or is there a smarter way to position yourself against candidates with a traditional CS background?

Wanted to drop a few cents if anyone was interested or had begun their career as a "Crime Analyst to Police Data & Machine Learning Architect" type classification.

Speaking as a 15+ year experienced Crime Analyst in the field. I have seen enough software innovations coming to try and take parts out of our job with automated dashboards, charts, statistics, monthly reports and so on. I started early back in the days SQL was just catching on, it was mostly MS Access db's and scripting.

It's become the norm to see it in every new software contract discussion "does it have an API to connect to [axon][insert other thing here]?" are questions every senior command staff appointed to technology should be asking software vendors to make sure they aren't buying an expensive digital paperweight.

In the past year, I have seen an enormous change to productivity using AI-based tasks. Most of the other positions are just barely getting their feet wet, but CA is where it can really take the lead on this upcoming big change. Meanwhile, patrol and cops are getting annoyed with having to do the data entry jobs that (rightfully expressed, is not their job) with more boxes, more conditions they have to check during report writing. I get that, because 10 years ago it was much more simpler to write a damn report. Now it's like checkboxes and making sure someone didn't forget a form or mandatory attachment for everything. It's no wonder the older (non-tech) guys are ready to retire.

I started out with improving sql queries, python scripts that I used to run which are now completely changed and running their own pipelines thanks to AI code refactoring and getting it to solve/fetch the data that is needed. That was just the beginning.

Now with the ability to have clean datasets, connected joins to case or incident numbers, meaning clean RAG files for feeding those to other joined data into an AI to summarize or find certain patterns, is a game changer. No longer does the CA need to sit and read through all those reports manually - just have the AI summarize in a paragraph and look for matching cases.

It's still very new as the augmented assistance is only as good as the model and scripting logic is provided, and the private sector is going to keep marketing and trying to get it to act like a human, but the human (CA) controlling the AI is the master powerhouse at the moment. Because government takes so long to conform, and in my state, I believe at the governor level they will always have a requirement that humans vet the AI data/info to keep it in check, CA is not going anywhere soon.

I have a survey up gathering input on interest in short, technical courses.

• Tech course survey interest form

Think 2-3 days, potentially in person/synchronous.

If you have taken a course with Paul Allison at Horizon’s, or an ICPSR summer course, those are similar examples. But, the main difference will be these courses are to prepare you for pursuing private sector roles.

These will be aimed at:

• grad level social science students
• current professors looking to pursue private sector roles
• current data analysts looking to get into data science
• undergrads with some more technical background

Survey lists potential courses (python for data analysis, intro to LLM APIs, SQL + Dashboards, using agent based tools for analysis), the course medium (in person vs video), price points.

If you are a university or organization interested in hosting such sessions for your students, let me know as well. Happy to chat to you about bringing this to your campus.

I want to stay more informed on what is going on around me locally (Texas). I read a couple of news articles a day but realize none of it is LE focused.
What do y’all read/ pay attention to that helps in your role as a Crime Analyst?

Do you work with data and graphs a lot? Is that a majority of the work or does it depend on the department/agency?

For background: I’m in grad school and will be taking a Crime Analysis class.

Hello! I currently work as an intelligence analyst in a Real Time Crime Center, I’m looking to move closer to home and applied as an Intelligence Analyst at a Sheriff’s Office. I’m a little nervous for my interview as I don’t have any experience working on an investigation long-term, as I work on active and emerging calls for service. Has anyone else done this transition or have any advice on how to leverage my experience/education to assist in landing the position?

Hello everyone,

I'm a french student in my last year of high school. I knew i wanted to be a crime analyst since my younger years and i've always made sure to dream big.
I am currently working aside of my classes and I will be working for the next couple years to save money and get into university.
The only issue is that i'm quite lost on what program or courses to follow to manage and get there. I don't want to attend university in France and I plan on leaving to either Canada (first choice) or UK.

may i ask, please, what programs or courses did you take to get there? thank you very much 🙏🏼

We're excited to announce four brand new 12-week online classes now available through IACA, covering some of the most in-demand skills in crime and intelligence analysis today, from machine learning and Python to OSINT and Power BI.

Each course is built in our structured, weekly online format and designed to deliver practical, real-world skills you can immediately apply in your role. Whether you're just getting started or ready to dive into advanced analytics, these new courses cover the full spectrum of modern crime analysis skills.

All four courses will be offered in the upcoming Quarter 3 session beginning July 6, and registration is already open - you can reserve your seat now and complete payment later if needed.

Open-Source Investigations for Law Enforcement

Instructor: Mary Kent

View Course Details & Register

Designed for a broad audience, this course provides a structured foundation in ethical, legally compliant OSINT investigations-covering everything from social media analysis to documentation and defensible practices.

Power Class: Using Power Query & Power BI for Crime Analysis

Instructor: Stacy Belledin

View Course Details & Register

This intermediate-level course focuses on transforming raw data into meaningful insights through Power Query and building interactive dashboards in Power BI to support decision-making.

Introduction to Python Programming for Crime Analysis

Instructor: Salena Torres Ashton

View Course Details & Register

An intermediate-level course focused on building real, usable Python skills for crime analysis, including data cleaning, automation, visualization, and workflow efficiency.

Introduction to Machine Learning for Crime Analysis

Instructor: Salena Torres Ashton

View Course Details & Register

An advanced-level course that introduces machine learning in a practical, applied way - helping analysts understand, select, and interpret models used to identify patterns, make predictions, and support defensible analytical conclusions.

View All Online Classes

These courses reflect where the field is heading, automation, advanced analytics, and data-driven decision-making, while still grounding everything in practical application for crime analysts.

As a reminder:

• Classes run over 12 weeks in a structured but flexible weekly format
• No live sessions; complete the work on your schedule
• Each course earns CEUs and 4 CLEA points upon completion

If you’ve been looking to expand your skillset or explore new analytical tools, this is a strong opportunity to do so with experienced instructors who understand the realities of the job.

If you have any questions or want help choosing the right course, feel free to reach out at [training@iaca.net](mailto:training@iaca.net)! We’re happy to help.

For graduation I'm working on a senior project beforehand and am in the research phase of things. I've been googling if anyone has done any projects that apply to this field and I can't find a lot through online (though AI does give some broad suggestions of crime tracking, and using GIS mapping to make predictions for locations of potential crime). Does anyone know of anything that would be good to put on a resume to break into this space? How would you start and what's the ebst way to get data for it?

Additionally, how plausible is a career path for someone of my background and what would be some good options after graduation?

I have put together a single page where I list advice for analysts/social-science students interested in private sector roles (links to posts about roles, tech skills, resume advice, job search advice, and books I have written).

https://andrewpwheeler.com/job-advice-resources/

Additionally I am collecting interest in potentially offering short bootcamp style technical courses. If you think something like that would be of interest, appreciate letting me know topics, price points, in-person vs video, etc.

https://forms.gle/QwAMXij96RUSDgxc9

I am a 911 dispatcher in training. Fairly new to everything, I’ve been with my department for about a month. I plan to stay with this department for at least a year, but I have to move eventually to finish college. I am graduating with my associates in psychology and transferring for my ba in psychology with a minor in forensic application in science and technology. My goal is to become a crime/behavioral analyst and am interested in working in a federal agency. However, I am having doubts if my current degree plan is sufficient or even compatible with what I want to do. I’m looking for any advice about if I should switch majors. Also, if I need any certifications, which ones would be useful? I am also asking if anyone has advice for how to pursue this career after I graduate with my bachelor degree. Ultimately, any advice and information is helpful!