Nonverbal Communication In Criminal Justice

Verbal Communication Paper

Within the criminal justice and law enforcement communities, communication plays a major role on getting information shared between all areas. Making sure all parties have seen or heard all the information about the case is very important, along with how the information is sent to them. There are two main sources of communications that are always used within the law, oral and written. Depending on who is giving the information is really what makes the difference. Generally, due to the circumstances, written is more popular due to that all information is kept, and none is lost along the way.
Verbal communication is beneficial to both the sender and receiver it is essentially a mental
exercise and law enforcement officers must master this form of communication (Wallace, H. & Roberson, C 2009). This is important when we think about when police are giving information to the press or media. Being able to communicate verbally when discussing information between police and the press. Every person needs to be able to understand the information being given, especially if it is spoken, due to the fact many things can be forgotten. Due to this, when it comes to police is giving their information to the press, I think written would be more logical here. Having written information updated to the press from police seems easier written so that there is nothing that is forgotten to be said. If verbal communication is used here there could be many things that are forgotten to be said, but depending on the severity of situations, police will sometimes have press release information to the public verbally, depending on the size of audience that this case is related to. For example, September 11th, 2001. This is where verbal comes in handy, because of the size of the audience. This was the entire United States.
In a different setting, such as a courthouse, verbal communication is almost always the best way to testify in court. Testifying from many people may happen, or testifying from very few could happen. Either way, verbally communicating is the way this should be done. When testifying, the one on the stand is answering questions aloud for the judge, jury, and people in the audience trying to prove their point. This helps the judge and jury decide what the person being convicted gets charged with in the end. Nonverbal in court is not a way to communicate. This means every person would have to read something that was stated, which would make a case much longer. So, when testifying, if someone were to write down their answers, this would not make the decision in the court very easy. Although this may be true in many cases, when the jury is watching someone testify, they also pay attention to their gestures which comes back to nonverbal.
In correctional facilities there are many different law enforcement, employees, ages, and inmates there for many different crimes.
(Wallace, H. & Roberson, C 2009). This causes an endless of possibilities to happen when communicating with one another. When it comes to inmates communicating with one another, generally this is nonverbally due to the fact that they are in their own cell alone for periods of time, and only given a short time to communicate out of their cells. When the inmates are communicating with other inmates or with their friends and families out of the facility they must write letters or set up dates and times only for short periods for verbal communication. Most of the time, when writing letters, depending on the facility, even the nonverbal communication is closely watched. The letters are able to be checked by the officers within the facility in case of any illegal situations happening within their letters. When the officers are communicating with the inmates, this is on a strict law enforced verbal basis. They must only speak to them, and when they do, it must only be about whatever is being done within the facility itself. Officers sometimes lose their job for not sticking to this rule. When faculty is speaking to one another, this could be one of many. There are officers, guards, cooks, commissary, and many more jobs within a correctional facility. When they are communicating at the job, they must talk verbal, no written letters. This can cause a
serious problem, and they can lose their jobs for this.
Like correctional facilities where there are adult inmates, there are also correctional facilities for children as well who are causing problems and aren’t old enough to be in jail.
These are called juvenile facilities. (Wallace, H. & Roberson, C 2009). These facilities make it so that the children making the wrong decisions are not put into the same buildings as adults. This is for their safety in general. When it comes to the way everyone communicates within the juvenile facility, it really depends on the person and who they are speaking or writing to. If a juvenile were to try and communicate with a friend or family member, then normally they’d have to write them. Anyone who wants actual face to face verbal communication has to be a certain age, and be Okayed by the facility to come in. If agreed to come in, this gives the juvenile the right to sit and visit with their family or friends verbally. When it comes to the faculty within the juvenile facility, just like an actual correctional facility, there isn’t much nonverbal communication happening. Much of the time when there is nonverbal communication, this is only to share that there is a problem or worry about a child, and then a law enforcement official will talk over any problem with the child verbally. When it comes to faculty officers communicating with their peers, this is always verbally as well. Due to circumstances within the facility
itself.
Communication is the key when handling any circumstance. When dealing with the law this is very important. Knowing if communicating is better verbally or nonverbally plays a key role in getting all important information from person to person and making sure all information is there. Realizing who you are talking to, and if you should talk or write them information is the most important part too. Without knowing this could cause problems or lack of information in itself. Basically, communication is always the most important part of getting information from the giver to the receiver.

References
Wallace, H., & Roberson, C. (2009). Written and interpersonal communication: Methods for law enforcement (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall
Fast, J. (1971). Body language. New York: Pocket Books.
Knapp, M.L., & Hall, J. A. (2002)1980). Nonverbal communication in human interaction (5th ed.). New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.