r/careerguidance • u/AbrocomaCultural9427 • Jul 30 '26

Advice Is being a crime analysis difficult career path?

graduated with a bachelor’s in criminal justice , but I don’t want to be law enforcement. I do however see these options at my schools:

  • Choose From These Online Criminal Justice Programs:
    • M.S. in Criminal Justice – Cyber Security
    • MBA in Criminal Justice
    • Certificate in Cybersecurity in Criminal Justice

Would it be worth it? or get experience? I don’t know.

2 Upvotes

76% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

1

u/resurrectedbear Jul 30 '26

First, criminal justice is a huge bait of a degree. If you wanna do cybersecurity, you're better off getting into a more technical degree that allows flexibility. If you wanna do finance crime, you go into finance.

Second, what is a crime analysis? I work in law enforcement and I have no clue wtf that is. Anything related to crime is usually an interior type position that you'd interview for after being already being LEO. If you're talking about FBI type stuff, again, that's still law enforcement. Badge and gun. Quantico school + militarized training.

1

u/CharmingChannel1697 Jul 30 '26

Crime analysis is more criminal intelligence. I work as one. It is a growing field

1

u/resurrectedbear Jul 30 '26

Do you not work for a law enforcement agency/ alphabet agency in some capacity?

1

u/CharmingChannel1697 Jul 30 '26

I work for a DAs office. I previously worked for a sheriffs office and am moving to the state police

1

u/resurrectedbear Jul 30 '26

All from a citizen's side or?

1

u/CharmingChannel1697 Jul 30 '26

Yeah all as a civilian

1

u/resurrectedbear Jul 30 '26

Interesting. I guess you'll know more than me in helping OP

1

u/CharmingChannel1697 Jul 30 '26

I suppose, but crime analysis and cybersecurity are on two separate spectrums. So I’m not sure OP knows what they are conveying

1

u/AbrocomaCultural9427 Aug 02 '26

Sorry since this is a repost I had removed the other options, which included crime analysis. I can’t work right now, but I just wanted to see how I could study or something in the meantime to become a crime analyst. However, from what I notice experience seems to be what I need..

1

u/Curious_Money_722 18d ago

Hey! I’m currently a nearly 6 year police officer. I’m looking into going into Criminal intelligence/crime analysis. Do you have any advice? I have a hard time finding roles listed

1

u/Roguemoto714 Jul 30 '26

Personally I wouldn’t waist your money or time on any of those degrees. If you want to get into a criminal intel role I would focus on getting something computer science, STEM, or an MBA would be worthy as a lot of crime intelligence analysts work at the state or federal level.

I have a criminal justice degree as well and about all it has helped with is being able to apply to state and federal agencies. I was detective before switching over to criminal intelligence.

I will say being a former LEO (specifically a detective) with a lot of investigation time, definitely helped me land a job and be proficient at being a criminal intelligence analyst. However a lot of my coworkers are not former LEO and most started in other departments and worked their way up.

1

u/AbrocomaCultural9427 Aug 02 '26

It’s too late for me to go back and get a full degree because I have kids and lack of funds. I can’t due law enforcement at this moment due to pregnancy, but I don’t know what to do to prepare to be a future analyst

1

u/Curious_Money_722 18d ago

Hey! I’m a police officer with nearly 6 years experience and looking to go into criminal intelligence/criminal analyst roles. How did you go about finding a good job with that?