#1

1

Week 1 additional reading – Morality, Ethics, and Human Behavior Why Study Ethics? Defining Terms Making Moral Judgments Analyzing Ethical Issues and Policies Analyzing Ethical Dilemmas Conclusion LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Explain the difference between ethical issues and ethical dilemmas. 2. Give examples of how discretion permeates every phase of the criminal justice system and creates

ethical dilemmas for criminal justice professionals. 3. Explain why the study of ethics is important for criminal justice professionals. 4. Learn the definitions of the terms morals, ethics, duties, supererogatories, and values. 5. Describe what behaviors might be subject to moral/ethical judgments.

SUMMARY This summary introduces the concepts of ethics and morals. It begins with some hypothetical situations. You can introduce these examples and just let students talk for a bit about what they would do. After some discussion, move the query to not “what you would do,” but “why is that the right thing?” Then, begin the subject of ethics; it is how you answer the question: why is an act good or bad? OUTLINE I. Introduction  The criminal justice system can be examined using political, legal, organizational, or sociological

approaches.  Ethical discussions in criminal justice focus on issues or dilemmas. Ethical issues are broad social

questions, often concerning the government’s social control mechanisms and the impact on those governed.

 Ethical dilemmas are situations in which one person must decide what to do. Either the choice is unclear or the right choice will be difficult because of the costs involved.

II. Why Study Ethics? LO 1: Explain the difference between ethical issues and ethical dilemmas. LO 2: Give examples of how discretion permeates every phase of the criminal justice system and creates ethical dilemmas for criminal justice professionals. LO 3: Explain why the study of ethics is important for criminal justice professionals.  Each of us makes decisions that can be judged under ethical standards.  We frequently judge other people’s behaviors as right or wrong.  Criminal justice professionals experience a multitude of these decisions, and these decisions often have

the potential to significantly affect people’s lives.  An ethical analysis of an organization is different from the political, organizational, or sociological

approaches.  Discretion exists at each stage of criminal justice: legislative, enforcement, prosecution, and corrections.  There are many elements to the jobs of criminal justice professionals.

2

• They each have discretion, that is, the power to make a decision. • They have the duty of enforcing the law. • They must accept that their duty is to protect the constitutional safeguards that are the

cornerstone of our legal system—specifically, due process and equal protection. • They are public servants.

 Should we be concerned with a politician who has extramarital affairs? Drinks to excess? Gambles? Uses drugs? Abuses his or her spouse? What if the person was a police officer? A judge? Should a female police officer be sanctioned for posing naked in a men’s magazine, using pieces of her uniform as “props”?

 Should a probation officer socialize in bars that his or her probationers are likely to frequent? Should a prosecutor be extremely active in a political party and then make decisions regarding targets of “public integrity” investigations of politicians?

 The definition of public servant is someone who serves the public and is paid from public purse. The Josephson Institute identifies the ethical principles to be upheld by public servants: public service, objective judgment, accountability, democratic leadership, and respectability.

 Why the study of ethics is important for criminal justice professionals: • Professionalism • Helps develop critical thinking, analytical skills, and reasoning abilities • Criminal justice professionals should quickly recognize the ethical consequences of various

actions • Ethical considerations are central to the decisions criminal justice professionals make • Ethics is germane to most management and policy decisions • Ethical considerations are essential aspects of criminal justice research

 The reasons for studying criminal justice ethics are to • understand how the criminal justice system is engaged in a process of coercion, • understand the special duties public servants owe to the public they serve, and • become sensitive to ethical issues and develop tools for resolving ethical dilemmas.

III. Defining Terms LO 4: Learn the definitions of the terms morals, ethics, duties, supererogatories, and values.  Greek word ethos pertains to custom (behavioral practices) or character, and morals is a Latin-based

word with a similar meaning.

A. Morals and Ethics  Morals and morality refer to what is judged as good conduct. (Immorality refers to bad conduct.)  Ethics refers to the study and analysis of what constitutes good or bad conduct.  Meta-ethics is the discipline that investigates the meaning of ethical systems; Normative ethics

determines what people ought to do and defines moral duties; Applied ethics is the application of ethical principles to specific issues; Professional ethics is a specific type of applied ethics, relating to the behavior of certain professions or groups.

 While the definitions refer to the study of right and wrong behavior, more often, in common usage, ethics is used as an adjective to refer to behaviors relating to a profession, while moral is used as an adjective to describe a person’s actions in other spheres of life.

 Often professional ethics can enter into what might be considered the private life of the individual, particularly for public servants.

3

B. Duties  Duties are those actions that an individual must perform in order to be considered moral.  Supererogatories are actions that are commendable but not required.  Imperfect duties are general duties that one should uphold, but without specific application as to when or

how. C. Values  Values are defined as elements of desirability, worth, or importance. Individual values form value

systems.  ‘Note the difference between factual judgments and value or moral judgments.  Some writers think that value judgments and moral judgments are indistinguishable from one another

because they are both relativistic and individual.  Others believe some values are more important than others and that the value system is universal (i.e.,

valuing life over money).  Values and morals are similar, but while values merely indicate relative importance, morals prescribe, or

proscribe behavior.  An explicit value system is part of every ethical system.

IV. Making Moral Judgments LO 5: Describe what behaviors might be subject to moral/ethical judgments.  We make moral or ethical judgments all the time.  We also make choices that can be judged as right or wrong.  Decisions that can be judged as ethical or unethical involve four elements:

• Acts (rather than beliefs) • that are human and • of free will • that affect others.

 Examples of ethical decisions for police include whether to take gratuities, whether to cover up the wrongdoing of a fellow officer, and whether to sleep on duty.

 Discussions regarding the ethics of defense attorneys include devoting more effort to private cases than appointed cases, whether or not the defense attorney allows perjury, and whether to attack the character of a victim to defend a client.

V. Analyzing Ethical Issues and Policies  To be a critical thinker, one must ask these types of questions:

• What information am I using in coming to a conclusion? • What information do I need to settle the question? • Is there another way to interpret the information? • What assumption has led me to my conclusion? • Is there another point of view I should consider? • What implication or consequence might be the result of this conclusion? • What information am I using in coming to a conclusion?

 One of the most important elements of critical thinking is to separate facts from concepts and identify underlying assumptions.

VI. Analyzing Ethical Dilemmas  The following steps might be taken when analyzing an ethical dilemma:

1. Identify the facts.

4

2. Identify relevant values and concepts. 3. Identify all possible dilemmas and then decide what is the most immediate dilemma. 4. Decide what is the most immediate moral or ethical issue facing the individual. 5. Resolve the ethical or moral dilemma using an ethical system or some other means of

decision making.  Ethical analysis can be beneficial when the right thing to do is not clear, or when the right thing to do is

extremely difficult because there are great costs.

VII. Conclusion

 Not all behaviors are subject to ethical judgments—only those that are performed by humans who are acting with free will and that affect others.

 Morals and ethics both relate to standards of behavior.  Professional ethics deals only with those behaviors relevant to one’s profession.  We all encounter situations where we must determine the ethical or moral course of action.