Online Law degrees

[sanantone]

I'm a former criminal justice instructor.

Criminal justice is a social science that combines elements of sociology, economics, psychology, and law. Law is a humanities subject related to philosophy, and law degree programs teach you how to apply law in the real world.

When PhDs in criminology and criminal justice were hard to come by, schools would hire people with law degrees, but they mostly hired people with PhDs in sociology. Now that there are plenty of PhDs, the general consensus is that a JD should not be considered equivalent to a doctoral degree in criminal justice/criminology or a related social science.

Since community colleges hire people with master's degrees, a JD might be fine, but it's overkill. A master's degree in criminal justice would be faster, cheaper, and more relevant. Most of the courses in criminal programs don't delve deep into law. CJ and criminology are mostly about studying why people commit crimes and how to stop them from committing crimes.

The general consensus is that the JD is a long master's degree despite its name. The name was chosen to make the legal field appear more prestigious, but the JD is not much different from an MDiv, MSW, master's in clinical mental health counseling, master's in architecture, or any other long master's degree program. The federal government considers the JD a master's degree and the LLM the equivalent of a professional doctorate. The LLM has its name because the JD used to be an LLB. In other countries, law programs are just long baccalaureate programs.