Active Listening

Active Listening In Criminal Justice

Jonathan Fogle

Kaplan University

4/13/2014

Active listening gives you the time to pay attention to what other people are saying, because rather than paying attention you can focus on how to resolve the argument.

  Everyone has his or her own ways of active listening. Some people use their body, eyes, hands, and their voice. Let’s explore how these are used. When you use your voice for active listening you are expressing how you are taking the information that is said to you. Here are some examples of how you use your voice for active listening. When talking to a victim they say can you help me? The listener/responder say’s to them I’d like to try. Can you tell me more about your situation and we’ll see what we can do to help you. Another example is (victim) Tell me more about what that means. (Listener/responder) Perhaps it will become clearer as we discuss the reasons why you called. This is how you can use your voice in active listening. It gives the victim a sense of comfort, because how you talk to them with the tone of your voice or how you respond to them. “Numerous tests confirm that we are inefficient listeners. Studies have shown that immediately after listening to a 10-minute oral presentation, the average listener has heard, understood, and retained 50 percent of what was said.” (Lee, Hatesohl, 1993) With your eyes you are always making eye contact with them and they know that you are listening to their side of the story. With your body you are not moving around, standing or sitting in a way that the victim is thinking that you are just there to take their statement and not understanding what they are trying to tell you. Using your hands is also important, because if someone can't speak or hear what is being said then you have to use sign language. If you don’t know sign language then you have to get someone that can do that. That is how you use your hands for active listening.

  Another example that shows...