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Violation of ethics in law enforcement
Examples of ethical dilemmas faced by law enforcement officers
Ethical issues in the criminal justice system
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1.0 Introduction
Ethics is defined as the concept of right or good behavior or body of such concept (Wadley, 2009). In this report, we will be using Ralph Potter’s Potter Box to analyze a case study.
The summary of this case is that Nancy Grace, a television (TV) journalist, former prosecutor, and TV host had caused outrage after one of her interviewees, Melinda Duckett, committed suicide the day after the interview. That interview, and several other reasons, were believed to be the factor that drove Melinda to take her own life. In that interview, Nancy asked Melinda, the mother of missing child Trent Duckett, many insensitive questions in a very aggressive and interrogative manner, seemingly in hopes of getting a public confession (Broughton,
On the night of August 31st 1986, Angelique Lavallee a battered 21 year-old woman in an unstable common law relationship was charged with murder. She shot her spouse, Kevin Rust in the back of the head while he was leaving the bedroom. Angelique was in fear for her life after being taunted with the gun and was threaten to be killed. Hence, she felt that she had to kill him or be killed by him. The psychiatrist Dr. Shane, did an assessment and concluded that she was being terrorized by her partner. Dr. Shane concluded that Angelique was physically, sexually, emotionally and verbally abused. As a result, in the psychiatrist’s opinion, the killing was a final desperate act by a woman who seriously believed she would be killed that night. This in turn identify her as a
In 1954, Sam Sheppard was accused of allegedly killing his wife, Marilyn. During this time, the media went absolutely wild. The way they obtained their stories was completely unlike any way they had gone about getting stories before. They completely invaded Sheppard's privacy to obtain "good" stories for their papers and television newscasts. Also, more stories were written about the case than any other event that had been covered in the past. Even the way stories were written was different than the usual style of writing used for that time period. Ethics were completely disregarded during the case. Because of this, Sheppard was released from prison, with the reason that the media had influenced the case so that the jury found him guilty based on the news stories. This had never happened before. Due to the unethical practices displayed by the media, the field of journalism instituted practices, which limited the power of the press.
Sue Grafton once stated: “Except for cases that clearly involve a homicidal maniac, the police like to believe murders are committed by those we know and love, and most of the time they're right.” This is clearly the thought the Boulder Colorado police conceived in the case of little beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey. As many have observed from the onslaught of media coverage, the day after Christmas 1996, six year old Jon Benet Ramsey was found buried under a white blanket, bound, beaten, and strangled to death in the wine cellar of their Boulder home. With such a strikingly rare and glamorous story of a six year old beauty queen dead, who was a part of a “perfect American upper-middle class family”, combined with a lack of a lead and ever mounting suspicion piling up against the parents it was no surprise to find that it was fuel to the media and soon stories sold and became a matter of competition between the press. So, like wildfire, this heart-breaking story spread, stretching across the nation, shattering the souls of the world. News broadcasts, magazine and newspaper articles, and television specials all shaped and molded peoples perceptions of this beautiful child’s murder, especially her parents, John and Pasty Ramsey’s involvement or lack there of. The police and FBI’s merciless quest to connect Jon Benet’s murder to her parents, seemed to cause the them to overlook important evidence, or at the very least dismiss suspicious findings that would otherwise send red flags to investigators. There are many contributors as to why this case remains unsolved including lack of investigative expertise, failure to protect valuable evidence, and focusing too much on the parents as suspects but, ultimately, the over involvement of...
When viewed from a strictly medical, psychological aspect, Andrea Yates medical history indicates that after the birth of her first child, she began to suffer from various forms of depression and suicide attempts. If one only examines the paper trail and doesn’t think beyond what the medical history does or does not indicate, then perhaps, Andrea would be innocent by reason of mental insanity as the 2006 acquittal suggest. However, when viewed form a legal aspect there are several inconstancies that challenge if this former nurse was insane or if she in fact premeditated the murder of her children as well as her acquittal.
On a cold northern morning the body of a man lay still in his bed. His blood did not flow, his heart did not beat, and his chest didn’t fall with breath. His wife sits still downstairs in the gloomy house that she views as a cage. Her stare is blank and her hands move slowly as if she is in some trance that shows absolutely no remorse. Minne Foster is guilty of murdering her husband which becomes apparent through the evidence and details given by Susan Glaspell in “A Jury of Her Peers”. Glaspell gives evidence and shows the realization that both women in the story also know that Mrs. Foster is guilty. Minnie Foster is guilty of murdering her husband, but a defense could be made to protect her.
Ethics is an important proponent when considering any decision. Knowing the difference between right and wrong is something everyone should know. However, the importance of ethics gets minimized when a decision that seems wrong actually has benefits. In the efforts of improving society, often ethics is violated. Sometimes in order for society to be better off as a whole, there has to be little sacrificing of ethical practices along the way to do so.
What is ethics? Ethics are the philosophical principles of good verses bad moral behavior. It is a guideline to help people make decisions or make a judgment calls. There are two main types of ethical principles that will be discussed in this paper, and how they are applied to the decision making process. They are Deontological and Utilitarian. Deontological ethics are based on the righteousness or wrongness of the action-taking place. It does not base itself on the bad or good consequences that come from the action. Immanuel Kant introduced deontological ethics in the 18th century. Kant believed that every decision or action made by a person had to be evaluated by his or her moral duty. He stated that humanity shouldn’t side on its
The difficulty I had with this case, was I had multiple sources to turn to for information. I had to choose which source was reliable because I did not want misconduct information. The media sources had about the same variety of information about Gabriel’s case, but added small details that the alternative networks did not include. For example, each news network added more information on how Gabriel was found by the paramedics. The L. A. Times reported that Gabriel had a cracked skull and three broken ribs while the Huffington Post did not include this information. The L.A. times also elaborated more on the story by reporting more facts about who was involved in the investigating. They included names of teachers, and police officials that was involved. The differences between how news network presented the facts in the case proved the different ways we are influenced by the media, and the information we gather depends on where we get our stories
Ethics or rather morals entail mechanisms that defend, systematize as well as recommend conceptions of right or wrong. Many organizations develop ethical codes to ensure employees and employers understand the difference in doing good or bad. In that respect, ethics are an essential aspect of successfully running of any organization or government. Ethics ensure employee’s productivity levels are up to the required standards. It also assists them to know their rights and responsibilities. Additionally, employers, as well as any persons in management, are guided by them to ensure they provide transparent leadership. Ethics also defines how customers should be handled. Ethical codes govern the relationship between customers and an
Stein, Sarah Land. "The Cultural Complex of Innocence: An Examination of Media and Social Construction of Missing White Woman Syndrome." Order No. 3530740 The University of Southern Mississippi, 2012. Ann Arbor: ProQuest.Web. 5 Nov. 2013.
Thiroux, Jacques P., and Keith W. Krasemann. Ethics: Theory and Practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2009. Print.
Potter’s box has four components: facts, values, principles, and loyalties. Randall is posed with a dilemma of whether to do something ethically right, i.e. declining the promotion due to wanting to be a good person, or ethically wrong, which means staying with the company. It is important to distinguish the values of the stakeholders involved, in order to help Randall make an informed decision. The stakeholders involved are the company, Randall’s team, and the major automobile client. One could speculate that Randall wants to please his team members and boss by deciding to sell the cars. The car company has professional values in which they are more concerned with making money than the ethics of their actions which in turn contribute to questioning their virtues. The potential buyers of the cars can also be affected by the values of the company and Randall’s team. If they chose to lie, the buyers are misled into buying a product that can effect the relationship between the consumer and the company. The next step in Potter’s box is ethical principle. The ethical principle that is applicable to this situation is Aristotle’s Golden Mean which states that moral behavior is the mean between two extremes- one of excess and the other deficiency (Bivins, 78). This can be adapted to the virtue of truthfulness but if used excessively it would become
The term “ethics” discusses how one’s morality needs to take acknowledge that of the rest of the members of the group or community t...
[1] Ethics is defined as “the code of moral principles and values that governs the behaviour of a person or a group with respect to what is right or wrong” (Samson and Daft, 2005, p.158)
Although there are many types of traditional theories of ethics and ethical test questions, I would only be discussing what is required for this paper. That is, three traditional theories of ethics and the ethical test questions associated to those theories. However, before I begin, I would like to start off by giving the definition of the word ethics. Pride, Hughes and Kapoor (2015) defines ethics as "the study of right and wrong and the morality of the choices individuals make" (p.34). With this in mind, I would now go further into details within the context of this paper. Enjoy your reading.