Throughout the criminal justice profession, there are several issues that need to be addressed within different populations across the country. All of these issues add up to the needs that should to be addressed to enable a more responsible police force, and a safer more responsible society. They include; teen drug and alcohol abuse, racial profiling, and illegal immigration. As well as these issues, there are many other concerns in the criminal justice profession. Multiculturalism and diversity play a major role in how populations are policed across the country. Members of society have varied awareness of the duties and responsibilities officers need to deal with on a daily basis. While society’s perceptions on the officers are varied across
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“Diversity is the condition of having or being composed of differing elements : variety; especially : the inclusion of different types of people (such as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization” (Merriam-Webster, 2018). Diversity is what our country is built on, so it makes sense that there have always been issues relating to it. One of the largest issues dealing with multiculturalism and diversity is racial profiling. “Racial Profiling refers to the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual's race, ethnicity, religion or national origin” ("Racial Profiling: Definition”, n.d.). Racial profiling is more common in the larger metropolitan areas of the country, but it does exist everywhere. The reasons this issue occurs is because of different stereotypes and opinions about certain classifications of citizens. Although still existent, issues regarding diversity and multiculturalism are being combatted by police forces in various ways. While some officers may be uncomfortable in such diverse populations, where they don’t have culture or race in common with some of the citizens of the area, there are also officers who can relate to the citizens. The most effective way to deal with multicultural and diversity issues is to have an extremely diverse police department. With people on the force …show more content…
These perceptions can be positive, negative, or anywhere in between. An example of a negative perception can be seen after someone gets pulled over, when they ask why the officer wasn’t out dealing with real criminals. A positive perception could be noticed when someone shakes the hand of an officer, thanking them for everything they do. But where do these perceptions come from? Everyone has their own reasons for the opinions or beliefs they have about the criminal justice professionals, but being human, most people are influenced by different things throughout their communities. These influences can range from things they hear from friends and family, things they see on the television or internet, or even things they see police officers do on the streets of their communities. Kenneth Berkowitz said in his PoliceOne article, “The good men and women representing law enforcement process thousands of arrests and have millions of interactions every day with citizens across the United States.” (Berkowitz, 2015). He then goes on to say, “The only ones we hear about in the media are the one in 100,000.” (Berkowitz, 2015). This quote substantiates the idea that every officer out there, just trying to do his or her job, will be judged by the acts of a few bad seeds. Influences on people’s perception can lead to many stereotypes throughout communities, both positive
“Diversity is the condition of having or being composed of differing elements : variety; especially : the inclusion of different types of people (such as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization” (Merriam-Webster, 2018). Diversity is what our country is built on, so it makes sense that there have always been issues relating to it. One of the largest issues dealing with multiculturalism and diversity is racial profiling. “Racial Profiling refers to the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual's race, ethnicity, religion or national origin” ("Racial Profiling: Definition”, n.d.). Racial profiling is more common in the larger metropolitan areas of the country, but it does exist everywhere. The reasons this issue occurs is because of different stereotypes and opinions about certain classifications of citizens. Although still existent, issues regarding diversity and multiculturalism are being combatted by police forces in various ways. While some officers may be uncomfortable in such diverse populations, where they don’t have culture or race in common with some of the citizens of the area, there are also officers who can relate to the citizens. The most effective way to deal with multicultural and diversity issues is to have an extremely diverse police department. With people on the force …show more content…
These perceptions can be positive, negative, or anywhere in between. An example of a negative perception can be seen after someone gets pulled over, when they ask why the officer wasn’t out dealing with real criminals. A positive perception could be noticed when someone shakes the hand of an officer, thanking them for everything they do. But where do these perceptions come from? Everyone has their own reasons for the opinions or beliefs they have about the criminal justice professionals, but being human, most people are influenced by different things throughout their communities. These influences can range from things they hear from friends and family, things they see on the television or internet, or even things they see police officers do on the streets of their communities. Kenneth Berkowitz said in his PoliceOne article, “The good men and women representing law enforcement process thousands of arrests and have millions of interactions every day with citizens across the United States.” (Berkowitz, 2015). He then goes on to say, “The only ones we hear about in the media are the one in 100,000.” (Berkowitz, 2015). This quote substantiates the idea that every officer out there, just trying to do his or her job, will be judged by the acts of a few bad seeds. Influences on people’s perception can lead to many stereotypes throughout communities, both positive