-
CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE
LAW ENFORCEMENT: Training in police academies includes learning about duties such as patrol, narcotics and vice investigation, and other routine functions. Criminal justice careers are available in administrative procedures, human relations, analysis of crime patterns, information storage and retrieval, police organization and management, criminal investigation, and criminal evidence and procedures.
Career options are listed below in local, state, and federal areas:
Attorney General administrator
Border patrol
Code enforcement officer (local)
College campus security, investigator, and director
Community relations officer
Community services officer
Constable
Coroner
Customs agent
Federal Agencies (ATF, CIA, DEA, DER, FBI,
IRS)
Fish and Game enforcement
Homeland security special agent
Highway patrol or state police officer
Law enforcement administrator
Law enforcement personnel administrator
Military police and investigator
Narcotics officer
Police dispatcher or 911 communications officer
Police officer (local or state)
Police officer (federal-capitol, mint, and parks)
Police officer- juvenile/youth
Sheriff’s deputy
State criminal investigator
U.S. Marshal
U.S. or State Park Ranger service
FORENSICS OR CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION: The application of criminal investigation to secure scientifically evaluated evidence, confirming chemical analysis of drug seizures, DNA profiling, processing biological evidence such as: hair, blood, semen stains, saliva residue, and bite marks to individualize a possible offender; applying principles and techniques of chemistry, physics, biology, and geology to the identification and comparison of crime-scene evidence, ballistics or the examination of firearms, discharged bullets and cartridges, handwriting or document analysis, and photographing evidence at a crime scene.
Career options include:
Ballistics examiner
Biologist
Biochemist
Crime scene analyst
Crime scene photographer
Crime scene technician
Crime lab administrator
Criminalist
Digital forensic specialist
Document examiner
Evidence custodian
Evidence technician
Fingerprint examiner
Firearms and tool mark examiner
Forensic scientist
Forensic Accountant
Polygraph examiner
COURT SERVICES: Include pre-sentence investigation, communicating with potential jurors, maintaining official records, certifying records of court orders and establishing court calendars.
Career options include:
Bailiff
Court administrator
Court or law clerk
Court stenographer
Law librarian
Paralegal
Pre-law
Pre-sentence investigator
Pre-trial intervention officer
CORRECTIONS: Covers correctional institutions, rehabilitation programming, probation and parole, and community-based facilities such as half-way houses, drug treatment centers and alcohol detoxification centers at local, state, and federal levels.
Career options include:
Correctional administrator
Correctional educator
Correctional industry administrator
Correctional officer (county, state, or federal)
Correctional recreationist
Correctional counselor
Detention center administrator
Parole administrator (county, state or federal)
Parole counselor (county, state or federal)
Parole officer (county, state, or federal)
Pre-release work center counselor
Probation administrator (county, state, or federal)
Probation counselor (county, state, or federal)
Probation officer (adult: county, state, or federal)
Work-study program counselor
Youth worker
JUVENILE SERVICES: Personnel receive juveniles after arrest, contact relatives, investigate charges, prepare cases for adjudication, transport juveniles to correction facilities, and supervise detention or handle aftercare services. They also work with community projects such as teenage hot lines, half-way houses, or alternative schools.
Career options include:
Aftercare service counselor
Children, youth, and family services counselor
Children, youth, and family services administrator
Juvenile corrections counselor
Juvenile detention center administrator or officer
Juvenile intake service worker
Juvenile services administrator
Probation officer (juvenile: county, state, or federal)
Teenage hotline program counselor
Youth service bureau officer
PLANNING AND RESEARCH: Involves such tasks as analyzing needs, evaluating programs, writing grants, preparing and analyzing statistical data for public information, building databases and doing crime-specific planning.
Career options include:
Corrections planner
Criminal justice doctoral study
Criminal justice planner
Criminal justice records specialist
Criminal justice researcher
Information systems specialist
Juvenile services planner
Police planner
Public information officer
CRIMINAL JUSTICE EDUCATION: Requires qualified instructors in criminal justice academies, agency training programs, high school technical education programs, community colleges, and universities.
Career options include:
College and university educators
Correctional educators
Criminal justice academy instructors
High school technical education program teachers
Junior college educators
Juvenile school teachers
Technical school educators
PUBLIC, PRIVATE, OR CORPORATE SECURITY: Can involve loss prevention in a retail store, investigating employee theft, providing plant security through patrol, securing buildings, electronic surveillance, providing personal protection as a bodyguard for corporate executives, politicians, or entertainers, hotel, resort, cruise line, or casino security, transportation industry security at airports, security on train or bus lines, or security officer for any of the public utility companies.
Career opportunities include:
Airport security officer
Casino security, investigator or director
Conrail railroad police or security
Corporate security guard, investigator, or director
Hospital security officer or director
Loss prevention officer or director
Personal executive protection agent
Private agency security guard or director
Public security officer (county, state, or federal)
Public utilities security investigator or director
OTHER CAREER OPTIONS INCLUDE:
Alcohol and drug abuse program counselor
Criminal justice training literature writer
Crisis intervention center counselor
Professional association administrator
Suicide prevention center counselor
Volunteer services administrator
Writers and editors