Effective Communications Paper

In human society, communication plays an important part of everyday activities. It amalgamates civilization, and allows us to effectively understand and support one another. Communication is a two sided process that includes a sender and a receiver. In criminal justice it is important to understand the significant role of communication, and how to use it suitably for different situations. Barriers that affect communications should be identified, and a plan to support complications should be implemented. Understanding communication and its significance in the field of criminal justice assures the purpose is served.

The process of communication involves a sender and a receiver. The sender position in the process is to conduct the message. The sender must be clear and aware of the way their message is being interpreted. Tone, language, and body language are all taken into account as a sender. First the sender encodes the message. Encoding involves understanding who your receiver is, and how they may construe the information. The channel in which the message is sent also affects the way it is received. The receiver is the individual opposing the sender. They serve the position of decoding the message. The understanding of the receiver depends on the individual’s ability to comprehend the message, and respond appropriately. The feedback of the receiver relies on the manners of the sender. The senders’ attitude, body language, and linguistic can alter the feedback of the receiver and their counter-reaction.

The receiver’s position is to obtain the message. To affective do this would require the receiver to be actively listening. Listening is inquiry all details of the conversation. Hearing is audible range but not necessarily understanding or accepting the message. An example of listening would be an officer inquiring about the reason a civilian is speeding. The officer listens to the driver’s explanation. The officer then gathers the information, and determines that the driver’s excuse was not acceptable, and issues a ticket. The officer explains the procedure to getting the citation resolves, but the driver is not listening to the details, and only wants to go to their destination. The driver could hear the officer talking, but was not paying attention to the information.

Conversation occurs as a cycle of sending and receiving messages. A sender conducts the message through some type of medium. The medium could be written, oral, or visual. The message is then decoded by the receiver, and the receiver provides feedback. Feedback is the last stage of communication in which the receiver now becomes the sender and the cycle will continue.