Cultural competence is a skill required to interact with individuals of various cultures in the fields where people work with persons from different cultural background. To work as a police officer based on the preference of cultural competence is more significant than the next levels in the criminal system. Officers must increase their own cultural competence and include cultural competence as an essential requirement in being indulgent, evaluating, and reporting certain kinds of incidents and crimes. As a profession, law enforcement needs to make sure that agencies promote the importance of officer effectiveness across all backgrounds and equitable principals, policies, and structure throughout police organizations.
The Minority Group is a small part of the population that may be subjected to discrepancy because of certain physical appearance or characteristics.
This group is considered as a small group as it differs from the majority of population as the population of this group is less. Between 1990 and 2000 there have been few documented changes in the population characteristics, and this data was released in 2008. The Black population is expected to increase from 14 percent of the population in 2008 to 15 percent in 2050 (Shusta, Levine, Harris, Wong, Olson, 2011). Similarly, 9.2 percent will be Asians, which is an increase of 15.5 million as compared to the population of Asians in 2008. The Hispanic population is expected to increase from 15 to 30 percent from 2008 to 2050.
A permanent lawful resident who is admitted into United States is legally called an Immigrant or Permanent Resident Alien. The immigrants are given the freedom to stay in the country on basis of immigrant visas or can be provided the permanent resident status. An individual who has been outside his or her country of origin because of the suffering caused by harassment, or is not willing to return to the habitual residence because of the fear of persecution is known as a refugee. Unlike the Immigrant who moves into other country at his or her own will, the refugee is called the asylum seeker till the state grants permission to stay in the state.
The Violence Against Woman Act (VAWA) came into existence from 1994 and it is set to transform the system in which the officers responded to the domestic violence calls for help. The responses of the Police Officer responses to incidents of domestic violence have changed after the VAWA was passed by the congress. The police officers who once used to neglect domestic problems citing the reason of private problem are now more serious regarding their work. The victim’s plea for help is no more disregarded. VAWA changed the perception of the abused women immigrants in the country.
The three different types of racism found in the Law Enforcement Workforce are; personally mediated, institutional, and internalized. The personally mediated racism includes specific attitudes, practices, and beliefs that involve the acts of partiality, and categorizing the individuals. If the Private or Public organization fails to provide any facilities, opportunities, and basic necessities because of the color, culture or the ethnicity then it is referred as Institutional Racism. In Internalized racism the member of a beleaguered group accepts and lives out the incorrect myths and restrictions applied to the group.
The tips provided by Sondra Thiederman to the organizational managers on conflict resolution are applicable to every culture, religion, and ethnicity where she stated that every party must be provided an opportunity to speak without being interrupted. Each party must be asked questions and attempts must be made to understand what upsets the other person before the manager provides an agreement. During the questioning process the employees must not be allowed to deviate from the central issue. The manager must summarize the cultural differences after the hearing and give the negative and positive results. The parties involved in the differences must provide the solution to the problem and try to negotiate the terms. When the situation improves the positive reinforcement must be provided. These techniques will be useful in law enforcement to reduce the racial and ethnic problems within both the workforce and the neighborhoods.
The various workforce issues confronting women in law enforcement include sexual harassment, gender discrimination, biased treatment, career-versus-family issues, role barriers, and a double standard. Gender discrimination occurs when an employee undergoes unequal treatment on the basis of sex. The barriers that existed in the role of the male and female in the earlier days has diminished and now the women and men work equally in the workplace. The once dominated police workforce is readily willing to accept women in the workforce. Any uninvited sexual advances, visual or physical conduct of sexual nature, request for sexual favors, or any sort of intimidation are sexual harassment. The women are more pressurized to perform better than their male counterparts to be considered equal, which clearly describes double standards.
The social and demographic changes, and fluctuating economy are some of the recruiting difficulties faced by the law enforcement agencies. These factors pose a constant challenge for these agencies as they are under pressure to hire qualified workers. The new jobs in the law enforcement require people with high skills; however the pool of youth is decreasing dues to anti-social elements. The other factors that pose a difficulty in recruitment are the age, height, and weight of the applicant, drug abuse and criminal history.
References
Shusta, Robert M., Levine, Deena R., Wong, Herbert Z., Olson, Aaron T., Harris, Philip R. (2011). Multicultural Law Enforcement: Strategies for Peacekeeping in a Diverse Society, 5th Edition. Prentice Hall.
