Criminal justice 3

Interview with a Criminal Justice Professional

Getting Started

Because criminal justice professionals face issues related to diversity on a daily basis, talking one-on-one with a worker can bring new insight into what the most troubling problems are and how best to handle them. 

Upon successful completion of this assignment, you will be able to:

· Explain the diversity issues that are most difficult for the criminal justice professional, as well as resolve your own misconceptions about these issues.

· Resources

· Textbook: Collective, C. J., Prior, S., & Jones, L. (2018). Investigating difference: human and cultural relations in criminal justice (3rd ed.). Pearson.

Background Information

All criminal justice professionals deal with a myriad of diversity issues on a daily basis.  Learning strategies to recognize and deal with these issues is key to ensuring fundamental fairness, due process, and equal protection for all.  By talking through these types of concerns with a criminal justice professional, you should be able to gain new insight, improve your understanding, and deal appropriately with these issues in your professional career.

Instructions

Conduct your interview with the criminal justice professional of your choice.  Make sure to take good notes so you can refer back to them to write your paper.  Remember that the most important questions in your interview should be about diversity issues faced by the criminal justice professional and how he or she addresses those issues.  The diversity concerns can involve suspects, witnesses, victims, or even co-workers.  Carefully review your notes and do the following: 

1. Write a six- to eight-page (or 3,000-4,000 word) paper based on your interview.  Although you can reference the questions you asked during the interview, please write your paper in essay format.  Do not simply reproduce the interview in question/answer format.  Include the following in your essay:

a. The name and position of your interview subject;

b. Why you selected that particular criminal justice professional;

c. Why you selected the questions you did;

d. What are the most common and most difficult diversity issues faced by your interview subject;

e. What you found most interesting about the interview;

f. What you found most surprising about the interview;

g. What the most important thing you learned from the interview is;

h. How your views about diversity in the criminal justice system have changed since you started this course.

Graded Interview

Preparing to Interview a Criminal Justice Professional

I am considering to choose a police department to conduct my interview with a police officer. The reason for choosing is that a police department is only a justice agency that values the significance of community outreach. It is crucial to get in-depth knowledge and to listen to every professional working in the department to understand how the agency enhances the welfare of community members. For a long time, I have developed an interest to become a police officer in the future. I always strive to become a competent police officer to serve the country. I frequently take classes to enhance my techniques on the street so that I can act quickly in certain situations. As a result, the interview will build my passion for higher heights.

A police officer puts his or her life on the line daily as he protects the public from criminal activities and incidents. A police officer may patrol the area by car, motorcycle, or on foot. He may take a role of directing traffic for special events, and handle offences arising from traffic signal malfunctions and accidents. Primarily, a police officer is the first responder when a crime takes place on the street and perform a role of assisting other personnel in casework and writing crime-based reports to be presented before a police chief. In a general perspective, the government and public entrust police department with a diverse set of rules that require a high level of integrity and accountability among police officers and their oversight (Collective, Prior, & Jones,2018). So, based all these arguments, there is a sound reason to why I am interested in focusing on the police department to interview with a police officer.

I anticipate that racial bias and disparities are the common and serious issues that police officer dals with concerning diversity. In carrying out policing activities, a police officer works in a diverse environment. The United States communities comprise of various races such as blacks and white and people of with different income levels that draw the line between high-income population and low-income population. In some instances, police officers work outside the policing professional standards to oppress minority groups such as blacks. They tend to favor some citizens at the expense of others under racial and income contexts. For instance, the rates of non-whites being stopped, arrested, and charged with violating traffic rules are high compared to whites.

Furthermore, there are evident inequalities in delivering policies services in neighborhoods. High-income neighborhoods are less suspected by the police as opposed to low-income neighborhoods. Police officers associated people living in less-developed neighborhoods to crimes; thus, these citizens are prime crime suspects. These types of police contact are attributed to proactive policing and require a police officer to develop proactive policing approaches to increase the volume of interactions between the public and police (Epp, Maynard‐Moody, & Haider‐Markel, 2017). The policing strategies enhance the overall opportunity for problematic interactions with disparate impacts and the outline other ways of dealing with diversity in discharging duties.

Concerns regarding the interaction between policing and race and disparity are not new. For instance, researches have studied differential stop and arrest levels in all demographic communities, especially racial disparities in the police department, offending, and becoming a suspect (Collective et al., 2018). These studies provide an overview and the findings of how police officers deal with racial and disparity diversities in their area of work. There have been high recent-profile police killings through shootings, and other citizen-police interactions caught on camera, and the rising questions regard fundamental fairness, discrimination-based on race, and use of force against minority groups, blacks (Pierson, Simoiu, Overgoor, Corbett-Davies, Jenson, Shoemaker, & Goel, 2020). This discrimination is a national concern within the police department that need new urgent resolution.

Taking into consideration these police practices of racial discrimination, it is vital to know that policing’s origins in the U.S. intertwine with the nation’s discrimination history against minority groups, specifically toward African-Americans. Primarily, a police officer considers race disparity and policing as aspects that should not influence decisions on stopping and frisking citizens certain race and leave the other. The entire police department agency considers racial profiling as a subset of racially biased behaviors that a police officer should not practice. For instance, a 2019 Center survey revealed that 84% of African-Americans adults feel that in dealing with police, they get unfair treatment compared to whites (Pierson et al., 2020). Also, 63% of whites agreed on the same. Similarly, 87% of blacks and 61% of whites concurred that the U.S. criminal justice system had been unfairly treating black people (Epp et al., 2017).

I think racial-based discrimination and disparities leading to bias in policing should get addressed through the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). This system has significantly more detail regarding police practices, crime, victims, and arrestees (Epp et al., 2017). So, to address the issues, it should start covering police department operating in regions where approximately 70% of the U.S. citizens lives, and cover all country’s largest urban areas (Epp et al., 2017). Also, the police department should invest in research to expand the conceptual map on the root causes of behaviors, what are the consequences of these behaviors, and how race and disparity play a role in policing. The findings from the research will help in reshaping police conduct when working in a diverse environment.

From this assignment, I hope to learn why white police officers and their black counterparts have starkly varying views on basic questions regarding the situation of blacks in American society. Also, I expect to know why the issues of race and disparities is a dominant concern in low-income neighborhoods. In general, the main aim is to establish the reasons why African Americans make other citizens from the majority race act as if they are suspicious of them. After the assignment, I will have an in-depth understanding of things I should know regarding race and policing in the U.S.

Conclusively, a police officer plays a crucial role in serving the country in terms of maintaining law and order. Dealing with racial discrimination and disparity issues that concern diversity determine has emerged as a national concern that police professionals need to frame the context of ensuring discriminatory laws and practices cease. Public trust in police officers determines Black perception regarding the police strategies of serving citizens of different financial backgrounds and races. Practices such as overrepresentation of African-American faces in local news coverage of crime, stopping, arresting, use of force, frisking, and jailing should be addressed such that race does not determine the decisions that a police officer make regarding a suspect.

References

Collective, C. J., Prior, S., & Jones, L. (2018). Investigating difference: human and cultural relations in criminal justice (3rd ed.). Pearson.

Epp, C. R., Maynard‐Moody, S., & Haider‐Markel, D. (2017). Beyond profiling: The institutional sources of racial disparities in policing. Public Administration Review, 77(2), 168-178.

Pierson, E., Simoiu, C., Overgoor, J., Corbett-Davies, S., Jenson, D., Shoemaker, A., ... & Goel, S. (2020). A large-scale analysis of racial disparities in police stops across the United States. Nature human behavior, 1-10.

Professor Comments

FINAL GRADE

75/75

1.4.docx

GRADEMARK REPORT

GENERAL COMMENTS

Instructor

Overall great job. You are off to a great start. You

demonstrated a clear understanding of the issues with

diversity and law enforcement. You selected a very

relevant profession to discuss.

PAGE 1

Comment 1

Good title page.

PAGE 2

Comment 2

Lanny, great point regarding the significance of community outreach. The community policing model

involves community outreach from not only police officers but also agencies like the prosecutor's

office, public defenders, probation and community corrections. Some of these agencies have

divisions or assigned staff devoted to nothing but community outreach.

Comment 3

You effectively identified an agency and explained why.

Comment 4

It is a very honorable profession.

PAGE 3

Comment 5

deals

Comment 6

Excellent break down of the diverse landscape!

Excellent break down of the diverse landscape!

Comment 7

Do you believe the police department itself should be more diverse?

What are some of the issues with recruiting diversity within the police department?

PAGE 4

Comment 8

Including statistical data helps support your findings and position. Excellent job Lanny!

PAGE 5

Comment 9

Lanny your commitment and desire to serve the community is evident. You are well on your way to

becoming a public servant and leader!