Punitive legal systems, though not completely ineffective, do not necessarily align with the stated goals of criminal justice. 

Sticking someone in a jail cell may relieve the immediate threat they pose to a community, but it doesn’t help prepare them for a productive life as a citizen. 

Modern criminal justice systems often prioritize approaches that reflect the severity of the offense while still preparing the individual for life beyond bars.

In this article, we take a look at careers that specifically allow you to focus on the restorative aspect of criminal justice.

Careers You Can Pursue with a Criminal Justice Degree

Naturally, if you want a career in criminal justice, your most logical starting place will be a criminal justice degree. Here are a few common jobs that you will be qualified for after following this educational path:

• Probation and Parole Officer: Probation and parole officers help recently released prisoners comply with the conditions of their parole. This will often involve ensuring that they are abstaining from drugs and alcohol, avoiding known criminals, and seeking lawful employment. The idea is essentially to improve the odds that a person released from jail will take the steps required to minimize their risk of re-offending. While this is not typically a complete replacement of punitive criminal justice, it does at least emphasize the restorative component.
• Rehabilitation Counselor: Rehabilitation counselors focus on mental health conditions, including addiction, that could cause someone to re-offend. In addition to dealing with mental health considerations, they will also often help people on their caseload find vocational training appropriate to their skill set.
• Restorative Justice Coordinator: Restorative justice initiatives are rising in prominence across the United States. They focus on developing consequences for crimes that are centered specifically on improving the circumstances for both the person who committed the offense and the people who are most impacted by it. Restorative justice coordinators work to help strike this balance.
• Social Worker with a Focus on Criminal Justice: People at various stages of the criminal justice system will work with social workers to help them navigate the social service aspect of their situation.

These jobs can make an enormous difference in the lives of people impacted by them. Possibly of more importance, they make wider communities safer and more productive by helping create more law-abiding citizens.

Careers You Can Pursue with an Online Juris Doctor Degree

If you’re interested in becoming a lawyer by way of an online Juris Doctor degree, there are several career paths you can pursue that will help contribute toward the larger goal of rehabilitative criminal justice.

For example, you could take the path of a public defender. Public defenders, as you may know, take on the cases of people who have been accused of a crime but cannot afford their own private lawyer. Their specific job is not necessarily designed around rehabilitative justice, but they can advocate for restorative solutions on behalf of their clients.

Similarly, legal aid attorneys are able to support marginalized populations and provide affordable legal guidance. 

People with law degrees also often work as political or policy analysts, developing solutions that are more aligned with a restorative justice angle.

There are also mediation and conflict resolution specialists, nonprofit attorneys, advocacy attorneys, and so on. 

The fact of the matter is that there are literally dozens of different jobs you can do with a law degree, and because so many of them relate to criminal justice, your ability to focus on restorative policy is limited almost exclusively by your imagination.

It’s also worth keeping in mind that you don’t even need to be on the defense side of criminal justice to contribute toward a more restorative system.

Prosecutors can play a possibly even more impactful role in shaping the way people are punished for crimes. 

You do not necessarily need a job that is specifically optimized around rehabilitation. Simply by being an attorney on either side of the aisle who cares deeply about restorative justice, you can help improve the system just by doing your job.

Limitations

It’s important to know going in that because our criminal justice system is not entirely—or even largely—focused on restorative or rehabilitative justice, there will be limits to what sort of initial impact you can make. Though frustrating, this is an inevitability, an inevitable part of working within the legal system.

Criminal law in the United States is focused primarily on punishment over rehabilitation. Every career focused on the law will need to navigate that reality. 

That means, for example, that if you’re a prosecutor or defense attorney entering the practice with an emphasis on rehabilitation, you’ll inevitably see and even do things that are very misaligned with your worldview. This can be wearing over time.

Just remember that the very fact that you’re in the arena advocating for what you believe in is making a difference. 

While progress toward your goals will not always be linear, it will help to go in believing that you’re making a difference just by virtue of who you are as a lawyer.

Conclusion

Adding more restorative or rehabilitative practices to the world of criminal justice can make an enormous difference in the lives of people experiencing the system. And with the increasing accessibility of online law degrees, a career as a lawyer has never been more accessible.

If you are interested in changing criminal justice in your community, enroll in an online program today. Virtual degrees are every bit as valid and useful as their traditional counterparts. They can be completed in the same two-to-three-year timeline, often at a more affordable price than you would find in a traditional program. Maybe more to the point, they are also often a little bit more flexible in their format.

There has never been a better time to consider a career as a lawyer.