Start planning for your career in criminal justice. Here are ideas for internships, sample career pathways, and career planning tools.

Criminal Justice Internships

Internships are a great way to explore areas of the criminal justice field, build a professional network, gain new skills, and make yourself more marketable for a good job after graduation. Our criminal justice internships are structured experiences facilitated by faculty. 
Recent internships include:
  • Massachusetts State Police
  • U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
  • Massachusetts Dept of Children and Families (DCF)
  • Local Police Departments (e.g., Lowell, Acton, Burlington, Methuen)
  • Legal Aid Society 
  • Middlesex County Sheriff's Office
  • Suffolk County Sheriff's Office 
  • Lowell Juvenile Court Probation
  • Lawrence District Court Probation
  • Massachusetts Department of Youth Services
  • Middlesex County District Attorney
  • Multiple area law firms

Post-Graduation Pathways

A degree in criminal justice can lead to a variety of career pathways as well as graduate studies.

Federal, State and Local Agencies

  • Law enforcement
  • Homeland security
  • Intelligence and crime analysis
  • Juvenile justice systems 
  • Legal systems: courts, prosecution, defense
  • Corrections, re-entry, probation/parole

Community-based Agencies

  • Victim services
  • Re-entry support services
  • Community-based crime prevention

Private Sector

  • Industrial security/cybersecurity 
  • Criminal justice technology 
  • Private investigation 

Policy and Research

  • Reform/advocacy organizations
  • Legislative staff positions (federal, state) 
  • Research organizations

Advanced Studies

  • Legal careers/law school
  • Clinical careers (e.g., counseling, forensic psychology)
  • Research/advanced analysis (masters/Ph.D.)

Career Planning Tools

Career & Co-op Center

The Career & Co-op Center is a great resource for students exploring career paths related to your major. Career Counselors can help identify experiential opportunities to give you insight into career paths, help with job/internship searches, resume and cover letter development, interviewing and other related skills. Call for an appointment and/or review the website, which provides many online services for job and internship search, career exploration and more.

What Can I Do With This Major? 

The Career & Co-op Center’s "What Can I Do With This Major?" online resource helps identify various career areas related to respective majors, the types of employers in those career areas and strategies to make yourself marketable for positions. 

 O*Net

The O*NET (Occupational Information Network ) is a database of occupational requirements and worker attributes. It describes occupations in terms of the skills and knowledge required, how the work is performed and typical work settings. This is a great resource for career exploration, job specific salary research and more.

Handshake

UMass Lowell’s on-campus recruiting system, Handshake, is where employers post positions for prospective interns, co-ops, entry-level and experienced candidates. Also find the Career & Co-op events schedule and registration system here.