Cultural Competence in the Criminal Justice System

Introduction

Culture determines people's experiences of their world and plays an important role in both the reception and delivery of services. Cultural competence starts with knowing your own cultural practices and beliefs and recognizing the different practices and values of people from other cultures. This goes beyond speaking a different language or simply acknowledging another group's cultural icons. Cultural competence involves examining and changing your biases or prejudgments about different people's cultural traditions and beliefs (Continuing Education Online, 2002–2016).

Cultural competence can therefore be described as a set of attitudes and behaviors within a culture. These attitudes and behaviors are incorporated into the methods of practice of an agency, system, or its professionals, enabling them to work productively in cross-cultural circumstances. To successfully achieve cultural competency, knowledge about groups and individuals must be incorporated and translated into specific practices and standards applied in appropriate cultural settings. Professionals with cultural competence build positive helping relationships, engage their clients effectively, and provide higher-quality services (Continuing Education Online, 2002–2016).

The Value of Cultural Competence

Cultural competence involves validation, openness, and respect toward people whose cultural and social expectations differ from your own. People are often ethnocentric — they assume their own culture is superior to all others. Some individuals are even defensive about, or threatened by, cultural differences. To deliver culturally competent services, certain conditions must be met: one must have knowledge of different cultures and how they shape behavior and attitudes; one must be understanding, non-judgmental, respectful, and sensitive when working across cultures; and one must be skillful and flexible when adapting to diverse cultural settings and situations.

Cultural competence also involves acknowledging that everyone has a different experience of acculturation. This applies not only across different families within a single culture, but also among individuals within the same family (Continuing Education Online, 2002–2016).

Culturally competent practice is guided by a professional ethic. Professionals who observe cultural competence in their work help develop and sustain programs that effectively serve people from diverse backgrounds. Every practitioner needs to demonstrate the core capacities of empathy, genuineness, and warmth. Being respectful and compassionate when dealing with culturally diverse individuals is essential for cultural competence to be achieved and sustained. It is not enough, however, to simply learn appropriate behavior. Behavior must be supported by an underlying attitudinal and moral commitment. What ultimately matters is the fundamental attitude that drives behavior. People who inherently respect, care for, and appreciate others are able to demonstrate genuineness, empathy, and warmth — and in doing so, they exhibit culturally congruent attitudes and behaviors. When these three essentials interact, they can help achieve cultural competence through the acknowledgment of different values and the affirmation of clients' cultural diversity (Continuing Education Online, 2002–2016).

Elements of a Cultural Competence Assessment in Criminal Justice

The Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (1998) identifies five elements of cultural competence that are especially applicable within the criminal justice system. These elements are: cultural self-evaluation; understanding the dynamics that arise when cultures interact; valuing diversity; and adapting practices in response to diversity and its recognition. Professionals within the criminal justice system need to possess specific characteristics, including the ability for self-awareness, the ability to identify diversity as a meaningful subject, the ability to accept others, the capacity to perceive clients as individuals rather than merely as members of a group, and the willingness to advocate for and culturally understand specific reactions to different problems.

Professionals in criminal justice need to either speak a language commonly used in their region or be able to refer clients who do not speak English to someone who speaks their language. They must also understand the factors that may inhibit the participation of minority clients. For example, lawyers may encounter clients who have been traumatized and are reluctant to share their experiences. In other cases, lawyers working for large corporate firms may deal with international clients whose cultural values shape their expectations of legal relationships, sometimes as significantly as language barriers do. It is important for professionals to handle such cultural differences with sensitivity and to identify resources that match each individual's cultural values.

Some minority clients may prefer to seek support from personal social networks or from people who share their cultural background. Professionals must therefore advocate for services that are aligned with their clients' cultural contexts (Patel, 2016).

Conclusion

Cultural differences need to be appreciated by everyone without judgment based on one's own cultural norms. Ethnocentric stereotypes harm our justice systems and have contributed to unfair judgments in our courts. Practitioners of criminal justice need to be well educated on the benefits of a culturally diverse society from the very beginning of their training. Cultural competence is also a virtue that citizens need to uphold and help reinforce.

Culturally proficient individuals must be assessed throughout the legal system so that they can facilitate the understanding of patterns and behaviors of differing cultures without ethnocentric favoritism (Otu, 2015).

References

Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. (1998). Case management for clients with special needs. Retrieved August 7, 2016, from National Center for Biotechnology Information: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Continuing Education Online. (2002–2016). Cultural competency and diversity. Retrieved August 7, 2016, from Continuing Education Online: http://www.getceusnow.com

Otu, N. (2015). Decoding nonverbal communication in law enforcement. Salus Journal, 3(2), 1–16. Retrieved from http://www.salusjournal.com

Patel, S. (2016). Cultural competency training: Preparing law students for practice in our multicultural world. Retrieved August 7, 2016, from UCLA Law Review: http://www.uclalawreview.org