BestOnlineCollege.org is an advertising-supported website. Many of the school and program listings that appear on this site are from partners who compensate us, and this compensation may affect how, where, and in what order listings appear (such as featured placements). This compensation does not influence our editorial content, evaluations, or rankings, which are determined independently using publicly available data. We do not review or feature every school or program available in the marketplace. Our goal is to provide accurate, unbiased information so you can make informed decisions. Read our full Advertiser Disclosure.
South Plainfield, New Jersey has 81 accredited schools offering criminology programs, with tuition ranging from $6,210 to $53,170 per year for indexed programs. South Plainfield has a population of about 24,231. Median household income is $126,063 (Census ACS 2023, 5-year). About 42.0% of adults 25+ hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. In the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ metro area, the top-earning criminology-related role is Detective and Criminal Investigator at a median $106,440 annually (BLS OEWS, May 2025).
The accredited institutions listed below are the closest in our directory that offer criminology programs near South Plainfield, ranked by BOC Score and straight-line distance from South Plainfield city center. The list is rebuilt from federal IPEDS data on every site update.
Every school list on this site is ordered by the BOC Score, computed from the most recent school-level data published by the U.S. Department of Education (College Scorecard and IPEDS). To qualify, a school must be currently operating and accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Each eligible school is then scored on five measures, percentile-ranked against schools at the same credential level:
Schools without enough outcome data appear after ranked schools, without a score. On this page, schools are ordered by distance from South Plainfield. Advertising never affects these rankings. Read the full methodology.
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source: IPEDS / College Scorecard (2023 cohort). Browse all New Jersey schools on the New Jersey criminology page.
South Plainfield is part of the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ metro area (BLS area code 35620). Where MSA-level wages are published, the table below shows MSA medians; otherwise it falls back to New Jersey statewide.
| Occupation | Median Wage | Source | COL-Adjusted (US=100) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sociologist | N/A | NJ statewide | – |
| Detective and Criminal Investigator | $106,440 | New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $94,529 |
| Probation Officer and Correctional Treatment Specialist | $79,370 | New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $70,488 |
| Police and Sheriff’s Patrol Officer | $105,540 | New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $93,730 |
Source: BLS, May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes wage data at the metro (MSA) and state level – not by individual city.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Population | 24,231 | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B01003) |
| Median household income | $126,063 | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B19013) |
| Adults 25+ with bachelor’s+ | 42.0% | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B15003) |
| Regional Price Parity (US=100) | 112.6 (above U.S. average) | BEA RPP 2024 |
Our directory has 81 accredited schools offering criminology programs near South Plainfield. The closest is Rutgers University-New Brunswick in New Brunswick, NJ (5.5 miles), and the farthest of the schools shown is St. Francis College (23.8 miles). 10 of the highlighted schools are flagged as offering distance education.
Based on BLS OEWS May 2025 wage data, the top-paying criminology-related roles near South Plainfield are: Detective and Criminal Investigator ($106,440), Police and Sheriff’s Patrol Officer ($105,540), Probation Officer and Correctional Treatment Specialist ($79,370). These reflect MSA-level medians where published, with New Jersey statewide fallback for occupations not reported at the metro level.
Plainfield, NJ is 2.8 miles from South Plainfield and has its own set of local criminology programs – see the city’s page. For online programs, distance matters less; for hybrid or in-person formats, comparing both can help.
South Plainfield’s median household income of $126,063 (Census ACS 2023) is one input. Online programs let students stay in South Plainfield while attending lower-cost out-of-state schools, and New Jersey public universities often offer reduced in-state online tuition.
Confirm institutional accreditation via the U.S. Department of Education database (U.S. Dept. of Education database), and check for any program-specific accreditation listed by the school.
Compare every accredited online degree program with city-level data for South Plainfield:
Data verified: August 11, 2026. Salary, employment, and tuition figures on this page are sourced from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS May 2025; Employment Projections 2024–2034) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard (2023 cohort). The source agency and data year are cited inline with every statistic.
Back to Best Criminology Schools in New Jersey: Online Programs (2026)
