Communication in Criminal Justice

Communication in Criminal Justice

Real life is not always tidy, and this fact certainly holds true in public communications. Audiences have multiple characteristics that can influence how a message should be delivered. As a criminal justice professional, you must consider how audience characteristics might influence how a message should be delivered. You should then consider challenges to effectively communicating a message to that audience.

Perhaps you select to use visual aids for a group of 7th-grade children. You then find out that the children attend an inner-city school with a low reading level and will not be able to understand your visual aids. Or perhaps they are Non-English speaking children who might not be able to read your visual aids. Once you begin to consider the variety of potential audiences, and their distinct characteristics, the importance of presenting the same message in several different formats becomes clear.

For this assignment, review your PowerPoint submission from Week 2. Then select one audience from the list provided. Consider how that audience might benefit from the message that was delivered in Week 2. Next, examine characteristics specific to that audience that may influence how the message should be delivered. Look at potential challenges in communicating this message to the selected audience. Finally, consider how your communication might have to be altered in order to deliver this same message to the new audience.

• Children
• Juveniles (under the age of 18)
• People with Mental Illness
• Ethnic/Racial minorities
• Persons living in poverty
• Criminals
• Immigrants
• Non-English-speaking citizens
• People with Intellectual Disabilities
• Deaf Community
• Elderly
• Pregnant Women

The Assignment (2–3 pages)

Review your PowerPoint submission from Week 2.

• Describe an audience that might benefit from the message you delivered in your Week 2 submission
• Explain characteristics specific to that audience that may influence how the message should be delivered
• Explain potential challenges in communicating the message to the selected audience
• Explain how you might revise your approach in the presentation based on the characteristics specific to the audience you selected and why. Be sure not to change the content of the message