Dominique Walker
August 4, 2014
CjA/304
Effective Communication

In this report I will be discussing the differences and definitions of hearing and listening , I will also be touching bases on the process of verbal and non-verbal communications as well as the different barriers and components that may block ones ability to hear or listen to conversations and communications in the criminal justice organization they may be involved in.

Listening plays one of the biggest roles in the criminal justice system when it comes to communicating. First being able to understand the idea of the message and being able to receive it correctly is going to impact your nature to be able to provide critical feedback. I recently read a reading that stated that the officers of the law partake in various communication situations throughout the entire day that has a lot to do with a ton of one on one communication. One of the most important reasons why law officers need to be effective in listening and communication will boil down to their police reports at the end of the night. Officers are going to be in situations where they have to write down statements from I witness, suspects and victims. They will have to put each statement in writing in case it has to be displayed in court at a future date. Officers are going to have to be able to recall these events to the tee and everything is going to have to add up make sense and be accounted for and if an officer cannot maintain accurate information or if his report is all over the place than he places his case to be on the highest opportunity to be thrown out of court.
Do you believe there is a difference between hearing and listening? Sometimes a person may respond to something you say by saying “I hear you “but the question is are they really listening. Well there is a difference between the two hearing is a passive occurrence that requires little to no effort unless you have a hearing impaired disability. Listening on the other hand, is a conscious choice that demands your attention and concentration. So many times we hear someone speak without their own consent and we still have our mind programed to capture and listen to the words the speaker actually said. There are four known simple levels of hearing and listening, which a receiver can easily fall into anyone of the categories, after multiple conversations. The first is a non-listener which would be the person that is too wrapped up in his or her own thoughts that they don’t even care to listen or engage in the conversation. Active listeners on the other hand are going to be completely focused and engaged in the conversation they’ll also be able to understand all the words spoken and their meaning. Third you have the passive listener this listener will fully hear all the words kind of like the non-listener but won’t or cannot fully absorb them, this listener may tend to look confused during engagement. Than lately you have listeners you are paying attention to the speaker but still only are able to grasp partial communication and messages.
One of the biggest and best strategies for overcoming the difficult aspects of communication is too develop feedback it’s a way the receiver can determine if what is communicated is correctly received l, I think with positive feedback it's a two way street one would provide feedback when listening to another and should request feedback as well. Sometimes in communication there can be misunderstanding or things that may cause confusion. These common barriers may occur at any time during the conversation or communication process. Being able to work through and overcome the barriers are going to ensure an effective and clear message. I would say one of the leading communication barriers in the criminal justice organization would be lack of interest or irrelevance to the receiver. It’s possible that the speaker is boring the receiver(s) to where they have tuned out the speaker completely and