The Routledge Guide to Working in Criminal Justice

Employability skills and careers in the Criminal Justice sector

Ester Ragonese, Anne Rees, Jo Ives, Terry Dray

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781135092764
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Criminology
• Index: Social Sciences

Every year thousands of people compete for employment in the UK. Employability and the ability to demonstrate the skills, attributes and behaviours required in a full-time job have become integral to securing employment and developing a career. This book aims to offer a one-stop guide to becoming employable and to careers in the Criminal Justice Sector and beyond, exploring the key organizations and employers in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, explaining how they operate and detailing how they are changing.Written in an engaging and accessible style by four experts on employability and the Criminal Justice Sector, this book combines useful hints on becoming employable with helpful insights from those working in specific sectors. The book covers careers in:

• probation,
• the police,
• prisons,
• the courts, prosecution services and advocacy,
• youth justice.

Packed with hints and tips, advice from current students, useful web links and lists of recommended reading, this book provides a clear guide to the career decision-making and transition processes and covers the essential elements required to making the first step towards securing a job in the above sectors. It will be essential reading for those who want to forge a successful career in any area of the Criminal Justice Sector.

chapter 1

Introduction to the book

Chapter objectives

By the end of this chapter you should be able to:

■ understand the purpose of the book and who it is written for;

■ understand the format and layout of the book;

■ understand how to get the most out of the book for your needs as the reader.

By selecting this book you have taken a very positive step to finding out about how to get into a successful career in Criminal Justice.

This book has been especially written to help students like you in both Higher and Further Education, who may be journeying through education for the first time, or returners to education wanting to change your career direction. The aim is the same, to help you find your own personal route into a fulfilling career in Criminal Justice. Many of you may already know the type of jobs that you want to do, some of you may still be considering what your options are and we hope this book will also help those who have yet to make up their minds and are looking for rewarding and fulfilling graduate employment but have not yet decided where this may be found.

Gaining graduate employment in any sector can seem quite a daunting prospect today, the once tried and tested routes via college, university or direct training programmes have become more varied and far less certain than 10 or 20 years ago.

Reflection point

Think about these definitions:

A widely accepted definition of employability is a set of achievements – skills, understandings and personal attributes – that make graduates more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations, which benefits themselves, the workforce, the community and the economy.

(ESECT – Enhancing Student Employability Coordination Team, based on Yorke 2006)

Employability is not just about getting a job. Conversely, just because a student is on a vocational course does not mean that somehow employability is automatic. Employability is more than about developing attributes, techniques or experience just to enable a student to get a job, or to progress within a current career. It is about learning and the emphasis is less on ‘employ’ and more on ‘ability’. In essence, the emphasis is on developing critical, reflective abilities, with a view to empowering and enhancing the learner.

(Harvey 2003)

The type of graduate work on offer and the expectations of employers are not always obvious to new graduates, and this is coupled with what appear to be complicated recruitment and selection processes used by many large employers in both the public and private sector to sift through the growing numbers of applicants, which often adds to the fog. It is hardly surprising many graduates consider finding a graduate job similar to finding your way through a maze, with many false starts and barriers that seem to prevent you from reaching your ultimate goal – a graduate job.

This prospect should not deter you from seeking the career you want in Criminal Justice. Yes, the world of work is changing in many ways, in every sector and Criminal Justice is no different in this respect and this is likely to continue. It is one of those facts of life that can often make it seem confusing at first glance but the thing to remember is that you can succeed; the roles on offer are many and varied, providing both challenging and fulfilling careers.

You have taken the first step to finding all the information you may need to make your choices and this book will give you some ideas, suggestions and tips on where else you may want to seek further information. Additionally plenty of careers advice and guidance is also available, from both formal and informal sources, at colleges, universities and online, as well as by talking to staff and individuals who work in the sector.

Action point

Take the time to seek out these opportunities and use the information to make a clear plan for yourself and ensure you are as well informed as you can be to navigate the route you want to take.

This book has been written to try to de-mystify some of the information to help you make your choices and to provide some practical guidance that you may need to find your route to graduate employment. It will provide you with some clear hints and tips on how to overcome some of the barriers you may find in your way and how to get ahead of some of the competition by making sure you understand what employers are looking for, and how you can best demonstrate you meet these demands.

It may help at this point to be clear about what we mean when we talk about the Criminal Justice sector as a potential employer, as it’s a very broad and encompassing title. So to be clear from the start, this book will look at the key agencies and organisations that are fundamental in the UK Criminal Justice System, covering over 400,000 jobs. These core agencies are the Police, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Courts, the National Offender Management Service (including both prisons and probation services) and the Youth Justice Board. Additionally some services are run and managed by a number of voluntary groups e.g. Victim Support and National Association for the Resettlement of Offenders (NACRO). These agencies collectively work together to provide Criminal Justice, i.e. where crimes and criminals are detected, detained, tried and punished, at both a national and local level.

At a government level, the work of these agencies is the joint responsibly of three departments, and these set out and oversee our national policy. The Ministry of Justice oversees the magistrates’ courts, the Crown Court, the Appeal Courts, the Legal Services Commission and the National Offender Management Service, which is responsible for both prisons and probation services. The Home Office has the responsibility for the Police, and the Attorney General’s Office oversees The Crown Prosecution Service, the Serious Fraud Office and the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office. This book will detail how the Criminal Justice sector in the UK is organised and managed in much more detail and some of the key issues likely to impact on its operation in the future, which may have some fundamental changes to the way the sector is run and what jobs and roles will be open for graduates in the future.

If you are serious about a career in Criminal Justice, then having a clear and comprehensive understanding of how the sector operates, who are the main employers and what types of jobs are available are some of the key pieces of information that will give you a significant advantage, and ensure you seek out the jobs that best suit your particular interests, skills and ambitions. First, selecting an appropriate course of further study, if you have not already done this, but also seeking suitable work experience opportunities to develop your skills and add to a greater understanding and knowledge of the sector, will assist your recruitment, application and selection process. This book has been specially written to help you in all these areas giving you a clear introduction and insight to the sector, the employers and what they want and expect from new graduates.

The book has been researched, written and compiled by four professionals who bring many years of practical, personal and academic experience from the Criminal Justice, Higher Education and Careers sectors. Together these individuals have brought unique insight into the changing world of Criminal Justice and linked this with the sector specific and more generic employability skills required by graduate employers today and highlighted the tools and techniques needed for you to transition successfully into the sector.

You will find detailed information on key employers and organisations operating in the sector, their vision and mission as well as their size and scale. The book will outline clearly the range of roles and careers available in them as well as the skills, knowledge and competencies that will be required to successfully undertake these jobs. It will give you up to date information on how to apply and what the recruitment process will involve as well.

The book is intended to be a very realistic guide on what is happening in relation to jobs and employment in the sector and how you can access these opportunities. It will offer you practical advice from individuals who know the sector well and who work closely with employers to identify the changing needs of the sector and how employers are looking to recruit to meet their demands. It will also give you some idea of what these jobs are like on a day-to-day basis and what you would be expected to do in a typical day’s work, highlighting what skills and personal attributes are likely to be needed to work in these roles and undertake the challenging responsibilities.

You will also find some case studies from students currently studying Criminal Justice and related studies, who give their personal views and reflections on what to consider when you are thinking about what course to study and how to choose the course that suits you best and, perhaps most importantly, hints on how to optimise your studies and make the most of your time while on your programme of study.

Your inside knowledge and information about the Criminal Justice organisations, employers and the nature of the jobs is only part of your career planning picture; to be successful you will also need to understand yourself and why you want to work in this sector, for these organisations and with these clients. It’s worth remembering here that getting a job is a two way process, it may well be about demonstrating your knowledge, skills and abilities to successfully undertake the role but it is also about how you will ‘fit in’ within an organisation and its culture.

Reflection point

Working in Criminal Justice can be a very rewarding personal and professional career, but it will also bring many challenges and have you really thought about this aspect? What is your motivation for wanting to work in this area, can you explain this? What do you think you can achieve in this type of work and is this realistic? If these are questions that you currently cannot answer, then you will find this book can help you think and reflect on your career path.

You may be thinking these are questions that you don’t need to answer yet if you are just starting on your career planning, and you won’t need to articulate the answers until you fill in an application form or go to an interview. You will need to be able to do this later in your journey but you do need to seriously think about these now and this book can help as these are fundamental to your career goals and direction. If you are unsure about why you want to work in this area or with these agencies, other than it sounds like a good career option or you have seen the work on TV, then take some m...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Content
• List of illustrations
• About the authors
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• 1 Introduction to the book
• 2 Introduction to the Criminal Justice System
• 3 Routes into Criminal Justice careers
• 4 Becoming employable
• 5 Working in probation
• 6 Working in the Police
• 7 Working in prisons
• 8 Working in the Courts, Prosecution Services and advocacy
• 9 Working in youth justice
• 10 Alternative options: Pursuing other careers in Criminal Justice
• 11 Final thoughts: Moving forward and developing a successful career
• Index