Research / Intelligence Gathering
While many students do not relate research and statistics to criminal justice, they actually go hand and hand. Many of the programs and policies instituted by criminal justice professionals are evidence-based and all programs and policies should be evaluated while operational.
There are research/intelligence gathering positions at all levels of the criminal justice field. The National Institute of Justice is the research arm of the Department of Justice. As another example at the federal level, the FBI has analyst positions in which individuals research and analyze information to produce intelligence reports for open cases. The FBI also collects and analyzes nationwide data to produce the Uniform Crime Reports and the related UCR Index.
State, County, and local agencies also have a number of research positions that can be searched for on their individual agency websites. For example, analysts in the Dallas Police Department Fusion Center work much like analysts in the FBI. If you are interested in analyst positions, you may want to check out the following websites:
- International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts
- International Association for Crime Analysts
There are also a number of funding agencies which provide support for both governmental and non-governmental criminal justice related agencies and organizations. Many non-profit victim service organizations run solely on grants and donations. Universities also look for individuals trained and successful in obtaining grants to work in their research services offices. There are usually grantwriting classes you can take while completing your degree and also public grantwriting seminars/workshops you can attend. Grants can also help individuals with their research including graduate students working on research projects for their theses and dissertations.
All in all, research and obtaining funding to conduct research or provide services related to criminal justice is an important area of our field and one that should not be overlooked.