School of Criminal Justice
Faculty Address
Graduates, families and friends, distinguished guests, and colleagues.
I congratulate the graduates and their families and friends. Each of you has achieved a major milestone in your life.
Many of you will be entering a profession, criminal justice, that is unique. Unique because at its core is the use of force -
for some of you who become police officers - use of deadly force. Many others, even those who enter graduate or law school, will
go on to jobs in which the use of force is not as dramatic as in the case of police, nonetheless as lawyers, probation or parole
agents, or correctional agents will either deprive people of their freedom or maintain them under some form of state supervision.
This is an awesome responsibility.
In preparation for this work, the School of Criminal Justice in Rutgers-Newark University has attempted to provide you with at least
three things – knowledge, skills, and values: knowledge to understand the dynamics of disorder and crime; skills to do something about
these problems; and values to constrain your skills to ensure that you use them properly.
Most of you who will practice criminal justice will do so within a relatively unique historical/political context – a democracy that puts
forward the idea, really the value, that people can and should govern themselves within a framework of a Constitution that attempts to
balance the rights of individuals with the interests of communities. The meaning of this value is of special importance for professionals
whose stock-in-trade is use of coercive state force. For it follows that if people can and should govern themselves, they should also police
themselves.
Clearly, in today's complex urban world, this does not mean that we want citizens to take up arms or use coercive measures themselves.
This is why, of course, as a society we invest so much in the education and training of professionals – such as many of you are about to
become - to whom we delegate the special mandate to use force to keep order, prevent crime, and enforce the law. But special responsibilities
come with this special mandate. I will mention the one that I consider most basic.
Your mandate is of and by the people. When you take your oath of office - in one form or another - your mandate might appear to be everlasting.
It is not. You will find that it must be constantly renewed in your daily work with citizens and those with whom you work. This idea is basic
to what we have come to call community justice and community policing - it means that the special mandate given to both individuals and
organizations must be constantly reaffirmed. Without reaffirmation, neighborhoods and communities will withdraw their consent to be governed \
and freedom and democracy will suffer.
You will be special people with a special mandate - use it on behalf of citizens, neighborhoods, and communities. I wish the best to all of
you.
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