CRIMINAL JUSTICE CAREER OPTIONS

Criminal Justice Career Options

Criminal Justice Career Options

When most people think of a career in law enforcement the first thing that comes to mind is the patrol officer or “street cop”, but there are so many more options for those interested in a career in law enforcement. Not only can one work as a police officer for their local agency or sheriff's department, but there are a wide range of careers from the local, state, and federal levels. I have prior work experience as a Deputy Sheriff for the Lee County Sheriff's Office in Fort Myers, Florida. Although I have enjoyed my time as a Deputy Sheriff immensely over the years, I have so many more interests in a wide variety of careers in Criminal Justice. It was hard to choose only three careers that interest me, but I finally came up with my short list of careers. The three careers I chose are: Crime Scene Investigator or analyst, special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and a Criminal Investigator (Special Agent) for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

The career as a Crime Scene Investigator has fast become one of the hottest Criminal Justice jobs out there do to the extreme success of the television series, “CSI: Crime Scene Investigations”. There are many colleges and universities that now offer degrees in the field of Forensics. For me the career of a Crime Scene Investigator was something I was always interested in. The ability to be able to piece together forensic findings to solve a crime is incredible. In order to become a Crime Scene Investigator there are a few paths that one can take. First, a college degree is normally a pre-requisite for this career. Most people in this field hold a college degree in Criminal Science or Forensics, although a degree in Criminal Justice is also accepted. For most agencies, when the position becomes available they tend to promote from within the agency based on experience and the amount of time one has been with the department (Swanson, Chamelin, Territo, & Taylor, 2006). A Crime Scene Investigators job is to “collect, identify, classify, and analyze physical evidence related to criminal investigations" (this would include crime scene technicians who work in the field and technicians who work in the crime laboratory).

Examples of evidence that a Crime Scene Investigator might collect include ...