Why Study Ethics As A Justice Professional? Essay

It is important that police officers be ethical especially while on the job. An officer’s

The criminal justice system is one of the most important components in the public service system. Since it is a system that citizens encounter daily it would be most beneficial for those who are employed to behave as ethical leaders. Leadership skills and ethical behavior are both parts of the duties of any officer serving the law. Often employees are placed in quick decision situations that can have fatal outcomes if not handled properly. By ensuring that all officers of the law have a set of functioning ethical leadership skills can not only develop a well-rounded individual, but also builds the relationship between the community they serve to protect. The police and other officers of the law have great discretion and power over an individual which makes having responsible, ethically behaving persons on the front lines even more important. With the right training and education, ethical officers can set the bar and improve the quality of life of the community they serve as well as other officers.

Over the years, the nature of policing has changed and developed drastically. Their role not only entails crime fighting and emergency response, but also social enforcement and social peacekeeping. Bound by a code of ethics, this highly demanding role asks police to remain professional in their dealings with society, and ensure they uphold the law impartially and fairly. When it comes to enforcing the law, it is important to look at the methods and approaches taken by police in order to combat crime, and whether or not they meet current ethical standards. Although this may be the case, it is also important to acknowledge that aspects of police culture such as loyalty, deception and protection of colleagues will ultimately shape the nature of approach to resolving crime, gaining helpful information and protecting fellow officers. Police officers are granted large amounts of discretion within their roles, however, when officers deliberately abuse this amount of discretion and become display misconduct, it becomes challenging to limit discretionary authority of police officers because of the frequent circumstances they encounter where deception may provide highly constructive outcomes. Throughout this essay, methods used by police officers including entrapment, wiretapping and planting of evidence will be assessed for their strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, the ethical standards of these methods and approaches will be assessed as to whether or not they prove as ethically

After reading the article titled, “The Challenge of Policing in a Democratic Society: A Personal Journey Toward Understanding” by Officer Charles H. Ramsey, I was able to relate with his view points and argument. In this article Ramsey, who was a sergeant for the Chicago Police Department discussed the core of ethics. His main example was the Holocaust in Europe during the 1930’s and 1940’s. Ramsey stated police officers worked together with the Nazi soldiers during this time and in return were not protecting their citizens. Similarly, when the police made no intervention to the killings and hangings of blacks in the south of the United States during the Civil War era.

My first interviewee officers jack Davidson, patrolman from Somers point police department. When interviewing Patrolman Davidson, I found the following to be his impressions of the police force in general. Officer Davidson spoke of why ethics and character are important in the field of law enforcement. His response was that ethics and character go hand in hand. In law enforcement it seems that there are so many reasons to do the right thing. The reasons began with public opinion and also should include their influence on the youth who will be growing up to be citizens of the city, state, or country. If a police officer does not behave with

The following paper is to discuss the statement by Brien (1999, p9)” the Rule of Law is one of the necessary elements of any decent, society civilized society. More specifically, it is an ideal and aiming to practice it is a necessary element in any liberal, democratic community”. The ethical policies and practices of the New South Wales Police Force (N.S.W.P.F), including the Oath of Office, Missions and functions, Statement of values and Code of Conduct and Ethics will be discussed in relation to the “Rule of Law”. Two real examples will also be discussed to demonstrate the ethical dilemmas that exist in the N.S.W.P.F.

New officers need to know that no profession demands a higher ethical standard than law enforcement. Whether or not there are other careers that require a similar dedication to doing the right thing, it is undeniable that there is a tremendous degree of expectations placed upon police officers. Every officer knows, or at least should know by now, that they live in a fishbowl. Friends, relatives, neighbors and strangers watch every move law enforcement officers make, both on and off duty. The fact is that the public scrutinizes police officers more than most other professions, either because they are cynical or hope to catch them screwing up or because they are hopeful

Law enforcement (police) subcultures have specific set of moral values and a certain mentality exhibited by those in law enforcement. It’s always the public against the police so they form an alliance for supportive reasons. However, people may believe police subculture is breaking down. Police subculture is breaking down because it is inconsistent with the formal morals and values related to the culture and that police are not the same as each other in their qualities and attributes. Examining ethics and its relation to the police subculture is important to help delineate not only the grey area of ethics but also the grey area within which the police operate (McCartney and Parent, 2015). For example, police officers are known to defend their own whether its something right or wrong. However, if another officer feels that the situation interferes with their morals, then it becomes inconsistent with the other officer’s

Ethics in the criminal justice system is customary when the administration measures are sometime virtuous and imperfect, attractive and unattractive and the ideas of production values are perceptive that this may be right and wrong. Working in the criminal justice system, every decision and results must meet the needs of the citizens and the law enforcement in regards to the balancing concern. The concerns are from prosecuting the guilty and respecting the right of the accused, protecting the victims, and creating a safe community. This paper will give analysis of the critical thinking concerning the relationship between ethics and professional behavior role of the law enforcement

Police “officers work and live in a constantly changing environment in which they are exposed to a myriad of ethical conflicts. When either unprepared or unaware, police officers are more likely to “go with the flow” than they would be if they were adequately prepared to face potentially ethical risks.” (Gilmartin & Harris, 1998) Most ethical violations are committed because the officer is exposed to a situation in which he was inadequately prepared. The lack of time to think about the situation before committing an ethical violation has detrimental life changing consequences. Police work can be very exciting and very rewarding but if not properly prepared and trained an officer can easily find himself involved in an ethical violation. Understanding the issues and being mentally prepared will help police officers become more responsible and make better

Law enforcement officers deal with criminal offenders, some who are more dangerous than others . Officers may be sometimes assigned to field work that has a high crime ratio or even assigned to institutional settings, where there may be a high risk of violence. Results of working as a law enforcement agent can be very stressful and risky at times. Ethics in criminal justice provides us with the knowledge to get resources to help us make moral choices during challenging situations involving ethical issues in everyday operations.Moral rules and ethics are a very import concept in the criminal justice field.

The importance of following the code of ethics in law enforcement is crucial. The public depends on you to be there to help them not to turn your back and violate their constitutional rights. The public will lose respect for you and when you’re in need of assistance either injured or trying to solve a case they will just turn the other way and avoid you. As law enforcement officers we need the public more than they need us, they have the power to

This paper discuss the duties of care police officers owe to citizens in their control (under arrest, in custody), and how these duties of care can best be fulfilled. I will be discussing the good and bad stories of police officers when it comes to them fulfilling their duties, police officers’ duties while on the job, and how they react when there is misconduct. This paper will also be expressing the different ways in which police officers could handle situations better or if it would be different if the person was someone else of a different ethnicity. By the end of this paper the reader would have an understanding on the duties police owe us, the good and bad ways police officers handle cases and a better approach that police officers can take in the future. This paper will prove this by using government documents and articles like the Police Services Act, Quicklaw, COURT OF APPEAL FOR ONTARIO cases.

When it comes to issues of authority and power, such as those granted to the law enforcement profession by the larger society, a discussion of responsible stewardship is paramount, and can provide insight into how to overcome the current dilemmas with corruption that appear to pervade the policing profession at the present moment. As will be shown in the remainder of this discussion, aspects of the police subculture that foster misbehavior, such as the “thin blue wall of silence,” and a sense of “us versus them” can be easily combatted if the law enforcement profession as a whole engages in a mature, intelligent discussion of responsible stewardship. While it may never be possible, not desirable, to disband the subculture that has emerged around the policing profession, an application of the ethical principles surrounding responsible stewardship can greatly assist in healing the current ethical problems that surround the law enforcement profession in the United

Ethics determine what is considered decent and acceptable behavior in society and it is a key aspect of life, whether it is at work, home, or in society. As bizarre as it seems, some things may not be illegal, but can be extremely unethical. Yet in the same sense what is unethical varies by the person. The purpose of this paper is to expound the differences between the three main ethical theories in criminal justice. While elaborating on how an agency can be improved when applying the correct theory to the problem.