Criminal Justice Essay -- Crime Criminal Justice Police Essays

Criminal Justice This paper will describe my understanding of the text and of the lectures provided in the class. Unlike most classes, where I understood only my view of the text, this class was geared so each student would understand each other’s view. 3 An organization is a collective that has some boundary and internal structure that engages in activities related to some complex set of goals. Members of organizations attempt to meet their psychological, ego and emotional needs within the organization. Criminal justice organizations are particularly unique compared to other public or private sector organizations because of the governmental granted authority. Management within these organizations can be defined as the process by which the elements of a group are integrated, coordinated and/or utilized so as to efficiently achieve the organization’s objectives. In Law enforcement and correctional organizations, the front line officers manage people. This is especially true in the contro l of inmates. In these organizations, we must consider the hierarchy to be inverted. The front line officers, not limited to sergeants and lieutenants, influence the direction of the organization. Leaders in criminal justice establish direction by developing a vision of the future, align people through shared values and vision, and motivate and inspire people to move them toward the shared vision. Leaders will challenge existing processes and systems, focus on the future of the basic assumptions, values, and beliefs and create the basis for structural or programmatic change. 4 Conversely, leadership in corrections is often more complex. Prison and jail overcrowding, along with the increasing number of geriatric, mentally ill and an influx of younger and more violent inmates requires the managers of the organization to increase the training and motivation of line officers in order to deal with problems. In law enforcement agencies, leaderships must recognize the need for more communi ty policing programs. These criminal justice organizations must look inside themselves and adapt change in order to meet their goals and objectives. The goals of organizations not only provide direction but also serve as constraints or limits. An example in the criminal justice model would be for an agency to make more arrests to meet the public outcry, but also to insure the judicial and corr... ...ders within the organization must utilize all their skills to ensure agency goals and objectives are met, especially in the criminal justice system. The organization culture is very complex in nature within the criminal justice system. The law enforcement, judicial and correctional systems, even though essentially in the same business, are different. Each level of the justice system belongs to it’s own subculture. Each also, has subcultures within it. They act on individual socialization within themselves. A great example would be life within a prison institution. The warden, of course, is in charge of the institution but when off, the ranking correctional officer is in charge when he/she is with the inmates. The individual group leader of the inmates (according to the â€Å"pecking order†) is in charge when the correctional officer is not around. The examples given are of formal and informal socialization. Before taking this course and thoroughly reading the text, I was only exposed to law enforcement organizations. Most of the professors were either lawyers or law professionals. It was enlightening to read the text and to hear a different perspective from a corrections professional.

How Technology Affects Modern America

The microeconomic picture of the U. S. has changed immensely since 1973, and the trends are proving to be consistently downward for the nation's high school graduates and high school drop-outs. â€Å"Of all the reasons given for the wage squeeze – international competition, technology, deregulation, the decline of unions and defense cuts – technology is probably the most critical. It has favored the educated and the skilled,† says M. B. Zuckerman, editor-in-chief of U. S. News & World Report (7/31/95). Since 1973, wages adjusted for inflation have declined by about a quarter for high school dropouts, by a sixth for high school graduates, and by about 7% for those with some college education. Only the wages of college graduates are up. Of the fastest growing technical jobs, software engineering tops the list. Carnegie Mellon University reports, â€Å"recruitment of it's software engineering students is up this year by over 20%. † All engineering jobs are paying well, proving that highly skilled labor is what employers want! There is clear evidence that the supply of workers in the [unskilled labor] categories already exceeds the demand for their services,† says L. Mishel, Research Director of Welfare Reform Network. In view of these facts, I wonder if these trends are good or bad for society. â€Å"The danger of the information age is that while in the short run it may be cheaper to replace workers with technology, in the long run it is potentially self-destructive because there will not be enough purchasing power to grow the economy,† M. B. Zuckerman. My feeling is that the trend from unskilled labor to highly technical, skilled labor is a good one! But, political action must be taken to ensure that this societal evolution is beneficial to all of us. â€Å"Back in 1970, a high school diploma could still be a ticket to the middle income bracket, a nice car in the driveway and a house in the suburbs. Today all it gets is a clunker parked on the street, and a dingy apartment in a low rent building,† says Time Magazine (Jan 30, 1995 issue). However, in 1970, our government provided our children with a free education, allowing the vast majority of our population to earn a high school diploma. This means that anyone, regardless of family income, could be educated to a level that would allow them a comfortable place in the middle class. Even restrictions upon child labor hours kept children in school, since they are not allowed to work full time while under the age of 18. This government policy was conducive to our economic markets, and allowed our country to prosper from 1950 through 1970. Now, our own prosperity has moved us into a highly technical world, that requires highly skilled labor. The natural answer to this problem, is that the U. S. Government's education policy must keep pace with the demands of the highly technical job market. If a middle class income of 1970 required a high school diploma, and the middle class income of 1990 requires a college diploma, then it should be as easy for the children of the 90's to get a college diploma, as it was for the children of the 70's to get a high school diploma. This brings me to the issue of our country's political process, in a technologically advanced world. Voting & Poisoned Political Process in The U. S. The advance of mass communication is natural in a technologically advanced society. In our country's short history, we have seen the development of the printing press, the radio, the television, and now the Internet; all of these, able to reach millions of people. Equally natural, is the poisoning and corruption of these medias, to benefit a few. From the 1950's until today, television has been the preferred media. Because it captures the minds of most Americans, it is the preferred method of persuasion by political figures, multinational corporate advertising, and the upper 2% of the elite, who have an interest in controlling public opinion. Newspapers and radio experienced this same history, but are now somewhat obsolete in the science of changing public opinion. Though I do not suspect television to become completely obsolete within the next 20 years, I do see the Internet being used by the same political figures, multinational corporations, and upper 2% elite, for the same purposes. At this time, in the Internet's young history, it is largely unregulated, and can be accessed and changed by any person with a computer and a modem; no license required, and no need for millions of dollars of equipment. But, in reviewing our history, we find that newspaper, radio and television were once unregulated too. It is easy to see why government has such an interest in regulating the Internet these days. Though public opinion supports regulating sexual material on the Internet, it is just the first step in total regulation, as experienced by every other popular mass media in our history. This is why it is imperative to educate people about the Internet, and make it be known that any regulation of it is destructive to us, not constructive! I have been a daily user of the Internet for 5 years (and a daily user of BBS communications for 4 years), which makes me a senior among us. I have seen the moves to regulate this type of communication, and have always openly opposed it. My feelings about technology, the Internet, and political process are simple. In light of the history of mass communication, there is nothing we can do to protect any media from the â€Å"sound byte† or any other form of commercial poisoning. But, our country's public opinion doesn't have to fall into a nose-dive of lies and corruption, because of it! The first experience I had in a course on Critical Thinking came when I entered college. As many good things as I have learned in college, I found this course to be most valuable to my basic education. I was angry that I hadn't had access to the power of critical thought over my twelve years of basic education. Simple forms of critical thinking can be taught as early as kindergarten. It isn't hard to teach a young person to understand the patterns of persuasion, and be able to defend themselves against them. Television doesn't have to be a weapon against us, used to sway our opinions to conform to people who care about their own prosperity, not ours. With the power of a critical thinking education, we can stop being motivated by the sound byte and, instead we can laugh at it as a cheap attempt to persuade us. In conclusion, I feel that the advance of technology is a good trend for our society; however, it must be in conjunction with advance in education so that society is able to master and understand technology. I think technology has an important effect on us, the way we act, react, and take actions in society. We can be the masters of technology, and not let it be the masters of us.

A Turning Point

Walking past the corridor, I saw a student being punished, and I couldn't help but be filled with nostalgia, bad memories. I too was once caught up in such an embarrassing situation, being punished and disgraced in front of my entire class just because of my â€Å"brilliant† idea which went wrong. While I was in high school Year 10, like everyone else, I was in a celebrative mood jumping for joy, as it was the last week of school before the long school break. However, our laughter and happiness came to an abrupt halt as the form teacher of our class Mr Mann entered the classroom. The entire class groaned and became tense on seeing the stack of red report cards he was carrying. My stomach churned as I already knew that I did not excel in my exam, having failed most of my science subjects as I really detest being in a science stream class instead of arts. Reluctantly, I dragged my heavy feet to the front and took my report card when my name was called out. † I knew it,† I said and gave out a loud sigh when I saw my far from impressive results. Mostly were inked in red. Old fashion type of school but yes, my teacher insisted on our parent's signature on the report card for every exam and I could smell the trouble burning awaiting me at home. I knew I would be punished therefore, overwhelmed with fear, I came out with this â€Å"brilliant† idea which is to forge out my parent's signature. â€Å"Everything should be fine if I play my cards right,† I said to myself. Next day came D-day, trying to stop trembling like a leaf while handing up my report card, Mr Mann glared at me. Everything was over when he twitched his eyebrows and questioned me, I was caught red handed. He firmly admonished me in front of my whole class. Drama was unfolding before me just like in TV shows. He was hell bent on making a lesson to be learnt to the entire class out of me. â€Å"Well, do you have anything to say?† asked Mr Mann, in his mild and calm manner. I blushed and stood sheepishly as my classmates roared in laughter merciless. Helplessly I stared at the floor fully embarrassed, with eyes filled with tears hoping it to end as soon as possible. Yet that wasn't the end of the horror, my parents were called and now it is a total game over for me. Well, I had to face the music. My parents are loving and kind but once in a blue moon, like a volcano, they erupt! â€Å"You are grounded for a month!† said mother. â€Å"Your allowance is also going to be deducted!† added father. I'm sorry, that's all I could afford to say while tearing up. Looking back at this though it is just two years back, I saw how much this incident had taught me. It taught me that honesty is always the best policy no matter what happens. Putting aside my studies just because it is not something which I prefer over sports do not benefit me in anyway. Cheating does not bring nor benefit me but only brings out more trouble. I also realized that my parents always wanted what's best for me. Giving me loads of education in terms of academic, sports, music and even computer lessons, I never knew it could be that useful in building up a strong character and confidence in me. Most importantly my future, in who I want to be and what would make them proud. The lessons I learned from this incident has enriched my life and made it much more meaningful in which I promise to strive in studies and also sports. As saying goes, it's always never too late.