Challenges of leading groups in criminal justice organizations: The Police.
Leaders in criminal justice organizations such as the court system, the police, and corrections department are faced with innumerable challenges while performing their day to day tasks. This paper shall specifically focus on describing some of the challenges faced by police leaders and the steps that criminal justice professionals can take to effect change for the future generations.
In the contemporary world, the responsibilities of police leaders grow day by day and while their roles have always been challenging, leading a criminal justice organization in highly unstable external and internal environments is becoming increasingly difficult given that a typical day can transform from standard routine to chaos in just a few moments. In the past, communities were stable, and population turnover was minimal which meant that police leaders were on first name basis with citizens. This made it easy to implement law and order in community incidents because the laws just represented the basic rules with which people were raised by. However, the modern world has shifted the landscape for police leaders due to an increasingly mobile and communicating general public, increasing integration of different cultures, and the emergence of technology based crimes that could not be imagined just two decades ago. There is also the issue of an increasingly aware public making demands on governments to effect “comfort” or “citizen friendly” law enforcement programs (Brown, & Pryde, 2013). Other challenges faced by police leaders include the increased rate of incarcerations, the crime cycle and its relationship to drug use, how to deal with youth in the criminal justice system, violence against women and children, and cybercrime (Gruber, 2016).
Criminal justice professional can effect change in the future by reducing crime opportunities, changing the fundamental values instilled into society and nurturing the youth to ascribe to these values. There is also need to reexamine how juvenile offenders are treated, and the impact of drug decriminalization of society and the overall criminal justice landscape i.e. does decriminalization make it less of a problem? The police as criminal justice professionals can affect change by embracing technology in investigating crimes using forensic testing, DNA analysis, surveillance, computer forensics, biometrics and other technologies that enhance crime prevention and solving. Ritter (2006) also suggests increasing the intelligence of databases for public use in addition to the police and analysts will help raise awareness and educate the general public on criminal activities. A good example of such as scenario is access to inmate information and sex offender registries.
References
Brown, R., & Pryde, J. (2013). MultiBrief: Challenges for today’s police chiefs: Establishing a foundation. Exclusive.multibriefs.com. Retrieved 11 April 2016, from http://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/challenges-for-todays-police-chiefs-establishing-a-foundation
Gruber, C. (2016). 5 Challenges Facing Criminal Justice Professionals Right Now. Northeastern University College of Professional Studies. Retrieved 11 April 2016, from http://www.cps.neu.edu/prospective-students/tips-for-success/challenges-facing-criminal-justice-professionals.php
Ritter, N. (2006). Preparing for the Future: Criminal Justice in 2040. National Institute Of Justice Journal, (255), 8-11. Retrieved from http://www.nij.gov/journals/255/pages/2040.aspx
