Key Concepts in Effective Communication and Justice

Effective Communication

Is to be skilled in the overt and the subtle, to make one's intentions known whether the recipient is deaf, unable to understand English, mentally handicapped, enraged, under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or simply unfamiliar with normal police procedure.

Kinesics

The study of body movement or body language.

Ethnocentrism

The preference of one's own way of life over all others.

Assimilation

Occurs when a society takes in or assimilates various other cultures to become a 'melting pot.' Can also be called Acculturation.

Bias

A prejudice that inhibits objectivity; can evolve into hate.

Stereotyping

Assuming all people within a specific group are the same, lacking individuality.

Implicit Bias

The unintentional, subconscious associations every individual makes among groups of people and stereotypes about those groups.

Racial profiling

A form of discrimination that singles out people of racial or ethnic groups because of a belief that these groups are more likely than others to commit certain types of crimes. Race based enforcement is illegal.

Poverty syndrome

Includes inadequate housing, education, and jobs and a resentment of those who control the social system.

Crisis behavior

Results when a person has a temporary breakdown in coping skills, not the same as mental illness.

Collaboration

Occurs when a number of agencies and individuals make a commitment to work together and contribute resources to obtain a common, long term goal.

Stakeholders

Those people who have an interest in what happens in a particular situation.

Community Justice

Partnerships between the formal criminal justice system, the private sector, and community groups to promote public safety and enhance quality of life in the community.

Restorative Justice

Seeks not retribution but, rather, restitution, to repair the damage of crimes as much as possible and to restore the victim, the community, and the offender.

Dynamic risk factors

Those characteristics or factors that can be changed, such as drug addiction, antisocial attitudes and values, the tendency to hang out with criminal peers, family dysfunction, and unemployment. Also called Criminogenic needs.

Static risk factors

Those characteristics that cannot be changed such as an offender's prior criminal record.

Symbiotic

Describes a relationship of mutual dependence upon each other.

CSI Effect

A phenomenon created when the viewing public believes that every police force has access to the same high-tech crime-solving gadgets they see on popular police television shows.

News media echo effect

The theory that the media have the power, through their coverage of isolated, high-profile cases, to influence the operations of the criminal justice system and even the disposition of individual cases.

Working in Silos

Occurs when agencies with common interests work independently with no collaboration.

Public Information Officer

Understand what a Public Information Officer is and how they benefit the department and the media.

Four dimensions of Trust

Shared priorities, Competency, Dependability, Respect.

Prejudice

Understand the difference between prejudice and discrimination.

Discrimination

Understand the difference between prejudice and discrimination.