Lipscomb University
- One University Park Drive Nashville, TN 37204-3951
- (615) 966-1000
- Visit website
- Retention rate: 85%
- Programs offered: 50
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
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Nashville, Tennessee has 8 accredited schools offering criminology programs, with tuition ranging from $4,756 to $40,572 per year for indexed programs. Nashville has a population of about 1,065,078. In the Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN metro area, the top-earning criminology-related role is Detective and Criminal Investigator at a median $78,460 annually (BLS OEWS, May 2025).
The accredited institutions listed below are the closest in our directory that offer criminology programs near Nashville, ranked by BOC Score and straight-line distance from Nashville 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 Nashville. Advertising never affects these rankings. Read the full methodology.
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source: IPEDS / College Scorecard (2023 cohort). Browse all Tennessee schools on the Tennessee criminology page.
Nashville is part of the Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN metro area (BLS area code 34980). Where MSA-level wages are published, the table below shows MSA medians; otherwise it falls back to Tennessee statewide.
| Occupation | Median Wage | Source | COL-Adjusted (US=100) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sociologist | N/A | TN statewide | – |
| Detective and Criminal Investigator | $78,460 | Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN | $81,475 |
| Probation Officer and Correctional Treatment Specialist | $58,010 | Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN | $60,239 |
| Police and Sheriff’s Patrol Officer | $68,780 | Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN | $71,423 |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Regional Price Parity (US=100) | 96.3 (below U.S. average) | BEA RPP 2024 |
Our directory has 8 accredited schools offering criminology programs near Nashville. The closest is Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN (4.6 miles), and the farthest of the schools shown is Bethel University (96.7 miles). 7 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 Nashville are: Detective and Criminal Investigator ($78,460), Police and Sheriff’s Patrol Officer ($68,780), Probation Officer and Correctional Treatment Specialist ($58,010). These reflect MSA-level medians where published, with Tennessee statewide fallback for occupations not reported at the metro level.
Brentwood, TN is 12.4 miles from Nashville 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.
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 Nashville:
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 2024โ2034) 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 Tennessee: Online Programs (2026)