Hello all,

My name is David Williams, and I currently live in Southern California.  I have 24 years of experience in public service and recently retired from a municipal agency.  Due to the specialization of my assignment (computer forensic examiner), my retirement didn’t last very long.  Six hours after retirement, I found myself working for an adjacent county utilizing my years of experience. 

My reason for pursuing my degree in Criminal Justice was to complete my degree, which I previously placed on the back burner due to poor decision-making.  That said, obtaining my degree will assist me in moving upward within my current agency and taking more of a leadership role in the near future.

With my background in law enforcement, I have years of experience with victimology.  From simple crimes such as a stolen wallet to homicide and all those in between, I dealt with them and those who were victims.  The experiences were difficult at times because of seeing lives damaged first hand, but over the years, I learned to comfort and provide community resources to victims when such incidents occurred.

Because of my experience working with at-risk youth before entering public service, the career I chose from the Career Exploration resource was Family counselor.  Looking over my years in public service, I can’t help but notice the dysfunctionality within many families, which I feel could benefit from involving a Family Counselor.  Family counselors utilize counseling techniques, behavior, and family interactions to address relationship issues (Wake Forest University [WFU], 2023).  Such services are usually short-term and can help families create a foundation that can be built upon to improve family relations and reduce dysfunction.      

Good luck to everyone this term!

David W.

References

Wake Forest University. (2023). Family Counselor Salary, Job Description and Requirements. www.counseling.online.wfu.edu. https://counseling.online.wfu.edu/blog/family-counselor-salary-job-description-and-requirements/#:~:text=Licensed%20family%20counselors%20positively%20impact,fractured%20relationships%20and%20improve%20behaviors.

Then, respond to two of your peers by addressing the following:

• Based on your own experience or research, what are some additional aspects of the role of that profession in regard to assisting victims notmentioned in the initial post? If possible, provide resources to your peers.
• Are there points in their response about how understanding victimology can help them in the profession they chose that you had not considered? Or are there points they did not consider that you think might be useful to mention?