Enhancing Criminal Justice and Policing: A Comprehensive Review and Call for Further Research

Introduction

Criminal justice entails the structure of laws, rules, and agencies tasked with holding criminals accountable for breaking the law and restoring the victims. Therefore, criminal justice and policing encompass the numerous activities undertaken by relevant authorities aimed at bettering communities' welfare. However, criminal justice and policing sometimes may fall short of delivering society's expectations, necessitating a need for a better review of the relevant authorities to enhance the system's effectiveness. The document will provide an in-depth insight into the three most important themes from the five articles the paper will review and then later support that information.

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Thesis (Themes)

One of the three primary themes is the need for a better policing framework and guidelines to enhance better relations between police and communities in promoting a better criminal justice system and policing in curbing illegal activities. The second fundamental theme highlights the significance of further and detailed personnel training in ensuring better service delivery. Additionally, the aspect highlights sexual offenses as one of the significant elements of criminal justice and policing. The third most evident theme details observing virtues of trust, confidence, and observance of the system's timely assessments. It will help improve the police's quality of service delivery by providing better avenues for criminal justice and policing.

Supporting Ideas

Point 1:

More than often, the police have explicitly been susceptible to the syndrome of "means over ends" as noted by Herman Goldstein in his 1979 article, "Improving Policing: A problem-Oriented Approach." The syndrome has been catapulted by professional movements within policing (Golstein, 1979). However, if the police are to witness greater returns to their society's service delivery on criminal justice, then there is a need for a more direct framework. The approach will focus on curbing crime on the end product rather than on their efforts (Myhill & Bradford, 2012).

Therefore, in actualizing Goldstein's suggested framework, enhancing public cooperation and improvement of the Citizen Police Academy (CPA) will prove useful in the community's policing (Cohn, 1996). Additionally, based on the satisfaction of both the policing personnel and ordinary people, the policing framework and criminal justice can be refined to meet the loopholes (Darwinkel, Powell & Tidmarsh, 2013). However, even with a refined framework, there is a need for further research on community policing and public cooperation and how it can be enhanced.

Point 2:

Darwinkel, Powell, and Tidmarsh (2013) conducted a study on whether there would be a significant change between specialist police training on the dynamics of sexual offending and the modification of victim-blaming attitudes by officers. Out of the sample of 77 Australian police officers, qualitative evidence and pattern of results showing officers' decisions revealed that attitude change came from a greater understanding of the dynamics of sexual offending (Darwinkel, Powell & Tidmarsh, 2013). Training the police and equipping them with better skills will go a long way in ensuring better service delivery of authority to criminal justice (Goldstein, 1979). Additionally, through training of the personnel, trust, and confidence will be instilled among the workforce, being a significant factor in the measurement of the quality of service offered by the personnel in the criminal justice and policing system (Myhill & Bradford, 2012).

Improving organization, staffing, and management is critical but should be done in more direct approaches focusing on policing outcomes. In the article, Goldstein argued of police's irrational course in solving criminal justice and protection, more specifically on policing. Approaching the policing issue on categorical headings such as "delinquency," "violence," "disorder" or even "crime" is bound to fail (Goldstein, 1979). Suppose the police heavily rely on criminal offense categories in defining issues of concern to them. In that case, other perpetrators might be misled into believing that if a particular form of behavior is not criminalized, it is of no interest to the police. There is a need for further research on the implications of police trainers, a framework for approaching unclear aspects in the criminalization of offenses, and sexual offending dynamics.

Point 3:

As mentioned earlier in the document, the two significant indicators of the quality of service offered by the criminal justice and policing system, just like any other organization, are trust and confidence. Therefore, aspects of proper training of police leaning more on improving the quality of service delivered to the public will significantly impact building public confidence (Myhill & Bradford, 2012). Worden and McLean (2018), in the article "Measuring, managing and enhancing procedural justice in policing: Promise and pitfalls. Criminal justice policy review," gave insight into pitfalls faced by stakeholders in the system in the bid to meet their targeted promises to the citizens. However, the two authors suggested implementing timely assessments providing avenues for expected service delivery by translating society's contentment with the services offered by the system.

When individuals have contact with police, the fairness by which the law is perceived in acting alters the trust and confidence of citizens in the office with the perception that the police need to be obeyed, affecting the legitimacy of the authority (Darwinkel, Powell & Tidmarsh, 2013). Worden and McLean in the article highlighted specific points on procedural justice. The two authors affirmed that the procedural justice by which police officers act is neither an outcome for which police managers are held accountable nor is it typically measured in police agencies as is usually perceived. Worden and McLean, in their study, therefore, aimed at measuring the performance of the police force concerning procedural justice and mainly analyzed over time assessments of citizens of procedural fairness. However, the results revealed inconsistent changes that ensued from performance measurement with neither police performance (Worden & McLean, 2018). There is, therefore, a need for further research in assessing procedural justice and implications for enhancing police legitimacy.

Conclusion

As detailed in the articles, the criminal system and policing are indispensable in any community. Thus, there is a necessity to improve the system time and again for effective service delivery to the public. Suppose the relevant authorities involved in criminal justice are committed to improving their functional ability. In that case, tremendous changes will undoubtedly be witnessed in the criminal and justice system, creating a better society for the current generation and generations. However, there is a need for further research on profound areas the training on policing should major on in improving their effectiveness in the criminal and justice system that was not highlighted in the five articles.

References

Cohn, E. G. (1996). The citizen police academy: A recipe for improving police-community relations. Journal of Criminal Justice, 24(3), 265-271.

Darwinkel, E., Powell, M., & Tidmarsh, P. (2013). Improving police officers’ perceptions of sexual offending through intensive training. Criminal justice and behavior, 40(8), 895-908.

Goldstein, H. (1979). Improving policing: A problem-oriented approach. Crime & delinquency, 25(2), 236-258.

Myhill, A., & Bradford, B. (2012). Can police enhance public confidence by improving quality of service? Results from two surveys in England and Wales. Policing and society, 22(4), 397-425.

Worden, R. E., & McLean, S. J. (2018). Measuring, managing, and enhancing procedural justice in policing: Promise and pitfalls. Criminal justice policy review, 29(2), 149-171.