POLICY FOR CRIMINAL JUSTICE ETHICS

Policy For Criminal Justice Ethics

Policy for Criminal Justice Ethics

Thesis

These values and principles must be used as course of action when probing daily-specialized actions. They comprise of testimonials for criminal judges and lawyers. It provides supervision on matters that these professionals may come across in their specialized occupation.

Thus these inhabitants are sincere, reasonable, and courteous of others in their specialized behavior and struggle to preserve the maximum echelon of capability in their employment; they distinguish the confines of their proficiency; and they assume only those responsibilities for which they are competent by learning, preparation, or familiarity. They value the civil liberties, self-respect, and value of all citizensThus these are the inspiring objectives to direct criminal judges and lawyers towards the utmost morals of criminology and humanity (Chilton 2008).

Case

In 1999, Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant who was beaten and sodomized in a Brooklyn police precinct bathroom is a good example of rampant violation of ethics in criminal justice. Due to severe torture, Louima suffered severe internal injuries, from which he is still recovering. The precinct attack came after he was arrested during a brawl outside a Brooklyn nightclub. In that case New York City police officers including Officers Rolando Aleman and Francisco Rosario, members of a roving street crimes unit from Brooklyn's 70th precinct, were indicted on federal charges of making false statements about their whereabouts when Louima was put into a holding cell after the August 1997 attack, according to Bill Mueller, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York (Alicia Robert Catherine 2007).

The operation of a constitutional public interest ethic within criminal justice has become so routine in recent decades that it runs the risk of being taken for granted. For example, the federal court takeover of prisons and jails for constitutionally-based reforms that was considered outrageous only a decade ago is now considered routine. Although some recent conservative Court decisions have gone the other way, no "conservative counter-revolution" has yet occurred. Constitutional lessons are pervasive in so many criminal justice courses today that we forget that the Constitution is an authoritative statement of moral aspirations, a complete "expression of the nation's commitment to a good society." As such, aspects of a constitutional public interest ethic are already "pervasively" taught in many criminal justice programs in such courses as criminal procedure, inmates' legal rights, and so on. What is advocated here pays homage to the constitutional public interest via freestanding courses in criminal justice ethics. As it happens, a 1995 survey on teaching criminal justice ethics showed that the largest group of respondents teaching freestanding ethics courses already adopt a "constitutional framework or a more general moral framework (Criminal Justice Ethics 2001)."

Theory

Kant begins by formulating the Categorical Imperative of the form of the Fundamental Principle of morality. The form of Kant’s Categorical Imperative is found in the following excerpt, “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal ...