PROFESSIONAL ETHICS

Professional Ethics

Professional Ethics

Introduction

In criminal justice system, the application of ethical norms has come to be recognized as a crucial part of the process of doing justice. Whether an action is performed by law enforcement, corrections, judges, lawyers, or justice policymakers, many people expect that decision making will be ethical. Though, when the decision is not ethical, people anticipate that those who violate ethical norms will be held accountable. The field of normative ethics sets standards of conduct to assist in determining how to act, and it draws on such sources as religions, customary law, and written law in shaping ethical standards. Applied ethics is concerned with resolving issue that raise questions about what is right or wrong and what is good or bad. Criminal Justice professionals, who often possess the right to control others through the application of force and coercion, must understand how to act in situations in which ethical dilemmas arise, if, they are to avoid accusations of abuse of their powers. Ethical theories about how to act and the rightness or wrongness of acts provide a foundation from which to analyze ethical dilemmas and arrive at a correct conclusion or resolution.

Of all the elements in criminal justice system, policing is the most likely to provoke ethical dilemmas. In the early days of law enforcement in the United States, the police relied unhesitatingly on physical force and coercion to maintain control of the streets and paid little attention to ethical standards. An institutional culture comprising the values, attitudes, and norms of law enforcement developed within policing and this culture has encouraged and condoned corruption and the use of force, including lethal force, within the community. Research studies of policing and developed models of the crime fighter, the emergency operator, the social enforcer, and the social peacekeeper. Police developed the notion that the cause of crime fighting was noble, and, therefore, sometimes justified unethical conduct. Police culture supported corruption, the excessive use of force, a cynical and suspicious approach to the community, and the notion that police were themselves victims. Codes of ethics were devised, published and promoted but were often flouted in favor of the noble cause. Therefore, all issues related to Professional Business ethics in terms of Police Department have been discussed in detail.

Discussion

Over the last two decades, criminal justice policies focused on crime control including so-called zero-tolerance practices and incapacitating offenders for long periods of time. Within justice systems, police and corrections officers have always been empowered to exercise a degree of physical control over citizens; now, contemporary crime-control strategies bring even greater numbers of citizens into direct contact with law enforcement and corrections staff. Heightened tensions between the public and criminal justice officials, arising from policies of mass imprisonment, make it essential that ethical standards of treatment and conduct be observed in prisons and jails (Adebayo, 2005, 100).

Research concerning public perceptions of police views the public as holding a positive view of officers and police ...