The Current Trends and Issues of Social Media and its Effects on the Criminal Justice System

Technology keeps changing and getting more and more in everybody’s face we can’t avoid it. With that being said the more it advances and what if has become from say 50 years ago takes a big effect on the criminal justice system in many ways. Now there are good and bad ways it affects it. A good way would be someone could record and officer doing something that is actually wrong and he gets in trouble for it or a crime is recorded.

A bad way would be a officer being recorded and it being taken out of context and shows him doing wrong when he is actually doing right. The media also doesn’t help this because a lot of the times these recordings are broadcasted and everyone freaks out about how bad officers are and what not when in reality it’s only a few bad ones. “Implementing new technologies can have both unintended consequences and major, sometimes unanticipated, benefits.”-John S. Hollywood, Dulani Woods, Andrew Lauland, Brian A. Jackson, Richard Silberglitt. What this is saying is new technology that comes out can be very bad or very good without anyone predicting it which is very interesting because I feel a lot of people release stuff without thinking of the consequences that some of this stuff can actually bring. For example the body cameras are a good and bad thing. In a article I read that a pro is Police body cameras increase the safety of the public and the police but a con is Police body cameras decrease the safety of police officers and negatively affect their physical and mental health. I think some officers feel more pressured with the body camera on them rather then they not have it. The article also made a great point about how it’s a great learning tool because people can watch it while in training. But they are also expensive and don’t always work which is a major problem because money is everything.

I think one obvious benefit of technology for the system is surveillance cameras because in today’s world almost everywhere you go has cameras up so if there are any crimes in a public place usually a camera will pick it up which is very useful. Cell Phones are probably one of the biggest good and bad things because let’s say someone is being assaulted by a officer and someone records it that’s good right? Well that’s not always the case as we all know thanks to people and media. A lot of the time someone decides to turn the camera on when things will look bad for the officer when in reality he is just defusing a out of hand situation or doing what is right. The even worse part is the media will see this and always make a news story out of the bad things because lets be honest bad news sells better than good news. The problem with this is it causes tension in the country with the officers who nine times out of ten are just trying to do whats right and protect their community. Cell phones are also good because you can call law enforcement or report something you think is wrong wherever you are, which can save people lives or your own. Another helpful technology source is data mining, “Data mining is big,” says Brancazio. “It helps us do a predictive type of policing. We can map crimes, then predict where more crime might occur, based on patterns.”-Steven Brancazio. This is great because it helps departments map crimes and then they can predict where more crimes might occur based on a pattern.

Work Cited

S., John, et al. “Emerging Technology Trends and Their Impact on Criminal Justice.” RAND Corporation, 26 Mar. 2018, www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9996.html.

“Police Body Cameras: Top 3 Pros and Cons.” ProConorg Headlines, www.procon.org/headline.php?headlineID=005399.

“The Growing Use of Technology in Criminal Justice.” How Long Does It Take to Become a Psychologist? – Psychology Frequently Asked Questions – Capella University, www.capella.edu/blogs/cublog/growing-use-of-technology-in-criminal-justice/.

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