Criminology and Criminal Justice Jobs in Ontario: What You Can Do With the Degree

The short answer

• A criminology or criminal justice degree rarely leads straight to a job. The best-known jobs each have their own hiring process, and most do not ask for the degree.
• “Criminal justice” is the American term. In Ontario the programs are called criminology, police foundations, and justice or law and security.
• The jobs with their own process: police officer, correctional officer, border services officer, probation and parole officer, and paralegal. The sections below say what each one asks for.
• While you wait, there is real work to do: certificates, fitness, first aid, volunteering and adjacent jobs.

What jobs can you get with a criminology or criminal justice degree in Ontario?

Most graduates apply to jobs with their own hiring process: police constable, correctional officer, border services officer, and probation and parole officer. Others work as paralegals after college licensing, in victim and social services, fraud and investigation, security, by-law enforcement, or government research. The degree helps in some of these and is not required in most.

That is the honest core of this page. A degree in criminology teaches you how crime, law and institutions work. Employers in this field mostly hire on a separate process: tests, fitness standards, security checks and their own training. So the useful question is not what the degree qualifies you for. It is which process you are willing to go through, and how long it takes.

Which of these jobs need the degree and which do not?

Very few need it. Only probation and parole officer names criminology among its accepted degrees, alongside social work, psychology and sociology. Correctional officer and border services officer ask for a secondary school diploma or equivalent. Police services set their own education standard, which the province moved in 2023 to lower to a secondary diploma. Paralegals need a licensed college program.

Outlook and median pay for each of these are in the Job Bank table further down. Each row above comes from the official page linked in its own section.

How do you become a police officer in Ontario?

You apply to a police service, not to the Ontario Police College. The steps listed by the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police are: meet the requirements, get the OACP Certificate, apply to a service, receive a job offer, then complete 12 weeks of Basic Constable Training. The OACP says the whole process typically takes 6 to 12 months.

The minimum requirements on the OACP site come from the Community Safety and Policing Act. You need to demonstrate a basic level of fitness and submit a two-week fitness log, meet vision and hearing standards, hold first aid and CPR certification by the time of a job offer, hold a valid driver's licence, and pass background checks. You must be at least 18, and a Canadian citizen or permanent resident.

The OACP Certificate is a mandatory pre-screening requirement for many Ontario services. It costs $250 plus tax, is valid for one year, and can be retaken after ten months. The fitness test it includes has a pursuit and restraint circuit and a 20-metre shuttle run. After the 12 weeks at the Ontario Police College, recruits spend about three months learning on the job with a Coach Officer. The college itself does not train members of the public. Only people a service has hired attend.

On education, the province announced in April 2023 that a secondary school diploma or equivalent should be sufficient to be appointed, and removed tuition for Basic Constable Training. Services can still prefer post-secondary education, and a degree or a Police Foundations diploma can help you stand out. Check the posting of the service you want to join.

The Ontario Provincial Police runs its own application portal at recruitment.opp.ca. Its public pages send you there rather than listing steps, so read what the portal asks of you before you plan around it. Our full career page on police officers covers the day-to-day side of the job.

See also the Ontario Police College page on ontario.ca and the April 2023 announcement on education and tuition.

How do you become a correctional officer in Ontario?

Apply through the Ontario Public Service careers site. You need to be 18, able to prove you can work in Canada, and have Grade 12 or an equivalent. The process then runs through written tests, a fitness test, an interview, security screening and a medical exam, followed by an eight-week training program with a stipend. Ontario says it takes up to six months.

The page adds a few details that surprise people. You need current first aid, CPR and AED certification by day one. The fitness test is called FITCO and has three parts: a search station, an emergency response and an aerobic shuttle run. The vulnerable sector check costs about $75 and the medical exam, covering vision and hearing, is arranged and paid for by the applicant. Some positions need advanced-minus oral French, and the job involves rotating shifts including nights and weekends. Final hiring decisions can take up to 12 months. As of the date the page was updated, it states a starting salary of $32.15 an hour.

How do you become a border services officer?

Border services officer is a federal job, hired through the Government of Canada jobs portal on a continuous inventory. The prerequisites are being 18, a citizen, permanent resident or resident in Canada, a secondary school diploma, an unrestricted driver's licence, and willingness to work anywhere in Canada. The CBSA says selection can take up to 18 months.

The assessment includes an entrance exam, an interview, a psychological assessment, the Canadian Firearms Safety Course and the Restricted Firearms Safety Course, a medical exam, a second-language evaluation for bilingual positions, and a security clearance (Enhanced Reliability Status plus Secret) that involves interviews, credit checks and fingerprinting. The agency's page said the physical abilities evaluation was not required for the recruitment it named, so that step can change. You must provide proof of every prerequisite, or you are removed from the process.

How do you become a probation and parole officer?

Ontario asks for a degree in social work, psychology, sociology or criminology, or a degree in any field plus more than five years in a social services or correctional role that formally assesses behaviour. You apply through ontario.ca/correctionsjobs or with an expression of interest, then complete basic training. It is the one job here that names the degree.

The page also asks for strong verbal and written communication, counselling and assessment skills, and the ability to build working relationships with clients and partners. Some positions need advanced French or regular travel to remote locations. If you lack the experience, the page suggests contacting your local probation and parole office about volunteer opportunities.

How do you become a paralegal in Ontario?

A paralegal in Ontario needs a licence from the Law Society of Ontario. That means graduating from a Law Society-accredited paralegal education program, passing the licensing examination, and meeting the good character requirement. A criminology degree alone does not qualify you. The Law Society describes the licensing process as taking 9 to 15 months on average.

The accredited program is the gate, so check the Law Society's current list of accredited programs before you pay for one.

How do you become a by-law or provincial offences officer?

By-law officers are mostly hired by municipalities, each with its own posting and requirements, so there is no single provincial route. We have not found one official source that sets a standard qualification, so read the posting. Job Bank lists by-law enforcement and other regulatory officers with a moderate outlook in Ontario.

Search the careers pages of the towns and cities you could live in, and read the qualifications line on each posting rather than a general description. Postings show what that employer wants today, which is more reliable than any list, including this one.

What else can you do with a criminology or criminal justice degree?

There are several paths with their own training: victim and social services, fraud and investigation work, security and loss prevention, government policy and research, and law school. Each one has different entry points, and none is a direct step from the degree. Job Bank's figures for most of them are in the table below.

• Victim services and social services. Social and community service workers are the closest Job Bank group. Roles vary by employer, so read the posting for the credential it asks for. Our page on social workers covers the professional route.
• Fraud and investigation. Several Ontario colleges offer one-year graduate certificates aimed at this work (see the next section).
• Security and loss prevention.Security guards and related occupations show a limited outlook and a lower median wage in Job Bank. It can be a way to get experience, not a destination for everyone. Check the province's licensing rules before you apply.
• Government policy and research. Social policy researchers, consultants and program officers is a Job Bank group that usually asks for a university degree.
• Court services and conservation enforcement. Court clerks and conservation and fishery officers are separate groups. See our page on conservation officers.
• Law school. A criminology degree is one route to law school, and lawyers are a separate path with its own admission and licensing. Our page on lawyers covers what the job is like.

What programs exist besides a criminology degree?

Ontario colleges offer a two-year Police Foundations diploma as the main police-related program, plus post-graduate and degree options. Several one-year graduate certificates cover fraud investigation, crime analytics and forensic accounting. Check each program's current intake and admission requirements before you plan around it.

On ontariocolleges.ca, Police Foundations students are told to expect the physical nature of the program and career and to get a Criminal Record Check, and completing the OACP Certificate may be required for field placements. Conestoga College lists a Fraud Investigation and Risk Management Ontario College Graduate Certificate (one year, Kitchener-Doon); when we read the page, it said applications were not currently being accepted. Cambrian College lists a Crime Analytics graduate certificate (one year, Barry Downe campus), and Seneca Polytechnic lists a Fraud Examination and Forensic Accounting graduate certificate (eight months).

If you are deciding between a degree and a college diploma, the guide to university, college and apprenticeship compares what each costs and where it leads.

What do criminology and police foundations graduates actually work as?

In Statistics Canada's 2021 Census, graduates of these programs are spread across many kinds of work, and the single biggest group is rarely a justice job. The tables show the 12 most common jobs for each group beside what Job Bank says about each. They are different groups of people (a bachelor's in criminology across Canada, and Ontario college graduates in security and protective services aged 25 to 34), so read them separately.

The Census is from 2021, a 25% sample with counts rounded to multiples of five, and it counts what people do, not what they wanted to do. See what graduates in other fields work as.

What do Job Bank's outlook and pay figures say?

Job Bank rates most of these jobs as moderate in Ontario for 2025 to 2027, and security guards and conservation and fishery officers as limited. The figures are Job Bank's province-wide forecast and median hourly wage. They do not tell you whether your town is hiring or how many people will apply for each posting.

Read the outlook as a rough guide to how many openings Job Bank expects relative to the people looking, not a promise about your application. For the full list of jobs and what each pays, see the Job Bank outlook explorer, jobs in demand in Ontario, and the library of jobs described honestly.

What if you cannot get hired right away?

Use the wait to clear the steps that are in your control: fitness, first aid and CPR, the OACP Certificate if you are aiming at policing, volunteering near the field, and applications to more than one of these jobs. Each process takes months, so applying to several in parallel is normal rather than disloyal.

• Get the certifications every process asks for. First aid and CPR come up for police and corrections. Corrections also lists AED.
• Keep your fitness log honest and current. The OACP asks for a two-week log, and corrections and policing both test fitness.
• Time the OACP Certificate. It is valid for one year, so take it when you are ready to apply, not years before.
• Volunteer where it counts. Ontario suggests your local probation and parole office for people short on experience.
• Apply to the continuous-inventory jobs now. The CBSA accepts applications year-round, so there is no season to miss.
• Take an adjacent job. Security, social services, court services or by-law roles give you paid experience and references in the same field.
• Add a credential that fits. A paralegal program, or a fraud or crime analytics certificate, opens a different door.

If you finished school and have not found work yet, our guide on what to do when you have finished school and cannot find a job is written for exactly that gap. If you are not sure the justice sector is the right fit, Future Finder is a free ten-minute interest explorer that stores nothing.