CJ 153 Ethical Dilemmas and Decision Making in Criminal Justice

Lecture Hours: 3
Credits: 3

Provides students with an introduction to ethical duties and decision-making dilemmas facing criminal justice professionals. Provides the basic foundations of ethical reasoning and the standards for determining sound ethical decision making. Increases the learners’ application of ethical reasoning in the face of agency corruption, use of force, gender and race discrimination, due process, and duty towards others.

Student Learning Outcomes:

Define the term ethics and the interrelationship between morals, ethics, duty, values, and culpability.
Identify the function of ethics and the importance of ethical decision-making.
Identify the relationship between ethics and the criminal justice system.
Describe the role of criminal justice professionals and public duty, using discretion and engaging in discrimination.
Discuss the importance of ethical duty and breaking the code of silence.
Describe the connection between ethics and professional boundaries.
Identify three types of boundaries that are often violated in criminal justice.

Content Outline

Introduction to Ethics
- Definition of ethics, morals, duty, values, and culpability
- Review professional codes of ethics
- Liability and public officials
- Ethical reasoning and decision-making
Ethics and the Criminal Justice System
- “Color of Law”
- Code of Silence and public duty
- Criminal justice professional and formal codes of ethics
- Corruption, excessive use of force, harassment, and discrimination
Making Ethical Decisions
- Ethical systems of formalism and utilitarianism
- How to make an ethical decision
- Situational ethics, balancing absolutism, and relativism
Ethics of Punishment and Institutional Corrections
- Ethical foundations for corrections
- Correctional officers, manipulation, corruption, abuses
- Contemporary issues in institutional ethics
Ethics and Community Corrections
- Ethical challenges facing parole and probation officers
- Reintegrative shaming
- Ethical issues in restorative justice
Ethics and Reducing Law Enforcement Corruption
- Types of corruption
- Noble-Cause corruptions
- Interrogations
- Excessive Force