My Reason for Returning To School When I returned to school, I knew I wanted to become a law enforcement officer. Ever since, my cousin Rona Lisa was the victim of a domestic violence relationship during her marriage to a very jealous man. She could not walk down the street and speak to any other man without him thinking that she wanted to be with them. Life was hard enough, but after they had a daughter it seem to get worst for Rona. The abuse had gotten so bad that she had to be hospitalized from a beating that left her covered in bruises. Finally she have had enough and decided to leave. But it was not easy at all for Rona. Her husband Robert could not let go. He had stalked her for months. Seeing her run from this man and could not get help from any law enforcement agencies, she hid herself and her children in different places. When he found her, he threatens her to come home or he would hurt anyone that would help her. So she went back to him to keep him from messing with her family and friends that provided her help and a place to stay. Even when the police was called out, they stated they could not do anything because she would not press charges because of him threatening her. They told her she would have to say what he was doing for them to help her. Until then he was not breaking any laws. She was told, she would have to come down to file for a restraining order. They seen she had bruises on her, but they did not take that into account. Because of too many woman came down to file a report and later when it was time to go to court, they would have drop the charges. Now today when the police is called out on a domestic violence, someone will be leaving the house and if there are signs of someone was hit, they will take the aggressive one in. And once the charges are filed, the victim can’t drop the charges. So even thru the laws have change some since then, there are still too many woman and children nationwide that are without any help. That is my reason for returning to school. I want to be able to make a different and be able to help those in need. There have always been some programs in place that will help, but for some reason the victims are not using them. I would like to first find why they are not using them and then show them that it is okay for them to seek help and use the programs that are in place for them. If we can show them that there are people who care, maybe they will help themselves. Just maybe they just need a push or someone to talk to or listen. I want to be that person and punish those who hurt other people when they feel like it. When I can get my degree in criminal justice, I will get to help abused woman and children and also be able to help change or make new laws that will keep our woman safe from abuse. Philadelphia and other cities around our nation most put better laws of protection and tougher laws against violence. I know we have some laws in place, but we need to take a new look at them. There is some reason why we have so many repeat offenders. Maybe we need longer prison sentences or instead of the third strike law, just make it when you commit this crime; you will pay to the full extent of the law and add a large fine to it. If I was the one who can change one of the laws. There will not be any early release for good behavior. They would have to serve their whole sentence. And I would make it mandatory for the victim to go thru treatment for a period of time. And maybe we can just break the cycle of abuse. Until the cycle is broken, our children and their children will not have the peace they deserve. We took the power from the police commissioner and all the police officers, but now if we give them back the power to do what they was swore to do. Then maybe we can all work together to end the abuse to help our woman and children of abuse. And that is why this degree is important to me and becoming successful in this field. I want to be able to make a huge impact in the world today. Helping people who can’t help themselves of too scared to help themselves is the my whole reason why I am returning to school.