Sheridan and Rainville use their extensive experience (over 30 years each) to write an exceptional work on careers within criminal justice. Five chapters provide invaluable information on choosing a career in federal, state, or local law enforcement, corrections, or courts. Three additional chapters cover getting the job, maintaining professional ethics, and life after one's career ends. The chapter on law enforcement, for example, has subsections on job postings, applications and portfolios, education, job references, interviewing, test taking, academy training, job benefits, multiculturalism on the job, and other useful information. Sixteen appendixes cover a multitude of topics, including successful job hunting, a guide to interview questions, criminal justice ethics, a document portfolio checklist, and paying for college. One appendix even offers profiles of 16 career employees—actual people holding jobs in criminal justice fields as diverse as parole officer or correctional architect. Notes, bibliography, recommended readings, and two indexes provide additional orientation to readers. An excellent source for students, faculty, and advisors, this volume offers much more than comparable works that deal merely with getting a job. Instead, the authors tell how to build a successful criminal justice career that one will love, from first employment to retirement.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels.

Choice Reviews

Written by two people with extensive experience as practitioners in the criminal justice system and academics in college-level programs, this book is intended for use as a text in courses about jobs in the criminal justice profession but also as a reference for criminal justice program administrators as they guide undergraduates through their programs. . . .The index is particularly helpful for someone who wants to look up a specific topic like the CIA or Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as subjects like stress and tuition. . . . This practical guide to criminal justice careers is recommended for high school or college career counseling centers; high school, college, and public libraries; and for criminal justice practitioners or professors.

American Reference Books Annual

This book is an important tool for criminal justice students to help them prepare for their careers. The career profiles present roadmaps for success.

James Kenny, Professor, Fairleigh Dickinson University

The most comprehensive career guide I've found during my 35 years working in the criminal justice system. The authors provide everything you could ever want to know about career opportunities within the criminal justice system in this very instructive, useful, and thought-provoking analysis. A must-read for everyone interested in life-changing career opportunities.

Robert A. Hood, M.Ed., Warden (Ret.), United States "Supermax" Penitentiary, CO

In Exploring and Understanding Careers in Criminal Justice Rainville and Sheridan have compiled a comprehensive compendium of indispensable information on criminal justice careers. They provide information on choosing careers, how to prepare for your career, how to network, and throughout they use profiles of real criminal justice professionals to show the pathways and diversity of employment opportunities for students in criminal justice. This book is essential reading for students and advisors, and for any professor who has ever been asked, "so what job can I get with this degree?".

Patrick J. Carr, Associate Professor; Director, Program in Criminal Justice, Rutgers University

I recommend this book highly for anyone working in, or hoping to work in, the criminal justice system. The volume provides thoughtful guidance on career development, is written in clear and engaging prose, and is remarkably comprehensive. It's a source book the criminal justice professional will want to have on his or her bookshelf.

Robert Johnson, Professor of Justice, Law and Criminology, American University