Kansas Criminal Justice Degree Programs

Updated October 14, 2026

State Agency: Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training

Kansas has 39 colleges and universities offering a criminal-justice-family program, per federal education data, from certificates up through six master’s-level offerings at five schools. Patrol officers earn a median $59,230 a year in the state, per May 2025 BLS wage data, and detectives clear $75,740. Here’s where the state’s programs, pay, and hiring paths actually stand.

If you’re weighing a criminal justice program in Kansas, the figures below come from federal wage and education data, not a brochure. Here’s what the state’s schools actually offer, what graduates in patrol, corrections, and the courts actually earn, and where the hiring process gets more complicated than people expect.

Featured Programs:

Overview

There’s no place like home, and there’s no place quite like Kansas if you’re interested in prison history. Fort Leavenworth has operated the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks since 1875, and it remains the Department of Defense’s only maximum-security prison, holding service members convicted at court-martial under military law, not civilians and not exclusively national-security cases. A few miles south sits the separate civilian U.S. Penitentiary, Leavenworth, whose roster of former inmates includes James Earl Ray and Machine Gun Kelly.

Criminal Justice Education in Kansas

Kansas runs programs across the full range of criminal-justice-family credentials, from certificates to graduate study. Six master’s-level program offerings are on the books across five schools: Emporia State University (which offers two, criminal justice and security science), Southwestern College, the University of Kansas, Washburn University, and Wichita State University. Whether a degree actually helps with pay or promotion varies by department, so check with the agencies you’re interested in rather than assuming it automatically pays off. Students who need help paying for a criminal justice education can also look into the scholarships offered by the American Criminal Justice Association.

Below, we speak with Jon Candea, Correctional Advisor at the Johnson County Department of Corrections, about his career at the Adult Residential Center.

Programs vary school to school, but a typical four-year curriculum draws from a core set of courses. Examples you’ll often see:

An Introduction to the American System of Criminal Justice
Criminal Law Basics
The American Legal System and the Courts
A History of Criminal Justice
Criminal Justice Research Design
Legal Research and Writing
Introduction to Criminal Justice Ethics
American Race Relations History

Fieldwork or an internship may be required or available depending on the program, often placed in the junior or senior year. Some coursework, particularly on the theory side, may be offered online at certain schools. Check with each program directly for its specific requirements.

Where to Study: Kansas Criminal Justice Schools

Kansas counts 39 institutions offering a criminal-justice-family program at some credential level, per U.S. Department of Education data, and none of them are distance-only. That count spans six federally tracked program families, including the core Criminal Justice and Corrections major, legal support services (paralegal, court reporting), homeland security, fire protection, and the broader security-science-and-technology family that includes forensic science. Not every one of the 39 teaches a program titled “Criminal Justice” specifically.

Credential Level	Program Offerings Statewide
Undergraduate Certificate	35
Associate Degree	43
Bachelor’s Degree	23
Graduate Certificate	2
Master’s Degree	6

Counts are program offerings, not schools. Several Kansas institutions teach more than one credential level or program family, which is why the table above adds up to more than 39. The six master’s-level offerings come from five schools: Emporia State offers two (criminal justice and security science), with Southwestern College, the University of Kansas, Washburn, and Wichita State each offering one.

Federal education data reports what a school told the Department of Education as of its last filing, not necessarily what’s enrolling students this semester. Confirm current admission requirements, format, and whether a program is still accepting applicants directly with the school before you apply.

School and program data from the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard, institution file May 2025 and field-of-study file April 2025. Data accessed October 2026.

Outlook for Criminal Justice in Kansas

Pay in Kansas criminal justice careers splits more by occupation than by city, and the Wichita numbers don’t always run the direction you’d expect.

Career	Kansas Median	Wichita Median	Kansas Outlook, 2024-34
Detectives and Criminal Investigators	$75,740	$87,280	-0.8% (roughly flat)
Police and Sheriff’s Patrol Officers	$59,230	$60,840	+2.9%
Correctional Officers and Jailers	$56,120	$56,270	-9.5% (decline)
Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialists	$61,890	$61,840	+1.2%
Paralegals and Legal Assistants	$55,000	$50,240	-0.9%

Wichita detectives have a median wage more than $11,000 above the state figure, and Wichita patrol officers come in about $1,600 ahead of it too. Paralegals and probation officers run the other direction: both have lower median wages in Wichita than the statewide figure suggests. The same split shows up in the Kansas City metro, which BLS tracks as a combined Missouri-Kansas area: detectives there median $91,490 and paralegals $63,880, both well above the state figures, while probation officers median just $49,380, well below. Check the specific occupation, not just the city, before assuming a metro area pays more across the board.

Corrections hiring is moving the other direction—Kansas correctional officer and jailer employment is projected to decline about 9.5% by 2034, per ProjectionsCentral, even as patrol officer employment is projected to grow and probation officer and paralegal employment holds roughly steady over the same period.

Private-sector work is also an option. Private investigators serve Kansas communities alongside state and regional law enforcement, though PI work in Kansas requires its own state license through the Kansas Attorney General’s Private Detective Licensing Unit, not just a criminal justice background. Campus law enforcement splits into two tracks: sworn campus police officers meet the same Kansas CPOST certification requirements as municipal officers, while nonsworn campus security positions are a separate, lower-barrier entry point.

The Kansas Highway Patrol offers another path, with promotion from trooper trainee through more senior trooper ranks as officers gain experience. Specific pay rates and promotion timelines are set by KHP policy and aren’t part of the BLS data on this page, so confirm current figures directly with the agency.

The wage and growth figures above come from BLS’s Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program’s Kansas, Wichita, and Kansas City metro tables, and from ProjectionsCentral’s Kansas state projections. The links below go to the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook for general career information on each role.

May 2025 US Bureau of Labor Statistics salary figures for police officers and detectives, correctional officers, probation officers, and paralegals. Long-term (2024-34) job growth projections from the US Department of Labor-sponsored resource, ProjectionsCentral. Figures reflect state and metro-area data, not school-specific information. Conditions in your area may vary. Data accessed October 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many schools in Kansas offer criminal justice programs?

39 institutions across the state offer a criminal-justice-family program at some credential level, per U.S. Department of Education data, from certificates through six master’s-level offerings at five schools. None of the 39 are distance-only, so each has an in-state campus.

What does a police officer make in Kansas?

The median is $59,230 a year statewide, per May 2025 BLS wage data, though Wichita officers run closer to $60,840. Starting pay is set department by department, so check the specific agency’s pay scale before you count on the median.

What does it take to become a police officer in Kansas?

Kansas law enforcement hiring and certification go through two different bodies: the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training (CPOST) sets and enforces certification standards, while the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center (KLETC) runs the training academy itself. In practice, Kansas agencies typically hire a candidate first, who then completes KLETC’s required basic training and earns CPOST certification afterward, alongside a background investigation and the statutory eligibility rules that apply statewide. Individual agencies can add their own hiring standards on top of that, such as physical or medical testing, so requirements vary by department.

Is criminal justice employment growing in Kansas?

It depends on the job. Patrol officer employment is projected to grow about 3% through 2034, and probation officer employment by about 1%, per ProjectionsCentral. Correctional officer and jailer employment, on the other hand, is projected to decline close to 9.5% over the same period.

What’s the highest-paying criminal justice career in Kansas?

Among the careers covered here, detectives and criminal investigators have the highest median: $75,740 statewide and $87,280 in Wichita, per May 2025 BLS data. Pathways into investigative work vary by agency. Many detectives move up from patrol, but the BLS category also covers investigative positions that don’t necessarily follow that route.

Key Takeaways

39 Kansas schools teach criminal-justice-family programs – federal education data counts 39 institutions statewide, including five with a master’s-level offering, none of them distance-only.
Pay depends on career, not just city – Wichita runs ahead of the state median for patrol officers and detectives but behind it for paralegals and probation officers.
Correctional officer employment is projected to decline – Kansas correctional officer and jailer employment is projected to drop nearly 9.5% by 2034, even as patrol officer employment grows, per ProjectionsCentral.
Hiring runs through CPOST and KLETC, not a single test – Kansas agencies generally hire first, then send recruits through KLETC training and CPOST certification, on top of a background investigation and each agency’s own standards.

Worried about paying for the degree? The scholarships guide lists awards built for criminal justice majors, with eligibility, amounts, and deadlines.

Scholarships for Criminal Justice Majors in Kansas

Looking for a Criminal Justice Program in Another State?

Online programs may not be available in all areas