CJA 304 Interpersonal Communication

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Effective Communication Paper CJA/304 - INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS In the field of Criminal Justice it is critical that law enforcement officers are proficient in the art of communication. According to our course text, “Communication encompasses the following three elements: 1. It is a process, not an isolated event. 2. It involves at least two persons. 3. Its primary purpose is the exchange of information. Communication can be defined as, “a process involving several steps, among two or more persons, for the primary purpose of exchanging information.” (Written and Interpersonal Communication: Methods for Law Enforcement, p.15) There are two different types of communication, verbal and non-verbal. Both types of communication…show more content…
According to Judith Sherven, PhD and James Sniechowski, PhD, “Hearing takes place when something disturbs the atmosphere and that disturbance takes the form of pressure waves that strike our ear drums as sound. It’s the way we perceive sound. Listening is different. It expands on hearing when we pay attention to the meaning of what we hear. For example, a truck just rolled by on the road in front of our house. I heard the noisy rumble, knew what it was, and after that paid no attention whatsoever.” (powertochange.com) When another person is attempting to inform you of an incident it is important to listen fully, specifically you can listen for key words and phrases relating to the object or idea being discussed. “Numerous tests confirm that we are inefficient listeners. Studies have shown that immediately after listening to a 10-minute oral presentation, the average listener has heard, understood, and retained only 50 percent of what was said.” (Lee, Hatesohl, 1993) While hearing and listening are important there are also two types of communication channels used in most all…show more content…
People base their encoding or transmitting of information on their personal experiences and expectations. Physical barriers are the aspects of an environment that make communication more difficult. These barriers include a rigid chain of command that requires the officer to report to a supervisor instead of informing a peer about information obtained regarding a crime. Semantic problems can be defined as “the inability to agree on the meaning of certain terms, with a resulting loss in the ability to communicate clearly. Ineffective listening is the failure to hear or receive what the other party is transmitting. The general cause of ineffective listening is habit, which can be traced to the individual’s earliest development. The pattern of being a talker rather than a listener is learned during childhood.” (Written and Interpersonal Communication: Methods for Law Enforcement, p.48-50) Do to these barriers that exist in effective communication we must learn to devise a strategy to overcome

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