Careers in the Private Criminal Justice Industry

Criminal justice is an academic discipline which broadly describes social control as administered by governments and private institutions. More often than not it is the government administered forms of criminal justice which seem to get all the attention with degree program administrators and students pursuing criminal justice studies.

Benefits of obtaining private employment can sometimes surpass those offered by public institutions. Public institutions are governed by acts, statutes, and laws, which strictly regulate how that institution is funded. This means that an administrator in a public criminal justice administration could not hand out a promotion or even a bonus without prior approval from senior administrators and directors.

Private businesses are becoming more and more competitive with public institutions in the criminal justice job markets. Many government salaries now pale in comparison to their private sector counter parts. Your decision to apply for private or public criminal justice jobs should be based on what your ultimate goals are. Some argue that private sector jobs are for the unqualified or the greedy. This could not be further than the truth. Many private sector criminal justice employees chose their professions because they enjoy what they do and they feel rewarded by it. Just because a person makes a lot of money it doesn't mean that they can't feel pride or passion for what they do. Many very high paid members of private criminal justice companies do a lot of good things for the public at large at no cost to the tax payer. It's like safety for free.

Some private criminal justice career options are listed below. Ensure to research educational, licensing, and business operations laws in the appropriate jurisdictions.

Private police officers are fully certified police officers who work for private companies to provide a police service on private property and for various associations. Not every jurisdiction allows private police activities. Officers are generally given commissions which grant them limited police authority. For example, most jurisdictions state that a private police officer only possesses police authority on the property of the client who contracted the police services. This rule, however, does not usually hinder a private police officer's authority to pursue suspected criminals off of private company property. Private police maintain the same certifications as their government employed counterparts and must undergo very similar hiring processes. People with years of law enforcement experience generally enter this field because it allows them to become the chief of their own law enforcement agency practically overnight, assuming all licensing and commission requirements are met. Clients of private police agencies include event coordinators, home owner associations, private schools, malls, etc. Virtually any private entity can purchase their own police services in jurisdictions which allow this practice.

Private security officers are generally more limited in authority than private police officers, but this is not true everywhere. Many jurisdictions seem to slowly be giving their private security guards more and more authority. In some jurisdictions private security officers can issue citations on private property. Security guards work for private companies and institutions to prevent loss, damage, claims, complaints, and criminal activity against or involving the institution. Security guards in some jurisdictions may be authorized to detain violators of certain laws committed in the presence of the security guard and they are able to use varying levels of force to reach compliance. Most security guards are required to attend state approved training which fully outlines state specific rules and regulations.

Private investigators help businesses and individual clients gather evidence of a suspected criminal or ethically questionable wrong doing. Criminal activity is activity which has been declared illegal by the state. Ethically questionable activity is socially unacceptable or generally frowned upon activity like cheating on an intimate partner or violating a company's human resources policies. Investigators can also be hired to augment official investigations at the request of those involved in certain cases. They can work on fresh cases or those that have been cold for years. People skills and surveillance are necessary components of this job. Private investigators may specialize in a certain aspect of the field like infidelity, background, kidnap, or murder investigations. Private investigators may testify in court as to the evidence they gathered and will have to show proof for any professional opinions offered.

Bail enforcement / fugitive recovery agents re-arrest violators of bail bond contracts. Violators of bail bond contracts are those who fail to appear to court at a specified date and time after being released from jail via a surety bond from a private bail company. The bond encompasses contracts between the court, the bond company, the defendant and the co-signer. If a defendant fails to appear in court, the bond company risks forfeiting the price of the bond to the court because the bond company guaranteed the appearance of the defendant in court. Failure to produce the defendant results in payment. Bond companies who can produce the defendant, even after the missed trial date, and get that defendant back in jail so that his or her presence in court can be guaranteed, won't have to pay the cost of the bail bond to the court. Bail enforcement / fugitive recovery agents track down the defendants, arrests them, and transports them back to jail. They are usually paid 10% of the bond amount. If a bail enforcement / fugitive recovery agent is successful in capturing the defendant, the bail company will only have to pay the agent 10% of the bond instead of paying the court 100% of the bond. Think of it this way, a loss of $100,000 to a recovery agent is much better in the long run than a loss of $1,000,000 to a court for a forfeited bond. Both hurt, but recovery professionals help make the loss hurt less. Don't feel too bad, most bondsmen can recover their losses in civil court from the defendant or the co-signer.

Forensic specialists are people who specialize in a particular field of study that has criminal justice benefits and act of experts when representing their field of study in a criminal or civil case. Some private investigators may also be forensic specialists. Forensic specializations may include forensic accounting, forensic lock smithing, forensic handwriting analysis, forensic arson investigations, forensic psychology, forensic accident reconstruction, or forensic computer investigations. Forensic specialists are experts in their field who are able to notice variations to normal happenings and testify to that effect. For example, a forensic lock smith may be able to testify to what was used to damage a security system, but not to who actually damaged it. It is the job of the prosecutor to connect the testimony of the forensic specialist to a belief beyond a reasonable doubt that it had to be the defendant who committed the crime. A forensic blood splatter expert may testify that a murderer was left handed based on the angle of blood splatter on a wall. A forensic expert will usually remain blind to facts gathered through police interviews and contact with the suspect. Forensic experts will usually not have any intentional contact with a defendant. This is done to keep specialists impartial doing their investigations. The blood splatter expert who testifies to a left hand killer may not realize that the defendant is also left handed. These are facts the prosecutor must display for the jury. This evidence can very often times be circumstantial, but it helps juries make their decisions. Forensic document examiners can testify to the same person signing two different documents, but can't be sure of whom exactly that person is.

Technological security specialists are computer and technology security professionals. These men and women help prevent the abuse of technology to perpetrate a crime and maintain security systems within computer data networks that keep hackers and identity thieves out. These people make it safe to check your bank account and pay your bills online.

Process servers track down the targets of legal proceedings and deliver official court documents requesting their presence in court. Many subjects of a process server's work may intentionally try to deceive and trick the process server by claiming to know the guy he's looking for or pretending to be someone else entirely. This is a job that requires quite a bit of creativity in getting people to admit that they are who they say they are. Nobody likes getting notice that they're being sued.

Instructors and teachers at various institutions with experience in private industry criminal justice may decide that they would like to teach online and develop the next generation of private criminal justice professionals. Online institutions offer eligible applicants the opportunity to teach a college level course in their underwear.

Loss prevention officers work for private retail companies and monitor customer activities to prevent theft or fraud. These guys catch hundreds of thousands of shoplifters every year. They are responsible for keeping losses down by monitoring customer activity via close circuit television surveillance from the sky and plain clothed operations on the floor. Some loss prevention officers receive commissions based on the value of the returned property while others do not.

Insurance investigators work for money to prevent and investigate suspicions of fraudulent claim filing. These investigators may spend days following the same person to establish whether or not that person is lying about an injury. For example, a person claiming lower back pain may be caught on tape by an insurance investigator break dancing in a night club. This will be enough for the insurance company to refute the claim and hopefully collect some compensation from the fraudster.

Hopefully this has exposed interested parties to the private aspects of the criminal justice system. As you can see, career options exist outside of the realm of civil service. Each example given above is a spoke of the criminal justice wheel, but the list is by no means all inclusive. Various opportunities not explained here exist in private criminal justice. People thinking about joining the criminal justice field should really research their private industry options before deciding on a career path.

Sources:

Private Detectives and Investigators. Occupational Outlook Handbook. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Security Guards and Gaming Surveillance Officers. Occupational Outlook Handbook. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Insurance. Occupational Outlook Handbook. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.