In an ideal world, acting ethically and with empathy is a naturally occurring reality. The criminal justice system has the unique vantage point for seeing the world on the opposite side of the ideal. With this being a fact, it is paramount that those individuals supporting the criminal justice system have an incredible understanding of ethical behavior, issues, and dilemmas. The importance of ethical knowledge and the ability to make critical analyses can not be underestimated in the field of criminal justice. Raising issues such as Law enforcement responsibility, the authority of the state, and how punishment and incarceration are carried out are all ethical issues that need to be carefully considered during the daily process of maintaining law and order in any society.
People’s actions and inactions are representative of their personal beliefs. Criminal justice workers take on a unique role in which they are supporting and enforce the laws of a higher power. Their unique life experiences will always be with them; however, it is incredibly important to the profession that those individual life experiences do not influence how the duties of the criminal justice system are carried out. Values, morals, and ethical standards are without saying fundamental aspects of what makes mankind and drives society. The criminal justice representative must have a strong desire to serve all people from all different types of belief systems and ethical values. Having a strong moral compass is the best tool a criminal justice professional can have. A deep insight of ethical principles should constantly allow for critical analysis of the relationship between crime and justice, Law Enforcement responsibilities, punishments and limitations, authority, and fairness.
Ethics is a branch of knowledge focused on morality, innate and learned intuitions, and means of decision making. In module one readings there are twelve bulleted topics relating to the value of ethics. Questioning the criminal justice system is highly important for criminal justice reform. Without individuals supporting the criminal justice system assessing the laws which are being enforced and how they are to be enforced, reform and improvement will be near impossible. The point that mentions identifies that questioning should be encouraged can not be overlooked as being the most profound point of the twelve. Every other point without questioning the current criminal justice system will lead to the same unanswered dilemmas that often arise when unethical decisions are made. The topics of the relationship between crime and justice, the role of Law Enforcement, means and limitations of punishment, authority, prisons, fairness in the workplace, and equal opportunity will be discussed here.
Questioning the criminal justice system is critical, perspective on the means of questioning can be assessed by global crime and justice statistics. A survey by the United Nations Survey of crime trends and criminal justice systems will help answer the first aspect of why the second bulleted point is so critical. With 82 countries and 518 variables analyzed in the below-noted source, it highlights the importance of social norms and relative ethics while analyzing reported crime and criminal justice operations. An element of this research that stands out amongst the rest is how ethics and norms impact individuals’ willingness to report a crime. Furthermore, there are paramount differences between countries’ infrastructure, capabilities, and limitations. There are also extremely high correlations between income and poverty as it relates to crime. (Shaw, M., Dijk, J. V., & Rothberg, W. (2003, December).
The relationship between crime and justice is particularly important, and an element that must be so highly subjective that it warrants the public’s trust and confidence. The fundamentals on which society grants permission to the criminal justice system are reliant on the fact that the individuals upholding the criminal justice system are ethical, Moral, and fair. As discussed in the U.S Department of Justice, Office of justice programs the author Ray Surette discusses topics related to how people use the information they obtain from the media to create their vision on crime and social justice. With the increasing use of digital media, social media, and other forms of information services it is becoming
increasingly harder to receive accurate and unbiased information (Surette, R. (1998). Society values money, unfortunately, the drive for money is shown to be a leading factor of unethical behavior. Greed, financial status, and someone’s net worth have shown a disturbing trend in how crime and justice often have a troubling relationship. For the criminal justice system to develop a better relationship between crime and justice, an individual’s net worth and or financial status can not be placed first.
The role of Law Enforcement is an overly simple concept, yet subject to such criticism as it certainly should be. The legal process of the United States is effective when strong ethical decision-making is constantly applied. There cannot be individuals in this field who lack strong ethical principles and a moral compass. While the duties of Law Enforcement can be daunting, the rules which they must follow are simple and the way those duties are carried out is undeniably clear. Normative ethics being highly concerned with behavior and standards of conduct is a critical element to apply to the role of Law Enforcement in society. Furthermore, another noted component of the primarily discussed bullet point is authority. Authority while being accepted into law, is an extremely interesting point. Authority is what gives the government the power to act, and what maintains society. Without granting Law Enforcement officer’s the authority to carry out their duties in enforcing laws, society would be unbalanced.
The proper function of prisons, punishment, and limitations on punishment must be facilitated in a manner that maintains human decency and dignity. As previously discussed with sexual misconduct and women in prison, ethics do not only apply to Law Enforcement. There are flaws in the correctional system as well, and without sound judgment and ethics inside the prison system, it is likely to not reap a positive outcome from incarceration. Instead, high numbers of recidivism amongst criminals and persons otherwise convicted of crimes exist. As noted in a publication by Ms. Sawyer and Mr. Wagner in Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2020, “The American criminal justice system holds almost 2.3 million people in 1,833 state prisons, 110 federal prisons, 1,772 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,134 local jails, 218 immigration detention facilities, and 80 Indian Country jails as well as in military prisons, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the U.S. territories.” (Wagner, W. S. and P. (2020, March 24). This is a tremendous statistic that when viewed against statistics and numbers from other criminal justice systems around the world is incredibly concerning.
The ability to question is a key fundamental to growth whether that is personal or from a societal perspective. The other key points discussed in the assigned reading all to each their own have profound importance and provide critical analysis to the topic of ethics and morality as it pertains to the criminal justice system. However, the most inclusive point and one to be highlighted is the importance of questioning the criminal justice system as this will lead to further criminal justice reform and healthier society in return.