Bachelor's degrees in criminal justice are usually offered by liberal arts colleges, and as such, offer a broad based curriculum in addition to criminal justice courses. This broad based curriculum includes courses in English, math, science and the arts. Once students have completed these core requirements, they will have to complete requirements specific to the field. An introductory course in criminal justice is required. Additional courses in corrections, law enforcement and the judicial system are often required as well. Afterwards, a series of electives give students a chance to pursue individual interests. Electives range from gender and crime to domestic terrorism, white-collar crime to family violence. Students with a bachelor's degrees in criminal justice often go into law enforcement, take entry-level work in the field or go on to graduate work.
A master's degree in criminal justice is extremely versatile and offers advanced coursework in the field that can serve to advance students within the profession or to prepare them for a doctoral studies. The master's degree curriculum includes core courses in criminal justice, a choice of electives in the field and a thesis option, which can be substituted in some programs for additional coursework.
Doctoral studies in criminal justice prepare students to become professors in higher education settings and to conduct research meant to advance the field. Students pick a facet of the field that holds special interest to them and tailor their coursework and studies to meet this interest. Doctoral studies tend to be more theoretical or philosophical in nature, relying heavily on seminars and survey courses that examine criminal issues---a format that lends itself to specialized studies.
Legal studies, especially those emphasizing criminal law, are a branch of criminal justice studies. Law school programs use courses in criminal law and clinical programs to provide would-be lawyers with the needed skills to become effective criminal defense lawyers, prosecutors or advocates of reform. Law schools often offer courses in advocacy, international criminal law, evidence and criminal procedure, or the procedural rules governing criminal cases, terrorism and juvenile justice.
Vocational training in the field of criminal justice often offers academic training leading to certification or an associates degree. Vocational training for the criminal justice field is specialized and offers curriculum which may be difficult to transfer to another field. For example, a program leading to certification as a crime scene technician. Such a program would focus on honing the skills necessary to carry out the duties of a crime scene technician. They include "the detection, collection and preservation of physical evidence found at crime scenes, fingerprint processing and analysis, photography, physical evidence examination and analysis." When contrasting this against the bachelors degree curriculum offered by a liberal arts college, one can see the degree of specialization.