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Book Smarts or Street Smarts

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BOOK SMARTS OR STREET SMARTS THE ON GOING DEBATE TODAY AMONG CORRECTION OFFICERS

REBECCA KIRBY
PROFESSOR STEPHEN N. KNIGHTS, JR.
OCTOBER 18, 2014

INTRODUCTION

This paper will be discussing the debate on whether or not higher education in law enforcement officers should be mandatory and the effect it can have in the correctional facilities. It will also have insight from a local police officer on the education debate. As of today, only two states, Minnesota and Wisconsin require a police officer to obtain at least an associate’s degree. Other states carry a much lower standard, only asking for a high-school diploma or a GED to satisfy their requirements. It is often said that the criminal justice system and corrections are a booming business. Over the past two decades, the need for staff has increased and the need for education has also increased. But is it street smarts you need or is it book smarts?
TOPIC: WORK ETHICS
As a correctional officer there are many things that go into what they do. They have to be professional, understanding, logical, compassionate, intelligent, and reasonable. A correctional officer has many jobs while on duty and the police department asks a lot of them. Determining if an officer needs to have a college education is difficult. Debate on this controversy has led to the study of work ethics surrounding officers who do have some sort of formal education. This research dates back to the 1930s by August Vollmer and later by presidential commissions in the 1960s and 1970s and was designed to show correlation between habits at work and a higher level of education (Bostrom, M). According to these studies, there was a significant amount of professionalism shown in those that pursued a higher education over the officers that did not. On top of statistics proving that correctional officers with college experience

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