Criminal Justice: The Unethical Cash Cow

[PonyGirl93]

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Every time I hear one of my students say they aren't interested in becoming a police or correctional officer, I become concerned about what they're going to do. For those who want to work in social services, they have to compete with people with more experience and a half a dozen other majors. Have you taken the LSAT and tried applying to law schools?

The criminal justice LinkedIn group is filled with people saying they can't find a job. Yes, there are those who thought they could go straight to being an investigator.

I haven't taken the LSAT or done anything about law school, although I suppose I'm still considering it. Speaking of a possible waste of a huge investment in a terrible job market If I decide to take a chance on law school, the job market for lawyers being what it is, I would only go to law school if I got an enormous scholarship. I'm doubtful that I would actually find any job satisfaction in law, but I'm keeping options open.

I did do research and wasn't quite so naive as to think I could become an investigator straightaway, but thought there would be more peripheral job opportunities without becoming a cop. Possibly there are in other areas of the country (ie. the FBI hires entry-level lab people to do fingerprint analysis and that sort of thing, naturally the degree is unnecessary,) but no bites thus far.

It's really okay, though, I didn't post here to throw a pity party, just to share my experience. My interests have evolved and I'm moving forward in a different direction. The price of finishing college too early, maybe, but also maybe just a live and learn experience. If nothing else, it teaches you how to read sales pitches properly - if it says "broad, interdisciplinary approach," think very hard about whether you will come out with a single marketable skill

[sanantone]

Yeah, the job market for lawyers is terrible. A lot of former law students recommend to only attend law school if you can get into a T14 or top 15.

[cookderosa]

responding to customer demand. That's been the mantra of all for-profits and community colleges since day 1. I believe this is true in many fields besides CJ, I can say it's true in my field as well.

[sanantone]

I'm also seeing that public and non-profit schools are starting CJ programs. My PhD program sends out emails on job openings. So far, I've seen that one private, non-profit college and a Texas A&M branch are starting CJ programs.

[defscarlett]

I'm one of those people working on getting my CJ degree, however I'm not going into it blindly either. I've worked in the industry for a decade and need a degree to move up the ranks as they say. I also have no desire to be a police officer, but work in private security or in emergency management (hahahaha). I chose CJ because I felt it would be the easiest degree, possibly learn a thing or two and I'm also coupling it with a Business degree.

[PonyGirl93]

responding to customer demand. That's been the mantra of all for-profits and community colleges since day 1. I believe this is true in many fields besides CJ, I can say it's true in my field as well.

These programs are hardly exclusive to those schools. Agreed, it's a caveat emptor world. In an ideal universe you would like to think you could trust a non-profit school, but then what non-profit school actually doesn't have to worry about profit.

[sanantone]

These programs are hardly exclusive to those schools. Agreed, it's a caveat emptor world. In an ideal universe you would like to think you could trust a non-profit school, but then what non-profit school actually doesn't have to worry about profit.

The exception would be the highly-ranked programs. They don't want to gain a reputation for having a bunch of unemployed alumni because that would eventually hurt their rankings. That is why UT Austin and Texas A&M are slowing down the growth of the petroleum engineering programs. But then again, most graduates of highly-ranked programs won't have a hard time finding a job. Even someone with a degree in paranormal psychology from Yale could land a job in an investment bank.

The first explosion in criminal justice programs was decades ago when the federal government started funding colleges through LEEP to educate police officers. The program was well-meaning. Everyone thought that education would make better officers, but many schools quickly threw together CJ programs just to receive funding. CJ programs were considered "cop shops" and on par with diploma mills. It took a long time for CJ to be taken somewhat seriously in academia after that.