Ethics In The Criminal Justice System

Most of the conversation surrounding the term “ethics” paint this concept in a simplistic manner- you are either ethical or you are lacking ethics. However, categorizing a situation or a decision as ethical, or describing a person as lacking ethical standards is not as black and white has many may think. Individuals may be upholding different sets of ethical standards depending upon the roles they serve in society, their state of mind, or their personal beliefs. Because ethics differs across cultural and regional setting, it is important that criminal justice professionals are knowledgeable concerning the code of ethics that should drive their conduct. Without the awareness of these guidelines, law makers and law enforcers may lack the moral principle needed to effectively carry out their duties. In order to fully dissect what it means to be ethical, this research paper will focus on the broad definition of ethics, issues concerning ethics in the criminal justice system, the code of ethics as it relates to duties of a policy officer, and an ethical dilemma that a police officer may encounter in his or her

When considering philosophy, ethics is the morals that drives human reasoning and is heavily concerned with how individuals in society ought to live. What is also strongly connected to ethics is the study of questions of right and wrong. Individuals often rely on the ethics of a society in order to utilize their moral judgements to determine the “right” course of action. Although society assign qualities, such as right or wrong, to certain conduct and actions, some dilemmas may arise that make it difficult to clearly pinpoint what the right course of action may be. It is situations like these that individuals must contemplate with themselves and decide upon the best decision to make that will make them feel as if they’re uphold their ethical standard (Singer 1995: