Understanding Bias in Police Work - Video # 8 скачать в хорошем качестве

Understanding Bias in Police Work - Video # 8

Justice Center@drhalvey; playlist: cultural awareness. The aim of this video is to understand Cultural Awareness in Policing and how bias impacts law enforcement. Cultural awareness in policing refers to the ability of law enforcement officials to recognize, respect, and effectively interact with individuals from different cultures and backgrounds. This includes understanding the cultural values, beliefs, and norms that may influence the behavior and attitudes of people from diverse communities. Such awareness in policing is essential for building trust and positive relationships with all community members. It also helps to reduce the potential for misunderstandings, miscommunications, and biases, which can lead to negative interactions and even harm. Police officers who are culturally aware are better equipped to address the needs of diverse communities, including those who may be marginalized or disadvantaged. They can provide adequate support and assistance to victims of crime and ensure that all individuals are treated with respect and dignity, regardless of their background or circumstances (Shusta et al., 2018). To enhance cultural awareness in policing, law enforcement agencies should provide ongoing training and education to their officers on diversity, equity, and inclusion issues. This training often includes learning about the history and experiences of different cultural groups and understanding the impact of implicit biases and stereotypes on policing. Also, police departments should strive to recruit and retain officers from diverse backgrounds who can bring various perspectives and experiences to the job. This can help to ensure that the police force is representative of the community it serves and can help to build trust and understanding between law enforcement and the public (Shusta). It is crucial for police departments to actively address and prevent bias in their policies, procedures, and training programs. This can help ensure that officers treat all community members and coworkers fairly and without prejudice. Bias manifests in police work in various ways. 1. Racial bias: Police officers may hold unconscious biases against certain racial or ethnic groups, leading them to treat people from those groups unfairly. This can result in racial profiling, where officers use a person's race to decide whether to stop or search them (Bratton et al., 2021). 2. Confirmation bias: Police officers may develop a preconceived notion of a suspect's guilt and then look for evidence that supports that theory while ignoring evidence that contradicts it. This can lead to wrongful arrests and convictions. 3. Gender bias: Police officers may hold biases against women, leading them to treat female suspects, victims, and witnesses differently than their male counterparts. This can result in unequal treatment and discrimination. 4. Socioeconomic bias: Police officers may hold biases against people from specific socioeconomic backgrounds, leading them to view them as more likely to be involved in criminal activity. This can result in unfair treatment of people who are poor or homeless. 5. Geographic bias: Police officers may hold biases against people who live in specific neighborhoods or areas, leading them to view them as more likely to be involved in criminal activity. This can result in unequal treatment of people based on their residence. Bias and stereotyping often go together. Studies show that behaviors such as bias and stereotyping are part of the system of cognition, where the brain makes unconscious decisions. As a result, in intense or ambiguous situations, people will often default to their biases to help them make decisions. Problems can arise when unfair prejudice prevents a person from looking somewhat at the evidence before deciding on a matter. Since impartiality and fairness are the ideals in the justice system, this can cause the system to break down and the Constitutional rights of citizens to be violated (Shusta et al., 2018). Police bias often leads to profiling. This is most clearly seen in the practice of racial profiling, which uses stereotypes to influence judgment rather than facts. This practice still occurs in law enforcement and involves making assumptions about the character of individuals based on their culture or skin color. People of color and members of other cultures often become the targets of profiling due to people being influenced based on their own past experiences or the experiences of others (Glover, 2009). ------------------- References Bratton, B. (2021). The profession.: policing in America. Penguin Press. Glover, K. (2009). Racial profiling: Research, racism, and resistance: Issues in crime and justice. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Shusta, R., Levine, D. & Olsen, A. (2018). Multicultural law enforcement: Strategies for peacekeeping in a diverse society. Pearson Publishing.