The Creation of Effective Visual Aids
Developing the ability to transform a set of raw numbers, statistics, and data into an attention-grabbing and engaging visual aid that emphasizes key points can be a challenging, but worthwhile, exercise. There are a number of useful resources to help identify appropriate visual aids by the type of data, and how to use color to focus attention on key statistics. One type of visual aid is a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.
For this Assignment, review the video Two Student Presentations on the use of Visual Aids in this week�s Learning Resources.
Explore how PowerPoint can be used to create an effective presentation.
Consider other types of visual aids that can be used to communicate criminal justice data.
The Creation of Effective Visual Aids
Different kinds of crimes are committed in USA. One category of this kind of crimes are those that are committed in financial institutions such as banks. Robbery, burglaries and larcenies are some of the types of crimes mostly experienced in USA. Using visual aids is essential to enhance presentation and even understanding of the data. The three visual presentations adopted included, tables, pie chart and power point presentation.
Table illustrating Violation by types of institutions
| Institution | Robberies | Burglaries | Larcenies |
| Commercial banks | 3430 | 61 | 5 |
| Mutual savings banks | 31 | 0 | 1 |
| Savings and loan associations | 93 | 1 | 0 |
| Credit unions | 312 | 8 | 2 |
| Armored carrier companies | 13 | 1 | 3 |
| Total | 3879 | 71 | 11 |
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBBI), (2014)
Pie chart illustrating the race and number of the perpetrator
The data gathered is very important in various criminal settings. Some of these settings include policing, probation and courts. Police responsibility is to enforce the law, ensure that there is law and order in the society. Probation is provided to assess whether the offenders have transformed to coexist with the members of the society while courts are essential to serve justice. These visual presentations are important to these criminal justice settings as they enhance understanding of the crimes committed and the institutions involved (Van Dijk, 2008). The visual aids help the police to have an easy understanding of the crime patterns. They will have a summary of the nature of crimes, most racial groups that get involved in the crime as well as the notorious gender involved. Tables, pie charts and power point presentation are very clear way of conveying information and more so statistics
Probation department is also going to benefit from these visual aids. It will be able to track the behaviors of the criminals that transform. It also enhances their understanding on the spread of crimes in USA more specifically on the crimes related to financial institutions. Courts will also benefit from these visual presentation. The information is clear and summarized to enhance understanding. The courts will not have a hard time interpreting these crimes and providing judgmental decisions to ensure that crimes are controlled.
These three visual presentations provide valuable information on the crimes and the participants. The table presents information on the types of crimes experienced in USA financial institutions. The major types of crimes include robbery, burglary and larcenies. Robbery is the most prevalence type of violence experienced in US followed by burglary and then larcenies.
The pie chart on the other hand provides information on the race and the numbers of people involved. Races that engage in these crimes include whites, blacks, Hispanics, others and unknown races.
The power point presentation is yet another form of visual presentation that provides information on the gender and the number of people that engage in these crimes. Both male and female engage in crimes however, the number of males is more than that of female across the gender.
References
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBBI). Crime statistics.
Van Dijk, J. (2008). The World of crime; breaking the silence on problems of crime, justice and development. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
