Criminal Justice: The Unethical Cash Cow

[publius2k4]

This is very true. In my field, there is little practicality to a criminal justice degree. In fact, many law enforcement practitioners (myself included) tend to loath criminal justice majors because they tend to think that studying the system for 4 years has earned them the rank of expert in my field. They are the same people who think that you have to read Miranda warnings to every person you arrest (which you do not have to do unless you plan to question the person).

When people ask what they should study if they want to get into law enforcement, I tell them to base it off of what they want to do in the field of law enforcement: If they want to be a crime lab tech, hard science coursework and forensics would be most helpful. If they want to become a criminal investigator, courses in psychology and critical thinking would be extremely helpful. If they'd like to get into leadership roles, Management or Public Safety Admin. would be quite beneficial.

A CJ degree prepares you for work in law enforcement about as much as a degree in biology prepares you for neurosurgery.