The term "criminal justice" applied to a college degree is extremely broad. It can mean anything from a master's degree in criminology to an associate degree in fish and game enforcement. If you are seeking a specific kind of employment, then the first step in finding an accredited degree is to find out which degree is the most appropriate for that job. A victim services specialist does not need the same degree as a state trooper.
Once you've settled on the kind of degree that most closely matches your career aspirations, you will need to shop for a degree program. This is when the question of accreditation is critical. In the United States, there are two national accrediting agencies: the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) and the U.S. Department of Education (USDE). These are not mutually inclusive, meaning a CHEA accreditation does not automatically mean a USDE accreditation, nor does this mean the courses accredited by one agency will be recognized and transferable to the other. The safest bet is to select courses that have accreditation from both agencies.
Regional or categorical subsets of the national accrediting agencies may be listed in the publicity for a degree, e.g., the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, or the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools or the American Council for Construction Education. These may or may not have dual accreditation from the CHEA and USDE. The CHEA publishes a list of the subset agencies that shows which have dual accreditation.
The Criminal Justice Degree Directory (CJDD) and other online resources list the degree programs, the schools offering the degrees and which schools offer degrees in which states. The CJDD also lists many of the criminal justice careers, with links to individual pages that outline the preferred degree and requirements. This is a one way to begin narrowing your search for a degree program, whereby you can check the accreditation of the degrees that seem to fit your search.
Criminal Justice Schools, an online resource that provide access to accredited criminal justice and law enforcement schools, courses and training programs nationwide -- lists the top 10 criminal justice degree programs. Several of the degree programs are offered by schools with both online classes and campuses nationwide, like the University of Phoenix and Everest College -- which this resource ranked as the top two criminal-justice programs in 2011.