Career Path Investigation: Exploring Criminal Justice Professions

This assignment is a comprehensive investigation into career paths within the criminal justice system. The student analyzes the roles of law enforcement, courts, and corrections, emphasizing the importance of technology, communication, and ethics in each branch. The project explores the historical aspects of law enforcement, the operational dynamics of the three branches, and the impact of emerging technologies on practitioners. It also examines the application of criminal and constitutional law, alongside ethical and professional standards, to common criminal justice situations. The student reflects on their findings to identify a suitable career path, specifically considering the role of a police officer, highlighting the alignment of personal skills and interests with the demands of the profession. The project references relevant court cases and academic literature to support its analysis.

Running head: CAREER PATH INVESTIGATION
Career Path Investigation
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
1. Understanding the Importance of Technology in the Practice of Criminal Justice..................2
2. Understanding the Importance of Communication in the Practice of Criminal Justice...........3
3. Understanding the Importance of Ethics in Criminal Justice Professions...............................4
Reflection.........................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
The career path that is taken by an individual is the path that he is best suited for, a path
where he can showcase his potential and abilities and be recognized for the work that he does, a
path that will not only help him to earn a living but also receive fame and acknowledgement for
the contribution that he makes to his specific field or profession. In this assignment, I will outline
my understanding and analysis of career path in the domain of criminal justice with reference to
a number of important milestones.
1. Identification of the impacts of historical aspects of law enforcement,
courts, and corrections on shaping the current role of the criminal
justice practitioner
The system of criminal justice operates in a unique way with one activity relying largely on
the outcome associated with another activity. There are three branches of criminal justice, the
law enforcement branch, the court branch and the correction branch. All three branches engage
in limited interactions with one another but complement each other’s operations (Roth, 2010).
Evidence is received from the law enforcement branch by the court branch and once the suspects
have been aligned before the court, the correction branch oversees the task of making sure that
the convicts carry out their sentences (Neubauer & Fradella, 2015).

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2. Description of how the three branches of criminal justice operate as a
cohesive system by analyzing their collaboration and communication
practices
Police Officers conduct legal searches if it is legitimate for them to do so. They can conduct
searches with or without a warrant depending on the type of judgment handed down by a court of
law. Probation officers can conduct searches without a warrant if a court deems this to be alright,
and prison guards can conduct searches on prisoners at any given point of time. This is largely
due to the fact that prisoners are stripped of the rights that citizens are entitled to, differentiating
the searches conducted by prisoner officers with those carried out by police officers and
probationary officers. Interagency collaboration takes place when investigations are carried out
for the assurance of public good. Police officers and probation officers can collaborate on child
custody cases for examples, or cases that require protection of children (Falla, 2017).
In order to understand who it is that criminals are communicating with over the phone or who
is visiting them in their jail cells, police officers have to acquire official statements for the
department of justice, explaining how the provision of such information can assist with
investigating other related cases and explaining also the reasons for suspicion. For this purpose
police officers have to communicate and collaborate with prison guards and the heads of
correctional facilities who can give them access to such information (Duwe, 2017).
Forming and conducting the pre-sentence report is the job of the probationary officer who
also includes his recommendations upon analysis of the crime and on the basis of findings of a
case, with this report then being shared among the correctional facility, the court and the agency
(Hsieh et al., 2017)

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With reference to the court case of Estelle versus Gamble, collaboration and cooperation
among practitioners of criminal justice could be easily identified. The case was on the issue of
healthcare provision for prisoners with the defendants in this case being prison guards but it was
a case that required contribution from other members of criminal justice departments in
determining whether the need for healthcare was crucial for prisoners or not, with the court
ultimately deciding that healthcare facilities would be made available to prisoners in any case
(Conway, 2009).
The career path in this instance that is suitable for me with regard to communication and
collaboration is the career of a police officer. It overlaps well with other branches of criminal
justice, protects citizens sufficiently from crime while assisting in the scrutinization of criminals
at the same time.
3. Illustration of how the use of emerging technology impacts the
performance of the criminal justice practitioner
The profession of a criminal justice practitioner demands familiarity with and
adeptness at using many different forms of technology. A police officer for instance needs to be
familiar with the technology that helps in analyzing foot prints and finger prints as such analysis
can go a long way in unmasking and unraveling suspects in a criminal case. The correct use of
technology can reveal the approximate size as well as number of criminals involved in a crime,
in addition to the path that is taken by the criminal to achieve his end (Yang & Wen, 2017). With
respect to the scenario given, shoe prints can be examined using digital technology by first being
photographed and then being placed like fingerprints which are then logged. In a crime scene,
blood should also be sampled and examined with care. The blood sample needs to properly

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documented and once it makes its way to the police station, it can be placed under a DNA
sequencer for analysis. Finally, handprint and hammer can be examined by fingerprint officers
for the identification of suspects using fingerprint traces that could have remained behind on the
hammer (White & McQuilkin, 2011).
A prison guard needs to ask all visitors for proper identification when they come to visit
anyone in the jail cell. Registration forms have to be filled out and identification documents need
to be provided for verification, after which the people who are about to enter the prison have to
go through a metal detector or be subjected to examination by a wand (Rocha, Scheirer, Boult, &
Goldenstein, 2011).
A probationary officer needs to engage in the use of electronic monitoring devices in
order to carry out the real time monitoring of movements of people who are placed under house
arrest or any other types of release arrangements.
With regard to the court case of United States versus Jones, a discussion arose as to
whether the court should mandate the use of GPS technology for tracking movements of people
without producing court warrants as stipulated under the Fourth Amendment of the American
Constitution. The FBI then went ahead with installing a tracking device to the car used by Jones
and the latter was later on produced in court and charged with dealing in cocaine (Recupero &
Felthous, 2018). This move on the part of the FBI was considered by the court to be in violation
of rights contained under the Fourth Amendment, making this case similar to other cases such as
United States versus Katz or Maynard versus United States where the same precedent was
used by the US court to pass judgment (Messmer, 2013). Finally, with respect to the career path
investigation, it is found that digital forensics is a domain that utilizes complex and advanced

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tools that enables compelling evidence to be produced, that can be difficult to question and
which makes the tracking of criminal activities far more thorough than what it used to be before
(Garfinkel, 2013).
4. Application of basic principles of criminal and constitutional law to
common criminal justice situations in a way that adheres to ethical and
professional standards
Ethics forms a crucial feature of the duties and responsibilities that are performed by criminal
justice practitioners be they police officers, prison guards, probation officers or legal
professionals. All criminal justice professionals are expected to be ethical and just when
rendering their duties as it is their job to uphold law and order in society and enforce law and
order in the manner that is desired (Strang & Braithwaite, 2017). The average citizen is a person
who looks up to criminal justice professionals as people who are entrusted with ensuring that
justice is delivered at the right time and place and to the right person. It is therefore highly
imperative that criminal justice professionals, be they police officers or lawyers or prison guards
or probation officers are all seen to have a high sense of duty, ethics and morality when they
engage in the discharge of their functions and their duties as they have moral and social
obligations to fulfill. The protection of people in society is something that rests in the hands and
in the abilities of criminal justice professionals and such duty can be fulfilled on their part by
staying on the path of ethics and morality rather than corruption (Pound, 2018).

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5. Differentiating between the roles of practitioners in each of the three
branches of the criminal justice system for making informed career
path decisions
Although the members of the different branches of criminal justice complement each other’s
operations, there is great difference in the manner in which they operate as well. Police officers,
prison guards and probationary officers need to be aggressive and assertive physically in
the performance of their duties while court professionals and lawyers need to be
intellectually astute and intellectually assertive to get their jobs done. Donning the cap of a
criminal justice professional would certainly be a good thing for me to do. I would like to
perform the role of a police officer as I am assertive in my communication and highly dedicated
to my personal goals and objectives. I feel I would be the right fit for a police officer as I can talk
and behave like one, protecting those who need protection while roughing up those who need to
be taken in hand. I am also familiar with the use of technology that is necessary for the imparting
of justice, such as the use of finger print technology, which I believe is something that will come
to my aid when discharging duties and responsibilities as a police officer. Finally, collaborating
with all sections of criminal justice, such as prison officers, probation officers and legal
professionals is something that I can definitely do well enough, given that I have good
communication skills and am cooperative and helpful by nature as well.

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References
Conway, C. A. (2009). A Right to Access to Medical and Mental Health Care for the
Incarcerated. [online]. Retrieved from:
https://www.law.uh.edu/healthlaw/perspectives/2009/(CC)%20Prison%20Health.pdf. [Last
Accessed: 18th May 2019]
Duwe, G. (2017). The Use and Impact of Correctional Programming for Inmates on Pre- and
Post-Release Outcomes. National Institute of Justice: U.S. Department of Justice.
Falla, K. (2017). Criminal Justice System: The Critical Elements. Southern New Hampshire
University.
Hsieh, M. L., Hafoca, M., Woo, Y. and Wormer, J. (2015). Probation Officer Roles: A Statutory
Analysis. Federal Probation. Vol 79(3).
Neubauer, W., & Fradella, H. (2015). America's Courts and the Criminal Justice System. Boston,
MA: Cengage Learning.
Banks, C., 2018. Criminal justice ethics: Theory and practice. Sage Publications.
Pakes, F. (2019). Comparative criminal justice. Routledge.
Pound, R. (2018). Criminal justice in America. Routledge.
Roth, M. (2010). Crime and Punishment: A History of the Criminal Justice System
Strang, H. and Braithwaite, J., 2017. Restorative justice: Philosophy to practice. Routledge.

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