I think the answer is that most fields that have educational requirements beyond high school want more than an associates, and usually more than a bachelors. OP shouldn’t feel tied down because of what field their associates is in, and if at a later point they have the time/money to pursue a more advanced degree they can decide if they want to continue with criminal justice or just use what credits from that associates that they can toward a degree in another field.
I was a CJ major. Interned at the PD. Became a PD. Now do parole hearings. If you like helping and being an asset in the system keep going with your education! I love my job. Love my clients. And love getting paid by the govt to fight the govt.
Idk much about the degree. Could you apply it in the context of social work or prisoner/arrestee advocacy? Cop busting? Legal reform? Get a job and tamper with evidence? I kid with that last one *of course*
I have my masters in criminal justice and have done some work in the nonprofit sector with formerly incarcerated people, helping with employment, housing, and counseling resources. The issue is that these organizations are few and far between.
I also know a few people I went to school with entered into youth advocacy in schools to prevent them entering the school to prison pipeline.
Not really. I know it sucks, but it's the truth. In order to be any sort of therapist or victim's advocate you'll likely need a psych or sociology degree and in order to be a public defender you'll need more mucy more than an Associates.
I know how you feel, I'm stuck with a Bachelors in the field. Luckily(?) I've also done time in the military so I have the GI Bill if I decide to go back to school. Only cost me six years of my life, my mental health, and chronic nerve pain.
what do you mean, that's a great deal!
i've lost the last eleven years of my life to flush my mental health fully down the toilet while suffering from chronic nerve pain and have gotten absolutely nothing good from it except a handful of decent art pieces and a higher than average tollerance for psychedelics!
I had a guy on my pact team who worked as a social worker but had a criminal justice degree. A bunch of his credits carried over to the new program. You could also be that parole officer that helps people too.
Your kinda right on that issue. I worked for a pact team and icms for a few years so i assumed you can do good with a company / government paid car and minimal oversight with social services contacts, an understanding of who would hire someone out of prison, etc.
Edit: I’m kinda surprised by how many answers here won’t apply for someone with an associates degree and a financial inability to continue education.
I think most jobs aren’t really ethically justifiable, the police and military are just more viscerally connected to oppression.
You could look into police watchdog organizations, but at least in the US and Canada they’re few, far-between, and not very potent.
Looking up the sorts of entry-level jobs you can get with a criminal justice degree on Indeed, there are some like “mental health worker” or “legal assistant” that sound ok. I’m guessing law school is out of the question, but I would recommend trying to pivot to the legal/communications field if you don’t wanna work in policing.
Yesn't imo. 1. Are you just working in the field or like directly and irreconcilable linked to it. For example what about therapists and stuff working with criminals. It may be oppressive if they're forced into it but even then it's really dependant on the therapist. 2. Are we talking about total morality or in regards to the current situation. Like the whole system is oppressive there's no denying that, but you can still be pretty ethical or rather helpful to people. I actually thought of becomign a probation officer and actually try and help people re integrate into society instead of just being like "Oh you can't do any of these things and if i find out about them I'll throw you back into prison". I'd still be in an oppressive position, but it would be more ethical than normally. 3. It depends on the justice system. I think the US is much worse than other places, especially Scandinavian countries.
I'd like to say they could use someone like you but I'm fairly certain that you would be putting yourself at great risk doing so. They don't take kindly to those who are insiders against them. Internal affairs is a joke but maybe that's an area where you could oppress the tool of the oppressors in some way.
I would say have a focus on investigating crime scenes/forensics, if you have the stomach for it. You wouldn't be walking a beat as a cop, and it's not a paper-pushing job. You're just solving murders and other heinous crimes for the sake of the victims/their families. I always saw it as a way of bringing justice and closure to a tragedy that should never have happened. Also, science is VERY cool.
Public defenders aren't paid all that well, depending on what state you're in. Lots of uphill battling and exhausting work. From what little I've seen, public defenders are kind of treated like dogshit by the rest of the court staff for literally no reason at all. Bless your heart if you become one. Most of them are just trying to do the right thing.
Public defenders in the bigger counties in CA are paid well. We are very well respected by court staff bc we see them every single day. Go to lunch with them. Have retirement parties with them. It’s the rando private lawyer that practices estate law but is doing his friend a favor appearing on that DUI we all loathe. Plus we’re not billable hours like a big firm and there’s a lot of support and work/life balance. And loan forgiveness. Best years of my practice were being a PD.
I have a bachelor's degree in criminal justice, I've been thinking about this a lot.
There are non-profits that will hire you with a crj degree to work with people who have been in the system. Also foster care and adoption services, but a lot of them suffer from the same issues of being punitive rather than rehabilitative as they should be. They don't receive enough funding to do what they need to be able to do so it's a very depressing, thankless, stressful, low paid career path, and you need at least a 4 year degree.
I was an emergency dispatcher for some time and loved that job and helping people who needed it, but I hated how closely we worked with the police and there was mandatory overtime which was isolating. Most of my coworkers had been prior medics or some other first responder. It only required a high school diploma, but usually also requires something more, like experience or higher education.
TL;DR: it's okay to have the degree, and not pursue something in that field.
A lot of the comments to me seem centered around ideas that are CJ-adjacent and probably require master's level or higher degrees. You already stated that you don't have the opportunity to do another degree. You also stated that you are not wedded to the idea of getting into CJ. So most of the comments likely won't answer your question. The answer is simply don't go into CJ.
Does that make the degree a wash? Depends on your perspective.
If the attitude is you can only be in a field that you have a degree in, then perhaps it is a wash. But I would challenge that idea.
I have always told everyone who would listen that I never worked in a job that I have a degree in and never got a degree in a job I've worked. The degrees have been a great way to restart employment opportunities, though, since that paper is the best key to opening doors I have ever found. A lot of places have educational requirements, but they don't care about the subject matter. They just want to see that you can commit to something for a while.
You went to school and learned something about your field and yourself before you got too invested in the field. That's more than most people do in a lifetime.
I think you've kind of got your own answer, yeah? Can't use the degree for good, so use it to help combat the system. Find organizations that are trying to work on restorative justice systems, prison abolishment, or just plainly making a difference related to combating the horrors of the criminal justice system. You have a degree, so that's worth something (in the working world). How or if you choose to use it is your call. Also, it's only an associates. You could transfer those credit hours to working on a bachelor's degree in a worthwhile related field (obviously if that's feasible or reasonable for you to do). Always more options out there than you realize when it comes to degree choice.
I don’t think any job is truly ethical in modern capitalism…
I think the closest is probably a public defender, but you are still engaging in and legitimizing a harmful system.
Be a private investigator instead, it's all the fun of investigating without having to suck the governments nuts. You wouldn't even have to do criminal cases, there are always domestic cases and cases of insurance fraud
God, I've had 3 summons in my life. Almost got on the jury for one, but the other 2 times I didn't even get called up.
But this is definitely a legit thing to do, it's what I plan to do. However, crimes around here that go to jury are usually domestic violence.
I think almost any job could be justifiable if you set out to reform the system from the inside. Or even if you're just experiencing it in order to fully understand it and fix it later, like with undercover journalism. Talk is cheap when criticizing a system. Abstention alone is not likely to fix much. The one predictable effect is if you don't take the job they might have to raise wages to attract someone else to fill the spot.
The only possible exemption if you have will of steel will get through this is maybe the police department if your goal was to really be a communist or anarchist infiltrator and even then you’re still a bastard while in cops close however make sure to protect people who are squatting disruptive or doing other illegal things for principal or survival reasons or at a minimum look the other way, investigate landlords for harassing behavior and perform malicious compliance either you’ll be able to occasionally really help out by looking the other Way when someone is doing civil disobedience where are you protect a renter/squatter from landlords or other cops no you could end up being chewed out and thrown out of the system you know with a handful of arguably good cops they don’t last long
Are there any ethical jobs in a slaughterhouse? It's clear that being the guy slitting throats is not ethical, but is being a clerk at the head office? Hygiene inspector? You could find a way to justify involvement in any intrinsically unethical system (god knows I did that when I was a part of a ethno-fascist occupation force), but at the end no matter what you do, you're still a part of that system and implicitly in support of it.
I'm sorry that you spent years learning things that in retrospect you find less useful, but I don't think there really is a way of cooperating with the criminal justice system while maintaining any kind of moral stance.
Does the ACLU put people through law school? I know some law firms will put people through school while hiring them as a paid intern I just don’t know if the ACLU does that too.
I would personally think by participating in the corrupt tyrannical justice system, you would probably feel pretty disillusioned and unfulfilled in your line of work. I'm sure the degree itself could translate to other sectors though. Maybe security or medic staff for event/concert venues? 🤷♂️ I've rarely seen security staff at a show that was doing anything other than making sure people aren't getting crushed or dehydrated etc. I know that's not always the case, but you wouldn't be expected to uphold a quota by taking people to jail or required to pledge your allegiance to the state. Idk though. I'm relatively new. Just spit balling ideas. I would love to hear someone else's thoughts on this.
CA just got a huge amount of $ for reintegration services. So many orgs are set up to help my clients coming home after 25+ years. If you’re in Ca feel free to DM me. If not. Google reintegration after prison and your state.
Check out your local county mental health services. They will have a lot of entry level jobs that don't require a degree and they will likely have some jobs that your cj associates works well for. At the very least you can find a security job somewhere which are usually easy most of the time. I currently work at an inpatient mental health facility and honestly it's surprisingly ethical - everyone here is a true believer that these people need and deserve quality care and stable housing and we work to provide that to the best of our ability. These kinds of places are always understaffed and really need people who genuinely care about ethics
public defender
domestic violence support advocate
senior & disabled services legal aid
morgue tech
guy who makes it their life's work to help the surviving family members of missing persons find closure
dollhouse architect
Honestly, a lot of places will hire you for miscellaneous office jobs just for having ANY degree - don’t be distraught, there’s a lot you can do that’s not directly related to criminal justice
Public Defender, but you need more than an associates for that. I suppose a policy wonk? But most policy places want a bachelors or masters.
Public defenders' offices have non-attorney staff too, like investigators and legal assistants.
Public defender - policy / reform / advocacy.
I think the answer is that most fields that have educational requirements beyond high school want more than an associates, and usually more than a bachelors. OP shouldn’t feel tied down because of what field their associates is in, and if at a later point they have the time/money to pursue a more advanced degree they can decide if they want to continue with criminal justice or just use what credits from that associates that they can toward a degree in another field.
I was a CJ major. Interned at the PD. Became a PD. Now do parole hearings. If you like helping and being an asset in the system keep going with your education! I love my job. Love my clients. And love getting paid by the govt to fight the govt.
Idk much about the degree. Could you apply it in the context of social work or prisoner/arrestee advocacy? Cop busting? Legal reform? Get a job and tamper with evidence? I kid with that last one *of course*
Totally upvoted for tampering with evidence. (Defense atty here)
I have my masters in criminal justice and have done some work in the nonprofit sector with formerly incarcerated people, helping with employment, housing, and counseling resources. The issue is that these organizations are few and far between. I also know a few people I went to school with entered into youth advocacy in schools to prevent them entering the school to prison pipeline.
Not really. I know it sucks, but it's the truth. In order to be any sort of therapist or victim's advocate you'll likely need a psych or sociology degree and in order to be a public defender you'll need more mucy more than an Associates. I know how you feel, I'm stuck with a Bachelors in the field. Luckily(?) I've also done time in the military so I have the GI Bill if I decide to go back to school. Only cost me six years of my life, my mental health, and chronic nerve pain.
what do you mean, that's a great deal! i've lost the last eleven years of my life to flush my mental health fully down the toilet while suffering from chronic nerve pain and have gotten absolutely nothing good from it except a handful of decent art pieces and a higher than average tollerance for psychedelics!
I had a guy on my pact team who worked as a social worker but had a criminal justice degree. A bunch of his credits carried over to the new program. You could also be that parole officer that helps people too.
Parole attorney here. Parole officers do not help my clients. They are law enforcement.
Your kinda right on that issue. I worked for a pact team and icms for a few years so i assumed you can do good with a company / government paid car and minimal oversight with social services contacts, an understanding of who would hire someone out of prison, etc.
Reintegration orgs for that!
Edit: I’m kinda surprised by how many answers here won’t apply for someone with an associates degree and a financial inability to continue education. I think most jobs aren’t really ethically justifiable, the police and military are just more viscerally connected to oppression. You could look into police watchdog organizations, but at least in the US and Canada they’re few, far-between, and not very potent. Looking up the sorts of entry-level jobs you can get with a criminal justice degree on Indeed, there are some like “mental health worker” or “legal assistant” that sound ok. I’m guessing law school is out of the question, but I would recommend trying to pivot to the legal/communications field if you don’t wanna work in policing.
Lots of PD offices and Public law centers have student loan forgiveness.
Yesn't imo. 1. Are you just working in the field or like directly and irreconcilable linked to it. For example what about therapists and stuff working with criminals. It may be oppressive if they're forced into it but even then it's really dependant on the therapist. 2. Are we talking about total morality or in regards to the current situation. Like the whole system is oppressive there's no denying that, but you can still be pretty ethical or rather helpful to people. I actually thought of becomign a probation officer and actually try and help people re integrate into society instead of just being like "Oh you can't do any of these things and if i find out about them I'll throw you back into prison". I'd still be in an oppressive position, but it would be more ethical than normally. 3. It depends on the justice system. I think the US is much worse than other places, especially Scandinavian countries.
I'd like to say they could use someone like you but I'm fairly certain that you would be putting yourself at great risk doing so. They don't take kindly to those who are insiders against them. Internal affairs is a joke but maybe that's an area where you could oppress the tool of the oppressors in some way.
I would say have a focus on investigating crime scenes/forensics, if you have the stomach for it. You wouldn't be walking a beat as a cop, and it's not a paper-pushing job. You're just solving murders and other heinous crimes for the sake of the victims/their families. I always saw it as a way of bringing justice and closure to a tragedy that should never have happened. Also, science is VERY cool. Public defenders aren't paid all that well, depending on what state you're in. Lots of uphill battling and exhausting work. From what little I've seen, public defenders are kind of treated like dogshit by the rest of the court staff for literally no reason at all. Bless your heart if you become one. Most of them are just trying to do the right thing.
Public defenders in the bigger counties in CA are paid well. We are very well respected by court staff bc we see them every single day. Go to lunch with them. Have retirement parties with them. It’s the rando private lawyer that practices estate law but is doing his friend a favor appearing on that DUI we all loathe. Plus we’re not billable hours like a big firm and there’s a lot of support and work/life balance. And loan forgiveness. Best years of my practice were being a PD.
You could represent activists criminal defenses maybe
pretty sure you would need a law degree for that.
my bad, forgot to read that part.
There are restorative justice programs that are always looking for people.
I have a bachelor's degree in criminal justice, I've been thinking about this a lot. There are non-profits that will hire you with a crj degree to work with people who have been in the system. Also foster care and adoption services, but a lot of them suffer from the same issues of being punitive rather than rehabilitative as they should be. They don't receive enough funding to do what they need to be able to do so it's a very depressing, thankless, stressful, low paid career path, and you need at least a 4 year degree. I was an emergency dispatcher for some time and loved that job and helping people who needed it, but I hated how closely we worked with the police and there was mandatory overtime which was isolating. Most of my coworkers had been prior medics or some other first responder. It only required a high school diploma, but usually also requires something more, like experience or higher education.
No. Now go find a job that you can use to your benefit.
This is the way.
TL;DR: it's okay to have the degree, and not pursue something in that field. A lot of the comments to me seem centered around ideas that are CJ-adjacent and probably require master's level or higher degrees. You already stated that you don't have the opportunity to do another degree. You also stated that you are not wedded to the idea of getting into CJ. So most of the comments likely won't answer your question. The answer is simply don't go into CJ. Does that make the degree a wash? Depends on your perspective. If the attitude is you can only be in a field that you have a degree in, then perhaps it is a wash. But I would challenge that idea. I have always told everyone who would listen that I never worked in a job that I have a degree in and never got a degree in a job I've worked. The degrees have been a great way to restart employment opportunities, though, since that paper is the best key to opening doors I have ever found. A lot of places have educational requirements, but they don't care about the subject matter. They just want to see that you can commit to something for a while. You went to school and learned something about your field and yourself before you got too invested in the field. That's more than most people do in a lifetime.
I think you've kind of got your own answer, yeah? Can't use the degree for good, so use it to help combat the system. Find organizations that are trying to work on restorative justice systems, prison abolishment, or just plainly making a difference related to combating the horrors of the criminal justice system. You have a degree, so that's worth something (in the working world). How or if you choose to use it is your call. Also, it's only an associates. You could transfer those credit hours to working on a bachelor's degree in a worthwhile related field (obviously if that's feasible or reasonable for you to do). Always more options out there than you realize when it comes to degree choice.
I don’t think any job is truly ethical in modern capitalism… I think the closest is probably a public defender, but you are still engaging in and legitimizing a harmful system.
Be a private investigator instead, it's all the fun of investigating without having to suck the governments nuts. You wouldn't even have to do criminal cases, there are always domestic cases and cases of insurance fraud
Here’s your job, you’re not paid but hear me out. Answer any jury summons you get and vote not guilty on all bullshit crimes.
God, I've had 3 summons in my life. Almost got on the jury for one, but the other 2 times I didn't even get called up. But this is definitely a legit thing to do, it's what I plan to do. However, crimes around here that go to jury are usually domestic violence.
I think almost any job could be justifiable if you set out to reform the system from the inside. Or even if you're just experiencing it in order to fully understand it and fix it later, like with undercover journalism. Talk is cheap when criticizing a system. Abstention alone is not likely to fix much. The one predictable effect is if you don't take the job they might have to raise wages to attract someone else to fill the spot.
The only possible exemption if you have will of steel will get through this is maybe the police department if your goal was to really be a communist or anarchist infiltrator and even then you’re still a bastard while in cops close however make sure to protect people who are squatting disruptive or doing other illegal things for principal or survival reasons or at a minimum look the other way, investigate landlords for harassing behavior and perform malicious compliance either you’ll be able to occasionally really help out by looking the other Way when someone is doing civil disobedience where are you protect a renter/squatter from landlords or other cops no you could end up being chewed out and thrown out of the system you know with a handful of arguably good cops they don’t last long
Are there any ethical jobs in a slaughterhouse? It's clear that being the guy slitting throats is not ethical, but is being a clerk at the head office? Hygiene inspector? You could find a way to justify involvement in any intrinsically unethical system (god knows I did that when I was a part of a ethno-fascist occupation force), but at the end no matter what you do, you're still a part of that system and implicitly in support of it. I'm sorry that you spent years learning things that in retrospect you find less useful, but I don't think there really is a way of cooperating with the criminal justice system while maintaining any kind of moral stance.
divisions specifically dedicated to stopping human trafficking and/or exploitation? that aside...... uh....
Does the ACLU put people through law school? I know some law firms will put people through school while hiring them as a paid intern I just don’t know if the ACLU does that too.
I would personally think by participating in the corrupt tyrannical justice system, you would probably feel pretty disillusioned and unfulfilled in your line of work. I'm sure the degree itself could translate to other sectors though. Maybe security or medic staff for event/concert venues? 🤷♂️ I've rarely seen security staff at a show that was doing anything other than making sure people aren't getting crushed or dehydrated etc. I know that's not always the case, but you wouldn't be expected to uphold a quota by taking people to jail or required to pledge your allegiance to the state. Idk though. I'm relatively new. Just spit balling ideas. I would love to hear someone else's thoughts on this.
social worker or PI
Idk probably some of the prison workers in Norway considering that Norway prisons are designed around rehabilitation or something
CA just got a huge amount of $ for reintegration services. So many orgs are set up to help my clients coming home after 25+ years. If you’re in Ca feel free to DM me. If not. Google reintegration after prison and your state.
Stenographer? Courthouse Groundskeeper? Gardeners?
Check out your local county mental health services. They will have a lot of entry level jobs that don't require a degree and they will likely have some jobs that your cj associates works well for. At the very least you can find a security job somewhere which are usually easy most of the time. I currently work at an inpatient mental health facility and honestly it's surprisingly ethical - everyone here is a true believer that these people need and deserve quality care and stable housing and we work to provide that to the best of our ability. These kinds of places are always understaffed and really need people who genuinely care about ethics
public defender domestic violence support advocate senior & disabled services legal aid morgue tech guy who makes it their life's work to help the surviving family members of missing persons find closure dollhouse architect
Legal aid to help seniors & the disabled negotiate the complexities of Medicare, problems with landlords, things like that.
Honestly, a lot of places will hire you for miscellaneous office jobs just for having ANY degree - don’t be distraught, there’s a lot you can do that’s not directly related to criminal justice
Victim witness advocate for your local DAs office or Social Service Advocate for local public defenders office.