Dr.

Shepherd English 101 Gabe Kleinschmidt 3/21/2014 Criminal Justice and Writing

Kleinschmidt 1

When you think about criminal justice and writing, a few things might primarily come to mind such as writing tickets and reports, and for the most part this is very true. Usually you wouldnt think of criminal justice has a lot of writing, but writing and literature are very crucial to the success of criminal justice. Criminal justice professionals, like being a police officer in the criminal justice field has an image or reputation for being more physical than literate. In Chris Manes Writing in Criminal Justice, he talks a lot about how writing and literature are a very important aspect in the criminal justice field. In part of his writing he talks about how the media makes it seem as though the criminal justice field is mostly physical, but there is more to that. He states criminal justice professionals must be able to write reports for crime investigations, trials, presentence investigations, correctional incidents, parole actions, appeals, probation cases, substance abuse programs, domestic violence assessments, sex offender reports, mental health evaluations, and many juvenile investigations, evaluations, prosecutions and rehabilitation programs. Education is part of criminal justice, of course, and educators must have highly developed writing skills, as well as a mastery of research writing and citation styles (Chris Manes). There is a lot that goes with writing in the criminal field and I agree with what he talks about.

2 [Type text] Kleinschmidt 2 Writing is very important in this field, and there are plenty of different ways and types of literature involved, as he had stated. In my interview with officer Kent Kleinschmidt we discussed how he uses writing in the criminal justice field. He mostly talked about how when you are majoring in this field there is a lot of reading and writing that are involved in the process of becoming a police officer. In one instance Kent claims, There was more writing in this field then expected and I was expecting more of the physical aspect of the field and did not realize the amount of writing that would be involved. He also told me that the amount and style of writing really depends on the career path that you choose within the field. Not only is writing very important in the criminal justice field, but so is reading. In the academic facet of criminal justice the reading usually contains reading textbooks, scholarly journals, articles, and essays. The reading in school is similar but different from the reading within the profession of criminal justice. Depending on what profession you go into through criminal justice the general reading usually associated with the job probably consist of reports, case briefs, lab reports (crime lab), field notes, interrogation notes, and search warrants. Being a police officer requires good writing knowledge. One example of a way it is crucial to use your writing correctly in this career would be as simple as writing reports. A badly worded or poorly written report can lead to a criminal being put away or going free. In this career, evidence is very crucial to an investigation. It is very important to write the reports properly. In the case of poorly

Kleinschmidt 3 written reports, this leaves a window for defense attorneys to claim that you are uneducated or dont know what you are doing which can be very bad for any case. For an officer it is very bad for an offender to walk obviously, so it is crucial for a person in this field to obtain the abilities to write a proper report with accurate information. Without the proper information the attorneys can use the wrong information against you. In this field it is very pressing to have good notes. In Seth Kahns Putting Ethnographic Writing in Context, Kahn talks about Ethnographic writing. This is a writing that is usually based on other people or what is currently happening in the world such a culture. This style of writing, I understand, is used frequently in the criminal justice field. With this writing, it involves many interviews such as field notes to put together your article. In the case or reporting on something law related, it is very significant that your evidence be understandable to your audience. Using this style of writing in this field can be useful to an investigation or a case. The two common formats used for writing are APA format, which stands for American Psychological Association and MLA format, which stand for Modern Language Association. These formats are both acceptable styles of writing in the criminal justice field. The APA format is primarily used for social and behavioral sciences. Though you would think that APA would be the primary tool for writing papers in this field, it turns out that in the criminal justice major, MLA format is more acceptable among colleges than APA is.

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Technology and Social Media within Criminal Justice

In Michael Weschs Ted Talk about social media he talks about many ways that our world can use social media for positive things and can send a message to people around the world. Using social media not only to spread an idea is important but social media can connect us in other ways such as finding people, people that have gone missing or have been kidnapped or the people that they suspect did this. Another important aspect of the criminal justice field would be the media. In the criminal field media is a very essential tool and can be very useful to solving crimes. When there are major crimes the police will gather the correct information that they will choose to release to the media for a press release. Releasing the key information is vital to finding a suspect or victim. The Amber Alert is a very good example of how we use media to find a missing person. The Amber Alert is a bill board or message that tells you who is missing, what they look like, and key things to identify the person such as facial features and what they were wearing when they were last seen. The Amber Alert is primary used for finding missing children, and was invented after a little girl named Amber went missing. With the rise in social media it is as though we can use social media as our new Amber Alert. We can use social media to spread an image and information on a missing child by using networks such as Twitter and Facebook. Another case that used social media as a tool would be with the Boston Marathon bombing. For a while they could not locate the suspect, but using social media people were able to spread the word and images of this suspect. Social networks such as Twitter became viral with images and

Kleinschmidt 5 information in order to find them. With these examples you can see why social media plays a very important part in criminal justice. With criminal justice it is not all based upon physical abilities but the ability to use writing and reading in a useful way. After my research on writing in the criminal field I was surprised at how important writing is to this career. You must be very specific when writing reports and taking interviews, and a slight mix up or misunderstanding can cause a lot of trouble. In this career it is very key to be in touch with what is going weather it is through social media or reading. This is why I believe that reading and writing are the most important skills that you should obtain in order to be successful in this major or career.

6 [Type text] Kleinschmidt 6 Work cited

Manes, Chris. Writing in Criminal Justice. Sacramento State http://www.csus.edu/wac/WAC/Students/Major%20Sites/criminal_justice.html Wesch, Michael. Ted Talk. 2010

Kahn, Seth. Putting Ethnographic Writing in Context. 2011