Further Investigation Regarding Your Career in Criminal Justice

Prior to obtaining your degree in criminal justice it's important to really understand the realm of possibilities available to you in criminal justice. Criminal justice is a very broad topic and even within each specified area of interest there are numerous career options. Take forensic science, for example. Forensic Science is one area of specialty within the field/or degree area of criminal justice that offers numerous job possibilities including:

• medical examiner
• crime lab analyst
• forensic psychologist/social worker
• forensic engineer
• crime scene examiner

Each of these sub-specialties within the criminal justice specialty of forensic science requires a different level of education and a different skill set. For example, you would have to obtain a masters or a PhD in Forensic Science to work as a medical examiner. Psychological profiling can also fall under this category, but will most likely require additional clinical knowledge, education and experience working with criminals in a clinical context. For this reason, it's important to try and pre-determine your area of specialty, do research on the sub-specialties within that speciality, look at possible career options and then decide which program best suits your needs.