Sometimes taking a risk can change one’s life forever. This is true for Stephen Cox, who, after making a random choice on his major, discovered the field that would later become his passion, criminal justice.

When Cox, a professor at Central Connecticut State University in the criminology and criminal justice department, got accepted to Eastern Kentucky University at 17 years old, he did not have a major in mind. This prompted him to choose his major in the only way that made sense to him at the time.

“I had a list of majors in front of me, and I was sitting on my parent’s floor going through them,” Cox said. “I shut my eyes, picked one, and boom, criminal justice.”

After taking an Introduction to Criminal Justice course, Cox fell in love with the field. His newfound love for it prompted him to get his master’s degree and later his PhD in the field.

At first, becoming a professor never crossed Cox’s mind, he said. It wasn’t until the idea was suggested to him by one of his former professors that Cox decided that becoming a professor was the career path he wanted to pursue.

“I like working with probation officers, police officers, correction officers and judges,” Cox said. “Getting a PhD and becoming a professor gave me the best chance to do that.”

Cox began teaching at CCSU in the fall of 1996. Cox said he liked CCSU because it was similar to Eastern Kentucky University, the university that he had attended, which he said allowed him to better relate to the students.

Cox said there are many reasons why he loves being a professor, one of which is the criminology field itself.

“My field, criminology, never gets old,” he said. “Every year, every semester, there’s different things to talk about.”

Cox teaches a couple of different courses, with his favorite being criminology. This course focuses on theories of crime.

“While theory sounds boring, it’s about why people do it,” Cox said. “If we don’t study that, then why do we need a criminal justice system?”

Before becoming a professor, Cox spent a year working for the United States Department of Justice for the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. Cox said that in 1994, President Bill Clinton said that he was going to hire 100,000 police officers.

“One of my jobs was to count the cops,” Cox said. “He [Clinton] promised he would hire a hundred thousand, so somebody had to count them.”

Cox said he enjoyed working for the U.S. Justice Department but wanted to be a professor more.

For Cox, the most rewarding part of being a professor is seeing graduates out in the field, he said. Since the start of the criminology program in 1997, there have been over 1,000 graduates, he said.