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Ethics
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Ethics
Ethics is crucial in criminal justice since professionals in the system have the mandate
to maintain law and order. Ethics, in this case, can be referred to as procedures that are
followed in handling the people within the criminal justice system and the community. It
provides guidelines that can be adopted by professionals in order to arrive at a decision that
will favor justice and fairness. Thus, the purpose of this essay is to define ethics, describe an
ethical dilemma related to the police force, and suggest how police can act in order to sustain
public order and ethics at the same time.
What is Ethics?
Ethics is defined as a set of rules of conduct that is used to distinguish between right and
wrong with respect to people’s actions. This is the way in which individuals, particularly the
professional, should be in society (Dewey & Tufts, 2022). Ethics in the criminal justice
system pertain to the police, the judiciary, lawyers, and everyone in between so as to ensure
the rightful dispensation of justice. Dewey and Tufts (2022) opine that ethics offer an
organized way of giving consideration as well as determining moral conducts that give form
to human actions to conform to ethical norms. These principles assist in keeping the balance
between freedom and authority regarding the protection of individual rights and the
prevention of lawbreakers.
Ethical Dilemma: Police Use of Force
An ethical issue that is evident in the criminal justice field, especially in the police
service, is the use of force. This ethical issue comes in when the officers are required to
decide the level of force that they can use to protect themselves and the community, yet not
exceed the right amount of force. Use of force by police has remained a contentious topic that
has received much attention in the society in the recent past especially from cases that have
involved deaths of individuals who were not armed to engage the police. This ethical
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dilemma is important as it poses a direct threat to public confidence and, therefore, the
credibility of the criminal justice system.
The use of force dilemma is based on the general understanding that an officer has a
duty to protect the public while at the same time, he or she has the responsibility of protecting
the rights of persons. As stated by McLean et al. (2022), most police interactions don’t
involve the use of force, and yet the public still has the view that force is always used
excessively, especially on minority groups, which is a major factor that leads to severe cases
of police-community relations. These two findings are at odds with each other, and this is
compounded by misinformation and the absence of proper data on police use of force
incidents. Thus, this problem demands a more elaborate discussion of the circumstances
when force is appropriate and how it can be utilized in a moral manner.
Argument: Balancing Public Safety and Ethical Policing
The major premise of this paper, therefore, is that police officers need to operate under a
well-defined ethical code in their application of force to ensure that their actions are both
warranting and appropriate. Officers have the responsibility to protect people and themselves,
but this cannot be done at the expense of denying human rights. To be ethical, the use of
force has to be reasonable, proportionate, and balanced, taking into account the adverse
consequences of police actions.
On the ethical angle, one of the progressive arguments presented is the principle of
proportionality, which requires one to use only the necessary force equal to the extent of the
threat. This raises concerns about human rights violations and reduces the confidence of the
members of the public towards the police forces (Westmarland et al., 2020). Due to the “blue
code of silence,” officers are reluctant to report misconduct by fellow officers and this
hinders accountability and promotes unethical behaviors within police departments
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(Westmarland et al., 2020). It is crucial to challenge this cultural thinking to ensure that
officers can be brought to the book as well as promote ethical personnel behavior.
The study conducted by Miller (2016) on the morality of police in fatal shootings
outlines the moral responsibilities of the police. According to Miller, officers are endowed
with the right of force, but this right should be exercised within the set legal and moral
values. Force should only be applied as a last resort when officers are left with no other
option but to use force. This is in line with the principle of least harm, where it is required for
an action to have only minimum negative effects on the people so as to accomplish a specific
goal (Miller, 2016). The sanctity of life should always be their guiding principle, and they
must make force inevitable as the last resort to avert a greater loss.
The guidelines of the U. S. Department of Justice also uphold the ethical theory for the
police use of force to call for the consideration of the impact of force on human dignity.
Police officers have the responsibility to ensure law and order while at the same time
protecting the innocent from abuse or undue force, especially when dealing with the weak in
society (U. S. Department of Justice, n.d). Due to this, there is ambiguity in tracking non-
lethal force by the police across different states, and this has negative impacts on the
formulation of policies that, in the long run, may help officers make ethical decisions
(McLean et al., 2022). Thus, the timeliness and quality of information on the use of force and
the effectiveness of oversight mechanisms are paramount to increasing accountability for the
proper use of force.
Ethics in criminal justice are important to boost public confidence and ensure that
criminal justice system personnel work in a professional and responsible manner. As seen in
the ethical analysis on the use of force, there are major dilemmas with their deployment, but
this definitively illustrates why police officers have to work within a robust ethical
framework that protects the principles of proportionality, accountability, and respect for the
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inherent humanity of citizens. Thus, by following such principles, the bodies of law
enforcement officials can maintain the orientation of activities toward the protection of
citizens’ rights while ensuring the stability and order of public life. More studies and post-
reforms are needed to close the gaps in monitoring and data gathering, punish officers for
misconduct, and maintain the use of force at the highest ethical standards.
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References
Dewey, J., & Tufts, J. H. (2022).:Ethics. DigiCat.
McLean, K., Stoughton, S. W., & Alpert, G. P. (2022). Police Uses of Force in the USA: a
Wealth of Theories and a Lack of Evidence. Cambridge Journal of Evidence-Based
Policing, 6(3-4). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41887-022-00078-7
Seumas Miller. (2016). Shooting to Kill : The Ethics of Police and Military Use of Lethal
Force. New York Oxford University Press -12-29.
U.S. Department of Justice. (n.d.). Ethics of Using Force - Part 1 | Office of Justice
Programs. Www.ojp.gov. https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/ethics-
using-force-part-1
Westmarland, L., & Conway, S. (2020). Police Ethics and Integrity: Keeping the “Blue
Code” of Silence. International Journal of Police Science & Management, 22(4), 378–
392. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1461355720947762
