Criminal Justice: The Unethical Cash Cow

[sanantone]

Exactly. In my agency, all that matters is your certification. They could care less about your education.

If there is an open position, they weed through the applications to see who is already certified for that position because it means the agency will not have to invest any money to send that applicant to their respective academy (police or corrections). If one applicant has a masters degree in criminal justice, and another applicant has a GED and is already certified, the agency will hire the individual who is certified first.

I've seen cases where agencies willing to sponsor those with degrees will also state they have a preference for those who are already satisfied. I did come across an agency that had no preference for certified applicants, military experience, or education. They just chose the highest scorers on the written test and interview. It was interesting to see that everyone who was chosen to go forward in the process had degrees. It might offend some, but I wasn't surprised. One of our police academies said they had to deal with cadets who could only read at the 3rd grade level. I thought they had to get an acceptable reading score in order to enter the academy. Anyway, one cannot get through an accredited bachelor's degree program without being able to read. So, that's why I'm not surprised the college-educated applicants scored so high.

Some agencies will give bonus points on civil service tests for military experience, licensure, and education. It's common for police and correctional departments to give educational incentive pay and even bump you up the career ladder for degrees. Texas gives credit toward higher levels of certification for degrees. This reduces the amount of time to become an intermediate, advanced, and master peace officer or jailer. Agencies pay more for higher levels of certification too. However, your education could be in cryptozoology in all of these cases.

And then there are those who enroll in a CJ degree program that already have a criminal history too believing that the attainment of the degree will wash away their previously attained felony and misdemeanor (sins) records after (if) they graduate.

I had a student with warrants. They weren't for anything major, but they would prevent him from being hired.

So true. It's also part of why American crime rates are so high and why we hear about police abuse of power so frequently.

I think it's important for police officers to be well-educated, but it doesn't necessarily have to be in criminal justice. CJ is just a hodgepodge of other fields and doesn't really go in depth on any of them. If you read about the history of criminology and CJ, you'll learn that it's just sociology-lite. Police officers should know more about how to talk to people, culture diversity, and mental health issues. These are required continuing education courses in my state, but many police officers cheat on them. Even when they have to take them in class, there are either some instructors who will hand out the answers or all of the officers will cheat off of whomever completed the coursework first. I have seen it with my own eyes for an ethics course! There is really not much you can do when the supervisors are in on it.