Communication in Criminal Justice

Many criminal justice professions require candidates to possess strong oral and written communication skills. The essence of communication is the conveyance of a message from sender to receiver. Often times you will find that there is interference that may hinder your communication with the receiver.

In the communication process, the parties involved engage in certain unconscious behaviors that direct the flow of communication. There is a step by step process that can be broken down into a communication model. The process begins with the sender. The sender of the message is the party who had an original idea to pass along. The sender breaks down the message into concepts that can be accepted by the receiver. Between the sender and receiver there can be interference call noise that will hinder the message from being received. Noise is anything that interrupts the communication process. The next part of the model is the receiver. The receiver is the person who the message is intended for and who ultimately receives the message. The last part of the model is feedback. Feedback is the response a receiver makes to the message communicated by the sender. It can come in many forms. It can be in the form of words or written communication. It can be positive feedback or it can be negative feedback. It all depends on how the receiver interpreted the message due to the amount of noise that the message may have contained. Feedback can then go from the sender to the receiver is response to receiver’s feedback.

Communication styles come in various forms. The four dimensions of communication styles are as follows: blaming, directing, persuading, and problem solving. The blaming style of communication is basically attempts to find fault or to ascribe blame for a problem. The directing style of communication is just another way to explain dictating responsibilities and being a manager. There is no room for feedback in the directing style of communication. The directing style may be essential to ensure the safety of an individual or the successful conclusion of an operation. The persuading style of communication involves information-sharing and acceptance techniques. Interviewing is an example of the persuading style. It is really a matter of a police officer is attempting to persuade someone to reveal information that may be against his or her best interests in a court of law. The problem-solving style of communication is a very beneficial and productive method. “Police officers attend crime watch meetings and community awareness meetings in an effort to resolve not only the problems with crime but also with situations that foster an atmosphere for criminal acts to occur” (COMMUNICATION: WORDS ARE NOT ENOUGH, Chapter 1pg 7).

The benefits of using different communication styles are the different responses that you get from each one. I believe that persuading style is one of the most effective