Academic Career Prospects in Criminology vs Psychology (PhD)

[TXInstrument11]

Hi, so I've had the good fortune to get accepted into both Illinois at Urbana-Champign for psychology and FSU for criminology, both great programs in their respective fields.

 

I am a psychology major interested in studying bio factors in violent aggression, which I would be able to do at either school with my POIs. However, one tradeoff is that secondary interests of mine in social networks and political psychology would be effectively cut off to me as a criminologist. At the same time, though, I think I would be able to more consistently focus on violent aggression, which is ultimately preferable. [social psych is dominated by a lot of pure-cognition folks and I get along with very few on the subject of aggression]

 

Now, I have been advised in the past that the academic job market is stronger (or will soon be stronger) for criminologists than psychologists at the PhD level. Is this true? Are there stats to decide this one way or the other? 

 

I just want to anticipate which route would better guarantee that I can study what I want. Since research focus flexibility problems look like a bit of a wash, I though job prospects might be a better way to look at this instead. 

[CeeB]

I am not sure about the job prospects for Psychology, but I have been debating between Crim/Sociology programs myself. I have been told by multiple professors in both fields that the job market in Crim is very strong right now and is growing.. I haven't seen any numbers to support this claim, but I think it says a lot when Sociology professors (and Psych in your case) say the same thing. 

 

That said, I would look at (or ask about) the graduation placement rates for the programs you're considering as this will probably give you a better idea.. I can imagine both of the programs you mentioned have good placement rates, so it might come down to other factors, like funding. 

[donj]

I think it can be a tough market either way, but people have consistently told me I will have an easier time finding a job within Criminology. My dept chair said there are 4x more job listings than there are new Crim PhD's each year (I will have to ask him where he got that). I've never seen any actual stats, besides one that said within sociology programs, criminology is the most likely specialization they are looking for in new professors. But, if you think about it logically... there are A LOT more psychology programs than there are criminology programs, so, the market could be flooded.

 

Jobs are one of the reason I chose Crim over Psych (I have a psych background too), but it was also just what made more sense with my interests. It disagree that it would cut you off from secondary interests - I think that it's beneficial to have an interdisciplinary background, and I put a little social psychology in most of my research projects because it's a secondary interest of mine. You may have to do what other people want you do to in grad school, but when you have your PhD, you can carve your own path out as you may. I think it comes down to personal preference. Can you not live without psychology research? Then go that route. Can you not live with criminology research? Than go that route. You probably couldn't go wrong with either program.

[TXInstrument11]

I think it can be a tough market either way, but people have consistently told me I will have an easier time finding a job within Criminology. My dept chair said there are 4x more job listings than there are new Crim PhD's each year (I will have to ask him where he got that). I've never seen any actual stats, besides one that said within sociology programs, criminology is the most likely specialization they are looking for in new professors. But, if you think about it logically... there are A LOT more psychology programs than there are criminology programs, so, the market could be flooded.

 

Jobs are one of the reason I chose Crim over Psych (I have a psych background too), but it was also just what made more sense with my interests. It disagree that it would cut you off from secondary interests - I think that it's beneficial to have an interdisciplinary background, and I put a little social psychology in most of my research projects because it's a secondary interest of mine. You may have to do what other people want you do to in grad school, but when you have your PhD, you can carve your own path out as you may. I think it comes down to personal preference. Can you not live without psychology research? Then go that route. Can you not live with criminology research? Than go that route. You probably couldn't go wrong with either program.

Thanks for the advice. Did people give you feedback on career prospects at your school? Are you a sociology as well as psychology student?

 

As for psych or crim being flooded, I guess it could be both since I haven't seen any stats. Alongside funding problems, I think social psych programs keep their admits so low to combat the current flooding problem. I'm also not sure if it's going to grow a whole lot over the next few decades.

 

I love social psych, but I am much more passionate about violence research than anything else. While I am interested in doing stuff on social networks and the like, I don't feel like I would be doing as much societal good with that research, ya know? The only thing I could think is tying this interest with hate group/speech and cyberbullying research later on down the road. I thought about doing that with a  project this year but ended up sticking with aggressive driving research. 

Edited February 14, 2015 by TXInstrument11

[donj]

Thanks for the advice. Did people give you feedback on career prospects at your school? Are you a sociology as well as psychology student?

 

As for psych or crim being flooded, I guess it could be both since I haven't seen any stats. Alongside funding problems, I think social psych programs keep their admits so low to combat the current flooding problem. I'm also not sure if it's going to grow a whole lot over the next few decades.

 

I love social psych, but I am much more passionate about violence research than anything else. While I am interested in doing stuff on social networks and the like, I don't feel like I would be doing as much societal good with that research, ya know? The only thing I could think is tying this interest with hate group/speech and cyberbullying research later on down the road. I thought about doing that with a  project this year but ended up sticking with aggressive driving research. 

 

Yeah, in undergrad I was a psychology/sociology double major. But I was really interested in how both disciplines applied to crime so I ended up in a Crim MS program. In psych I mostly got the "so you know you're not going to be an FBI profiler, right?" talk over and over again. Otherwise people weren't much help. Psych programs with a crime specialty are few and far between and mostly clinical, which is not my thing. When I explained my research/career goals to people in soc or criminology they were like "um why not be a criminologist?" to which I said, "won't that mean I can't apply psych to my research" and they said "where on earth did you get that idea."  I'm still not sure.... 

 

Criminology is still a growing field, and if I couldn't find an academic job in crim I'd be interested in policy/analyst/govt type positions. My thing is corrections/life course so I'm happy in crim. There's obviously a ton of violence research in criminology, but there's some in psychology too. Sounds like as long as that's a part of it, you'l be happy! Which might not help you distinguish between to two programs, lol.

[TXInstrument11]

Yeah, in undergrad I was a psychology/sociology double major. But I was really interested in how both disciplines applied to crime so I ended up in a Crim MS program. In psych I mostly got the "so you know you're not going to be an FBI profiler, right?" talk over and over again. Otherwise people weren't much help. Psych programs with a crime specialty are few and far between and mostly clinical, which is not my thing. When I explained my research/career goals to people in soc or criminology they were like "um why not be a criminologist?" to which I said, "won't that mean I can't apply psych to my research" and they said "where on earth did you get that idea."  I'm still not sure.... 

 

Criminology is still a growing field, and if I couldn't find an academic job in crim I'd be interested in policy/analyst/govt type positions. My thing is corrections/life course so I'm happy in crim. There's obviously a ton of violence research in criminology, but there's some in psychology too. Sounds like as long as that's a part of it, you'l be happy! Which might not help you distinguish between to two programs, lol.

Ditto on clinical. My school search was often very frustrating in this aspect. Sometimes I could only make it work when a clinical professor was also an "associated" faculty member of a crim or social psych area. 

[1415dr]

My thing is corrections/life course so I'm happy in crim.

Then Cincinnati would be a great program for you. That's right up their alley.

[donj]

Then Cincinnati would be a great program for you. That's right up their alley.

Yeah they have a ton of great corrections people. I have a campus visit with them next weekend, but just got into Penn, where I'd be working with profs that do longitudinal studies on recidivism of delinquents/offenders, so I'm split.

[1415dr]

Yeah they have a ton of great corrections people. I have a campus visit with them next weekend, but just got into Penn, where I'd be working with profs that do longitudinal studies on recidivism of delinquents/offenders, so I'm split.

[1415dr]

Dang, that is tempting.

[donj]

Dang, that is tempting.

Are you the lone Cincinnati admit on the results page? Lol

[1415dr]

Are you the lone Cincinnati admit on the results page? Lol

No, I wish! I just put all my eggs in one basket and I can't stop thinking about Cincinnati.

[donj]

I can't stop thinking about Cincinnati.

 I know the feeling!

 

Good luck

[Sword_Saint]

No, I wish! I just put all my eggs in one basket and I can't stop thinking about Cincinnati.

 

I'm excited about Cincinnati for their crime prevention and environmental criminology myself.

 

The faculty at my university normally discuss the student interests here the most- pretty standard stuff about going into local or state law enforcement or corrections. This is a little outside of psychology (and possibly Criminology a little if you don't believe environmental crim.) but as a crime prevention and crime mapping student, I understand there's some demand for GIS and Mapping Analysts. Been looking at postings for a while for that and for security management firms. Its a little more technical in some respects but looks rewarding if you're working for the right agency.

[1415dr]

I'm excited about Cincinnati for their crime prevention and environmental criminology myself.

The faculty at my university normally discuss the student interests here the most- pretty standard stuff about going into local or state law enforcement or corrections. This is a little outside of psychology (and possibly Criminology a little if you don't believe environmental crim.) but as a crime prevention and crime mapping student, I understand there's some demand for GIS and Mapping Analysts. Been looking at postings for a while for that and for security management firms. Its a little more technical in some respects but looks rewarding if you're working for the right agency.

I've had classes with Dr. Eck and Dr. Wilcox at UC. They run the Crime Science Institute. They just did a crime report for cincinnati. If you get accepted there you could get a few years experience working with them before you finish the program. Good luck. I'm more of a corrections person myself, but Dr. Eck almost converted me to situational prevention.

[Ilspflouz]

I am like OP and really interested in this as I try to decide whether to apply to Crim or Psych. I've looked around a lot, but the only numbers I have really seen pertaining specifically to Crim PhD programs are from the Association of Doctoral Programs in Criminal Justice and Criminology. Here is a link to their 2014 report: http://www.adpccj.com/documents/2014survey.pdf.

 

Page 16 of this report seems to have a blurb on employment after graduation from doctoral programs. It seems to indicate that ~88% of the recent crim graduates they interviewed from 2012-2013 (n=141) had job placements in tenure-track academia or government agency positions. If you assume the other 12% of graduates classified as "other" are also employed, then 100% of the graduates interviewed had jobs.

 

You can compare this to the social psych job placement numbers from the APA's 2009 doctorate employment survey (http://www.apa.org/workforce/publications/09-doc-empl/?tab=4), broken down by psych subfield. From the APA report see this table: http://www.apa.org/workforce/publications/09-doc-empl/table-2.pdf, and this table: http://www.apa.org/workforce/publications/09-doc-empl/table-4.pdf. Of the social psych graduates interviewed (N=71), 53 were employed full time and 10 were post-docs.

 

Hope this helps! :-) I know the sample sizes are quite different, but these reports provided the best comparisons I have been able to find so far.

Edited February 23, 2015 by AliasJane2342