Both self-awareness and cross-cultural knowledge are necessary for criminal justice professionals and leaders. It might seem like an impossible challenge to simultaneously respect the cultural differences of each person and be as objective as the blindfolded Lady Justice. However, developing sociocultural intelligence offers the potential to make a significant and positive impact on community perceptions and improve engagement with the criminal justice system. Public confidence is a necessity for procedural justice and effective criminal justice system leadership.
Prior to beginning work on this assignment, please review:
- Reforming the Criminal Justice System—An Ethical Leadership Approach
- Cultural Competence in Criminal Justice
- Reimagining Cultural Competence: Bringing Buried Dynamics Into the Light
You will compile everything learned in the preceding weeks of this course together into one comprehensive report. Your final report should be suitable for distribution to community groups, elected and appointed officials, and professionals across the three branches of the criminal justice system: public safety, the judiciary, and corrections.
Using the information developed from your research and assignments in Weeks 1 through 4, develop a comprehensive report on the implications of sociocultural intelligence on both the criminal justice system and community. You may reuse elements of your assignments from Weeks 1 through 4, but you should not cut and paste and reuse sections verbatim.
In your paper:
- Explain the current problems, issues, and other factors related to the influence of sociocultural intelligence on the criminal justice system.
- Determine how sociocultural intelligence contributes to building community trust in the criminal justice system.
- Evaluate the relationship between workforce demographics and sociocultural intelligence.
- Analyze the influence of implicit bias on decisions made by professionals in each branch of the criminal justice system (i.e., public safety, the judiciary, and corrections) and overall procedural justice.
- Examine the impact of social labels and norms as they relate to perception, bias, and the implications for procedural justice.
- Assess the effectiveness of existing programs implemented to enhance sociocultural intelligence.
- Formulate a plan to improve efforts to enhance sociocultural intelligence.
- Propose at least two changes that could be implemented by each of the branches of the criminal justice system as well as community groups to identify sociocultural issues.
