Criminologists
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Job description
These individuals propose and implement strategies to help individuals adopt appropriate behaviours. They also help individuals increase their autonomy and power to act, and develop and maintain a support network. They also help individuals deal with the effects of a criminal offence. They work for:
- Detention and rehabilitation centres
- Health and social services centres
- Youth centres
- Halfway houses
- Community organizations
- The federal and provincial governments
- Crime Victims Assistance Centres (CAVAC)
Environment
- Controlled ambient temperature
- Violence
Main tasks
- Assess a person’s needs, strengths, and risk and protective factors.
- Assess criminogenic factors in the case of an offender or a youth who has committed an offence.
- Develop an intervention plan that is appropriate to the specific needs of each individual.
- Ensure the follow-up and implementation of an intervention plan, including the provision of psychosocial support.
- Intervene with a voluntary or involuntary clientele, to support and restore the offender and the victim’s capacities.
- Accompany clients through the judicial process.
- Make recommendations on crime prevention and public protection.
- Analyze and study the causes of crime and its effects on victims.
- Develop programs to assist criminalized clients and victims.
Training and requirements
Formation
Most training programs are offered in French only.
University
Criminology
Bachelor’s degree
Placement rate: 73.6%
24.5% of graduates pursue further studies
Master’s degree
Placement rate: 86.5%
10.8% of graduates pursue further studies
Also required
- Membership in the Ordre professionnel des criminologues du Québec (OPCQ [Quebec Order of Professional Criminologists]) in order to practise as a Criminologist.
Main skills and characteristics
Skills
- Data collection
- Social perception
- Critical thought
- Oral expression
- Active listening
- Result evaluation
- Written expression
- Reading comprehension
- Information processing
- Judgment and decision-making
- Solving complex problems
- Coordination
- Persuasion
- Active learning
- Service oriented
- Negotiation
- Teaching
- Time management
Abilities
- Awareness of issues
- Oral comprehension
- Verbal skills
- Inductive reasoning
- Speech recognition
- Deductive reasoning
- Speech clarity
- Written comprehension
- Written expression
- Information organization
- Near vision
Knowledge and attributes
- Capacity to establish and maintain interpersonal relations
- Capacity to work under pressure
- Sense of responsibility
- Capacity to influence and mobilize
- Capacity to be discrete
- Respect others
- Knowledge of public safety and security
- Knowledge of laws and policies
- Capacity to facilitate a group
- Open-mindedness
Interests
- Draft, communicate, and inform
- Watch, defend, and secure
- Work in an office
- Create, design
- Assist and advise
- Assist or care for people
Personality profiles (RIASEC)
- Investigative
- People with this profile prefer relying on theoretical knowledge before acting. They like observation, analysis and problem solving.
- Social
- People with this profile prefer to be in contact with others, in particular to entertain, help or teach them.
- Conventional
- People with this profile prefer specific, well-defined tasks. They like to respect the order of things and follow established rules.
Appellation d’emploi liée (à traduire)
Other professional occupations in social science (CNP 41409)
Skill type
Education, law and social, community and government services
Last update: January 29, 2026