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A portion of Shea's winning essay:
Growing up in a house that included a criminal investigator as a mother, it is sometimes difficult for others to fathom why I have decided to walk down the same path towards criminal investigation and law enforcement. Living with a mother who was a member of law enforcement was akin to living with a human lie detector. During my teenage years I had to master the art of non-confrontation in order to avoid her interrogative techniques when I had stayed out past my curfew or did something else that I was not supposed to do. Despite these minor childhood infractions that I inevitably was busted for unless I managed to avoid the interrogation altogether, my mother and I could always talk to each other about crime and law enforcement issues on the same intellectual level. Even at the age of 15 I could understand my mother's concerns when the department she worked for adopted new protocols that did not mandate the use of bulletproof vests for patrol officers. Even though the nature of my mother's job as a homicide investigator did not include the same likelihood for high speed pursuits and the volatile situations that accompany them, I still easily understood the risks that came with what she did. It would be entirely accurate to say that I grew up in a law enforcement family.
The experiences that I had growing up with my mother being a law enforcement officer certainly influenced my own career goals. In true rebellious teenager fashion, I formed goals to become a criminal trial attorney when I was in high school. I knew that my interests and passion were in the criminal justice system. I just was not sure whether I was going to follow in my mother's footsteps. I continued with my law school drive right up to my senior year in college, and I even took the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) in February of my senior year of college. However, during that year I had begun to seriously question whether working as a prosecuting attorney was the best place in the criminal justice system for me. By my senior year, I was working part-time in a county attorney's office and, while I loved the work I was doing there, I became aware that the reason for that was merely the fact that it was working in the criminal justice system. This seriously raised the question for me of whether I was enjoying the attorney side of it or just my place in the criminal justice system. It quickly became obvious to me that the career path I had originally shunned for the sake of my teenage rebellion was actually the very path I was perfect for. In the time that I worked at the attorney's office, it became more than obvious to me that I was much better with people than with files.
In addition to the much-needed clarification on which career path would be ideal for me, I also received a very sobering look into the world of domestic violence and sexual assault in the context of the criminal justice system. The prosecutor I worked with focused mainly on these two types of cases, and I received a crash course on what I would argue to be the worst side of humanity. The very first jury trial that I was involved in is the one that I still remember clearly to this day. Our victim, a 5'2" partially disabled woman, was so terrified of the perpetrator, a 6' heavily built man, that she refused to testify in the courtroom. The judge agreed to allow the victim to testify through the phone. The victim agreed, and we literally had no idea where in the state, if she was even in the state anymore, she called in from. Even through the crackling of the phone connection, I could hear the victim's voice shaking. For me, that was a very eye-opening experience when it comes to the sheer amount of terror that this perpetrator had instilled in this poor woman. From then on I had a very different outlook on life itself but also my own place in the only system designed to protect society from these kinds of crimes. During my time in that office, the cases never seemed to end, and every time I thought I had seen a case that was the worst of them all, another one came along that just elevated that standard.
For many, that kind of reality in the criminal justice system could cause cynicism and a sense of hopelessness. It's not easy to see these kinds of cases. However, for me, it only increased my resolve to work in the criminal justice field related to sexual assault and domestic violence crimes. I cannot think of a more blatant betrayal of trust then the kind that perpetrators of domestic violence and sexual assault inflict on their victims. It is the most severe form of violence that I can think of. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it." I could not agree more with this statement. Dr. King, known almost exclusively for his work in civil rights, also highlighted the importance of standing up for what is right, and I fully agree with his sentiments. To state it bluntly, I believe it is incredibly wrong to inflict domestic violence or a sexual assault on anyone. My own observation of the incredibly devastating impact it has on the victims is more than enough to convince me of that. This is what I hope to offer to the criminal justice system. I will be pursuing a Master's Degree in Criminal Justice Studies at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York starting in the fall of 2007. I am currently serving as the project coordinator of the Helena Family Violence Council (HFVC) in the AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) program. I decided to spend one year dedicated to service in the area of domestic violence and sexual assault to make sure that this is what I really want to do. Nearly six months into my service term I am more sure than ever that this is what I plan to pursue after graduation from John Jay. Rather than pursuing a career based on whether or not it can offer me a six-digit salary, I have chosen to pursue a career based on what I personally believe. Like my mother, that resulted in a future career in law enforcement. I have always been sensitive to criticism of the criminal justice system because I know there are people like my mother serving in it. Every case that she manages to close is never what's reported on the news. Instead, we hear and read about the cases of police brutality or incompetence. The media is saturated with this kind of criticism, which while valid for the officers they are reporting on, fails to adequately represent the entire system. There are bad people in the system which makes the criminal justice system just like every other government system out there. However, the involvement of people like my mother remind us that there are a lot of good people in it dedicated to keeping the people of their communities safe. I want to continue that, and I plan to do everything I can to protect the community I end up living in from the "perpetrators that seek to harm it."
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