Effective Communication Skills in Criminal Justice Professions

This essay examines the critical role of communication skills for criminal justice professionals in the United Kingdom. It emphasizes the importance of policing by consent, highlighting how effective communication builds public support and facilitates law observance. The essay discusses how communication helps manage multidisciplinary teams by removing barriers and fostering teamwork, ultimately reducing re-offending rates. It addresses biases, stereotypes, and prejudices within the criminal justice system and suggests that improved communication can mitigate their impact. The essay also explores the challenges posed by digital communications and cybercrime, emphasizing the need for regulation and awareness. A case study illustrates the consequences of inadequate communication, while the importance of soft skills in gathering information from distressed victims is highlighted. The essay also touches upon criminological theories, data protection protocols, cultural awareness, and emotional intelligence, demonstrating how these elements contribute to a fair and effective criminal justice system. Desklib offers students access to this essay along with a wealth of study resources including solved assignments and past papers.

Essay on Criminal
Justice Professionals
require good
communication skills

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................2
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................2
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7
INTRODUCTION
Communication is a vital tool for most professions. It is essential in societal development
because the criminal justice professionals cannot serve the society and its people effectively
without good communication skills that develop human relations. In the Criminal Justice field,
possessing these skills helps in upholding justice and in achieving peaceful conditions. The
Criminal Justice System of United Kingdom includes the service of Police, the Prosecution
service of the Crown, the Courts and the Probation services. A level of fairness is attained by
these legal systems and it ensures that justice is served to the victims of crime thus to maintain
the justice system communication is important. The following essay will focus on the points
which can help in developing communications and the criminal Justice system of the country.

TASK
The primary goal of the criminal justice system is to control and reduce crime by serving
the public of the country. To serve Justice to the citizens of UK, Policing by Consent is
essential. Police offers serve the people as public servants by putting their lives in danger and by
building community relations by effectively communicating all the rules which must be abided
by people. Policing in UK is based on this principle which implies that for effective policing, the
actions of the police must have wide public support. It was first defined in the General
Instructions of 1829 which stated that police can function responsibly by the approval of public
on their actions and behaviour. Because when people comply with the new laws it helps in
policing and the officers are able to fulfil their duties on time because of two way
communication between them. Observance of laws is easier with mutual respect that is secured
as well as maintained and it helps in reducing or diminishing the use of physical force by the
police while serving the society.
When it comes to managing multidisciplinary teams, communication helps in
removing barriers which arise in it. Effective communication helps in encouraging the staff
towards teamwork and providing continuity and clarity while providing justice within law. The
barriers faced by the various multidisciplinary teams can range from a lack of communication
and understanding, lack of awareness of the legal system, etc. The local people should
collaborate with the justice officers like police or local authorities to ensure that the re-offending
rate gets reduced, the custody is used for the serious offenders of law. It can help in delivering
easy justice by promoting these teams which work in various sectors like youth justice, elder
abuse, etc. An uncoordinated and miscommunicated system is very problematic while ensuring
the justice because it can result in victims being jostled from one place to another, system
overloads, etc. Thus those involved in criminal justice system must ensure that they overcome
the barriers that arise while the multidisciplinary teams operate and work for the benefits of the
public.
The Criminal Justice system is filled with biasses, stereotypes and prejudices which
create problems in achieving justice due to their severe impact. Communication can help in
filling this gap of the perceived notions and attributes so that the victims don't suffer and the
criminals don't enjoy freedom. Bias can show up in the decisions which are taken by the judges
or in the trials which are conducted, it can destroy an innocent life if one is favoured over the

other. Stereotype on the other is an attribute which is generalized with the social group and is
associated to them. It increases discrimination between the members of society like Gender
inequality and categorization of women which can impact how they are treated when criminal
justice is served by the professionals. These prejudices are prevalent in the culture and society
because of which how law functions is effected. It leads to gender discriminatory aspects of the
laws and thus these problems can be met by effectively communicating and creating awareness
of the problems of these in the justice system of UK.
While addressing the digital communications that happen on the web or social media,
their affect on the justice system within the criminal world becomes important. These have the
conventional scope to give rise to cyber crimes and the social harm has increased with their
increased usage. These technologies have increased the offences and victimization. It has led to
development of criminal minds which can be very dangerous. These crimes relate to cyber
trespass, cyber obscenity, cyber violence, etc. Delivering justice in these fields can prove to be
very challenging and tough due to their anonymous nature and difficulty in finding the real
offender. Regulating the communications which take place on the digital medium can prove to
be benefiting for the justice system because it will ensure that justice is served to those who are
victims of cyber crime. Victimization on social media is not an uncommon phenomenon which is
why it is a concerning concept for the upholders of criminal justice system. It is thus posing
challenges and opportunities for the official of criminal justice and changing the way how people
perceive it while increasing the rate of crimes within the society.
There is a famous case of United Kingdom by the name Fagan vs Metropolitan Police
Commissioner (1969) where there was inadequate communication due to which the crime was
committed. In this case, directions were being given by the policemen to the defendant to move
his car which were unclear due to which an accident happened where the defendant drove on the
foot of the policemen. It took the nature of crime, when the policemen shouted at the defendant
to move the car in whose response the defendant turned the engine off and refused to move.
Thus this lack of communication between the two parties gave rise to a criminal offence in the
justice system. Sometimes communication can also prove to be inadequate and misleading when
there are media trials happening all around on a particular case. In these scenarios, an innocent
might be given the status of a criminal due to their alleged involvement which can lead to a
wrong decisions being taken by the officials who provide criminal justice.

All the officials including police, prosecutors and advocates must have the knowledge
and skills of gathering information through effective soft skills of communication from the
individuals or victims who are in distress or mental pressure. It helps in achieving easy
access to justice. These individuals can be children or women who have been victimized or
harassed by the criminal with the committing of crime because mental distress or pressure is
common in the people who have been subjected to crime. Mental pressures and distress can lead
to anxiety due to which the victims might not be able to communicate and give information of
the crime or incident that could have taken place which has led to serious problems in their life.
When the officials of criminal justice are well equipped and possess all the skills which are
required for an effective communication, it is easier for them to gather the information and
content relating to the crime or incident from the individual in distress. Because the victims find
it easier to open up to those who are soft spoken and polite in their way of talking which can then
ensure justice is achieved.
There lies no exhaustive list with respect to the key criminological theories, by which the
causes of any crime can be identified and explained. Each theory has some different strengths
and weaknesses and even their applicability to some specific crimes. No theories can be judged
on the basis of right or wrong as each possess some different criteria to identify. Majorly these
are bifurcated into two broad approaches, which are Biological and Sociological theories. The
Biological theory prevails on a view that there lies some individuals who are born as a criminals
which means the person who possess some distinct psychological characters from that of the
ordinary people. Cesare Lombroso, is the one who is the reason behind this approach. Here, in
this theory rather than focusing on the physical attributes, the efforts are made with reference to
the biochemical and neuropsychological conditions. Also the factors of genetic inheritance and
prudent intelligence of the individual are taken into consideration in this approach. The other
being the Sociological theory, which proposes that there lies various external factors which
influences any individual in shaping the crime. Such as for instance, the family, neighbourhood
and the peer group. It states that circumstances such as poor housing or financial conditions can
lead an individual to function a crime and also the same can be conducted in the influence of
some neighbouring persons or the one who are known.
Moreover, with respect to the sharing of data between organisations there lies various
protocols, which also reflects the importance of communication while executing the criminal

justice system. The laws related to data protection enables a proportionate and fair sharing where
it further aids in taking the decisions related to data sharing while providing a framework for the
same. The said regulations also helps in balancing the associated risks and benefits for their
implementation. Many a times it can become more noxious if the informations are not shared as
this benefits the whole of the society. Some of the concerns which needs to be taken care of
while sharing the data is of the, compliance with the existing data protection laws and the prior
assessing of the risks associated with it. Further some of the measures which one needs to take is
of the one must share share the personal information in a fair and transparent manner. Also it is
required to identify the lawful basis prior to the initiation of the process. Also it is asked to
process the information in coordination with suitable organisation and technical measures in
place.
Other than this the the said data protection laws of the country plays a major role while
contributing to the delivery of justice. The legal frameworks can mitigate the perils as there lies
some intensified data protection and privacy concerns. The same can be done by qualifying the
intents for which the personal data has been shared by both the government as well as non
government authorities. Also many a times the public entities are restricted for getting the
informations as justified by by their functions. Some of the perks of sharing of informations
includes the improved risk management, less expensive as the duplication of acts is saved, better
service delivery, etc. furthermore,. There also lies the drawback as when the shared data is not
subjected to the proper regulation which at later stage can allow the evasion of individual privacy
and protection safeguards. In order to strike a balance between protection of privacy of
individual and giving assistance in criminal investigations , both the courts and legislature has
faced a lot of struggle. One of the way to handle such matters is of the application of same rules
which are applied to the other forms of search and seizures.
Further, when it comes to the importance of cultural awareness and emotional
intelligence which are required by the individual for the said process. The general ability of any
individual to be aware of or express or control over the emotions is defined as the emotional
intelligence. Also is an ability which aids in handling the various relationships with empathy.
Any individual who possess this criteria is more likely to get successful in comparison to that
who does not have such skills as the reason being they tends to justify their thoughts processes in
a more effective way. Moreover, some of the important aspects which comes along with the

emotional intelligence are of the relationship management, self management and awareness and
social awareness. The other being the cultural intelligence is defined as the ability to work and
relate very well in the diverse situations. The one who have cultural intelligence are more likely
to lead in an effective manner reason being they can comfortably work with the people from
diversified cultures.
Moreover, with respect to the practise of learning from mistakes of both individually and
institutionally. The wrongful convictions and all the other errors related to criminal justice
system can be seen as organisational accidents. Here the small defects get combined with each
other and with latent mistakes in the criminal justice system creating a disaster. The criminal
justice practitioners has shown their readiness to face the errors and make a learning out of the
same. The identified errors came from a category of bread and butter, which most of them have
already handled and would entertain again. The oldest form of evidences who were the innocent
man who got convicted by by the testimony of the sincere eyewitnesses , dominated the list of
exonerated prisoners. The criminal practitioners had felt the stage of drowning even when they
knew that low rates of mistakes can result them in a very high risk of tragedies. The one who
were avoiding the errors was a matter of workmanship where it was not the matter of social
policy.
Other than this when it come to the ways in which the communication can be done is
majorly of three types which are verbal, non- verbal, and written communications. In verbal
communication, the one tends to listen to the person in order to understand the meaning.
Generally they are communicated over the phone or in person and the medium which prevails
here is of the oral one. One of the effective form of this communication is of the storytelling,
where it helps to clarify the key values and the exhibit how the things need to be done by the way
of portraying certain things. The other being the written communications, these are the
documents which are well written or printed and are in physical form. Some of the examples of
this are, emails, proposals, policies, memos, letters and training manuals, etc. The last being the
non-verbal communication, it is a way of transmission of communication and message or signals
by the way of facial expressions, eye contacts, gestures including hand , body languages ans
signs, etc.

CONCLUSION
From the following essay it can be summarised that the effective communication is the
key for ensuring that the justice prevails in the criminal justice system. The crime is minimised
when the system functions in adequate manner, where interest of the people are served. Barriers
which arise while serving the public should be resolved by upholding the justice. Stereotypes
which affects the decisions of the officials in ensuring unbiased justice should be broken so that
victims don't suffer due to the said issues.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bates, E.A., and et. al., 2019. The impact of gendered stereotypes on perceptions of violence: A
commentary. Sex Roles, 81(1), pp.34-43.
Borschmann, R., and et. al., 2018. Self-harm in the criminal justice system: a public health
opportunity. The Lancet Public Health, 3(1), pp.e10-e11.
Burke, R.H., 2018. An introduction to criminological theory. Routledge.
Byrne, B., and et. al., 2020. Ethnicity, Race and Inequality in the UK: State of the Nation (p.
316).
Campana, P. and Varese, F., 2018. Organized crime in the United Kingdom: Illegal governance
of markets and communities. The British Journal of Criminology, 58(6), pp.1381-1400.
Day, A.S. and Gill, A.K., 2020. Applying intersectionality to partnerships between women’s
organizations and the criminal justice system in relation to domestic violence. The
British Journal of Criminology, 60(4), pp.830-850.
Duan, F., 2020. Governing Live Automated Facial Recognition Systems for Policing in England
and Wales.
Hine, J., 2019. Women and criminal justice: where are we now?. British Journal of Community
Justice, 15(1), pp.5-18.
Soomro, T.R. and Hussain, M., 2019. Social Media-Related Cybercrimes and Techniques for
Their Prevention. Appl. Comput. Syst., 24(1), pp.9-17.
Stott, C., West, O. and Harrison, M., 2020. A turning point, securitization, and policing in the
context of Covid-19: building a new social contract between state and nation?. Policing:
A Journal of Policy and Practice, 14(3), pp.574-578.
Travers, M., 2020. Qualitative Methods in International and Comparative Criminology.
In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice.
Yar, M., 2018. A failure to regulate? The demands and dilemmas of tackling illegal content and
behaviour on social media. International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence &
Cybercrime, 1(1), pp.5-20.

(Bates and et. al., 2019) (Borschmann and et. Al., 2018) (Burke, 2018) (Byrne and et. al., 2020)
(Campana and Varese, 2018) (Day and Gill, 2020) (Duan, 2020) (Hine, 2019) (Soomro
and Hussain, 2019) (Stott, West and Harrison, 2020) (Travers, 2020) (Yar, 2018)