Are you considering advancing your criminal justice career by earning a master’s degree? If so, a Master of Business Administration (MBA) may not be the first degree that comes to mind. However, the business and leadership skills MBA students develop can be very beneficial for law enforcement professionals, and the credentials earned can certainly aid in accelerating your career.
Logically, business administration education can best serve law enforcement professionals when integrated with the advanced examination of criminal justice topics. Lamar University’s online MBA in Criminal Justice Management program offers this unique blend of graduate-level education. This specialized program of study is designed to prepare both aspiring and working law enforcement professionals to be effective in criminal justice leadership roles.
What Essential Skills and Knowledge Are Needed for Criminal Justice Professionals?
Criminal justice fields are complex in nature, combining criminology, law enforcement practices and psychology with legal and societal issues. The dynamic nature of modern law enforcement is further complicated by current events, social movements and calls for criminal justice reform.
Given this, law enforcement professionals need practical yet advanced knowledge of topics like the criminal justice system, crime prevention and control, law and punishment. Still, these professionals also need to grasp the underpinnings of the psychological and sociological theories that inform effective criminal justice policy and practices. Staying current with legal issues and trends that impact contemporary law enforcement is also essential.
Lamar University’s specialized criminal justice courses cover these topics and others at length. This comprehensive study gives students the necessary practical and theoretical competencies to be effective law enforcement professionals in today’s nuanced and rapidly changing criminal justice fields.
How Can Business Management Studies Benefit Criminal Justice Professionals?
MBA studies focus on business subjects, managerial practices and transferable skills that graduates can apply in any organizational management context. A law enforcement agency is simply a specialized organization, as is any business. In this, transferable “business” skills are as applicable to criminal justice management as they are to private-sector business management.
Strong law enforcement relies on excellent leadership and managerial decision-making. Developing skills in these areas is the central emphasis of MBA studies. Students examine topics like organizational behavior, communication, strategic management and data-driven decision-making — all of which are integral to effective law enforcement leadership.
Law enforcement organizations must also meet strict budgets, comply with regulations, foster positive public relations and maintain the privacy and security of organizational data. Again, this requires advanced business management competencies in finance, accounting, budgeting, resource allocation, information systems management and even marketing. With advanced skills in organizational management, law enforcement leadership can improve an agency’s financial health, operational efficiency and data security.
Effective external communication and out-facing messaging can help foster positive relationships and collaboration with community stakeholders, including community members, local agencies, city department heads, politicians, businesses, schools and others. These relationships form the basis of positive, publicly supported law enforcement that builds stronger, safer and more harmonious communities.
Other important areas of transferable business know-how are staff management, professional development and organizational change. MBA studies help students learn how to engage, retain, train and develop their workforce, managing change when needed. This can help foster a culture of continuous growth and improvement.
Creating a healthy internal culture is essential for improving law enforcement practices and staff cohesion as well as affecting positive policy change and reform. Focusing on consistent improvement and training also facilitates continuity when officers are promoted to various leadership positions. Effective law enforcement leaders act as administrators, managers and, importantly, mentors to those they lead.
How Can an MBA Advance Criminal Justice Careers?
Clearly, the integrated study of business management and criminal justice is geared towards preparing law enforcement professionals for leadership roles. Earning this degree demonstrates dedication to professional development, managerial skill acquisition and commitment to improving the impact a law enforcement organization can have.
Law enforcement agency leaders recognize the benefit of a committed and highly educated workforce. Increasingly, law enforcement agencies incentivize advanced education through promotion opportunities and salary increases. In fact, those with an MBA in criminal justice management have optimal training for high-level management and administrative positions. Of course, certain locales and agencies require specified levels of advanced education for top-level administrative positions, but pay structures often reflect education, too.
Considering all of this, earning an MBA in criminal justice management can improve a law enforcement professional’s career versatility, advancement opportunities and earning potential. Plus, students gain skills that can help them improve law enforcement agencies from the inside, in turn benefiting the communities they serve.
Learn more about Lamar University’s online MBA in Criminal Justice Management program.
Sources:
MBA.com
How the Police Service Leverages MBAs
The MBA Is Not Just for Stockbrokers and Bankers
What Skills Can I Get from an MBA
Police Chief Magazine: Great Leadership Drives High Performance
International Association of Chiefs of Police: Succession Planning and Staff Development
