How useful would a doctorate in criminal psychology be?

At your age you were able to state and articulate your desired career…that is huge and largely unheard of from students your age. I would encourage you to press forward and exercise any ways and means possible to see your way through to making your dream to fly, work in the police force or as a lawyer. If you are truly determined….you will find a way.

All your choices are good. You have to decide for yourself what works best for you.

That you have ideas about where you want to go with your career is a real achievement. However, I know I have had numerous career changes over my life and when contemplating which degree program to follow I changed my mind a few times as I learned more about the realities for people working in those fields. So my advice is to find a direction, a path, that will take you towards occupations that appeal to you.

If you’re bright (and you certainly appear to be), why not looking at a double degree in Law and Psychology? Can you talk to anyone who is a lawyer and someone who works as a criminal psychologist? They would be able to give you some real advice about what your life might be like if you went down that path. I do like the idea you floated about working with police officers. Perhaps do some research into how available such roles are. So try to find the right path or direction and follow that without being too specific about the job you will do at the end yet. If you are moving in the right direction, you can fine tune a little as you get a clearer sense of which career really feels like the right fit for you.

Or you could go to flight school :-)

Sounds like you have some great options ahead of you.

Of the three pursuits you mention, law is the way to go if you want no trouble finding a good paying job. Crim/psy is a great profession, but it’s a niche position. Not many opportunities. Oh, and with any psychology degree, you WILL have to go full post-grad to make any money. BS and even MS degrees in psych are a dime a dozen.

Piloting’s good too, but you should join the air force first if you wanna make any money at it. There’s no reason you can’t go indie, but I assume you want to make a living at it. :-)

It seems like you have to get you college degree first anyway. All of those programs – except flight school – are graduate degrees and your mind might changed a hundred times before then. Why not go to college and take some broad liberal arts courses and perhaps double major in criminal justice and psychology? Or major and minor? There is really no pre-law school program so you can decide on that much later.

A woman I know well went to law school and then decided to become a police person. She has traveled around the country training police departments in community policing skills.

Yeah, in my state I would have to get my Masters or Bachelors in something related to psychology before I can get my doctorate.
Would I have to graduate with a Masters or Bachelors first, and then go to school for a doctorate or can I do both at the same time?

You would have to get your bachelor’s first for any graduate program. Some doctorates you get your Master’s first, others you go straight through.

Major in Abnormal Psychology. You can teach it at most any college , work with criminals in prisons, do court work, all kinds of things. I know this because my “ex” is still doing forensic work at 77 . I think he is retired from teaching now. It has paid him very well for over fifty years.