Chapter 1 Flashcards
Ethical Dilemmas are situations in which …. ?
Ethical dilemmas are situations in which one person must decide what to do. They are situations in which it is difficult for an individual to decide the right course of action.
Discretion
The authority to make a decision between two or more choices.
Sometimes the courts make laws that take away the discretion of lower officials
ethical issues questions what exactly?
Difficult social or policy questions that include controversy over the “right” thing to do.
discretion
The authority to make a decision between two or more choices.
Due Process
Due Process protects each of us from error in any governmental deprivation of life, liberty, or property.
Law enforcement and the state have the right to control and punish, but Due Process protects us against the arbitrary or unlawful use of that power.
Equal Protection
Equal Protection should ensure that what happens to us is not determined by the color of our skin, our gender, our nationality, or the religion we practice.
The Appearance of Impropriety
In order for officials and the government to have respect and credibility it must appear to the public that they are behaving properly.
Socrates (469-399 BCE)
Believed that knowledge is the key to living a virtuous and ethical life.
He believed that people perform bad acts because they are ignorant of the correct way to act.
He believed that the wisest person is the most ethical and has the most virtue.
Plato (423-347 BCE)
Plato was a student of Socrates
Like Socrates, he associated virtue with wisdom.
Plato stated that the four key virtues were:
Wisdom
Courage
Moderation
Justice
Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
He was a student of Plato
He did NOT believe that bad behavior came from
ignorance
He believed that some people had weak wills and did bad things knowing they were bad.
He believed that the good life was devoted to virtue and moderation.
The Stoics (3rd century BCE)
They perceived life as a battle against the passions.
And that people should not seek pleasure but instead seek virtue
And that we should seek virtue out of duty and not because it gives us pleasure
Morals
Principles of right or wrong.
The term “moral” is often used as an adjective to describe a person’s actions.
Ethics are the disciplines of determining …?
The discipline of determining good and evil
and defining moral duties.
– The term “ethics” is often used as an adjective to refer to behaviors relating to a profession (Example: Hippocratic Oath for physicians).
are Morals and Ethics used interchangeably?
The two words are often used interchangeably.
Applied ethics
Application of ethical principles to specific issues or fields.
Professional ethics:
Examination of the behavior of certain professional groups.
Duties
Behaviors or actions necessary for an individual to be considered moral.
do Supererogatories actions need to be moral?
Actions that are commendable but not required in order for a person to be considered moral.??
Values in the United States
In the U.S., success is defined almost exclusively by the accumulation of material goods, not by doing good deeds.
So even the concepts of duties, virtues, and
morality can be seen as foreign.
Making Moral Judgments involve four elements:
Acts that can be judged as ethical, unethical, moral, or immoral
Why Study Ethics?
Ethical issues exist in all areas of the criminal justice system (from passage of laws to punishment)
Learning how to determine the “right thing to do” is critical.
Criminal justice professionals have varying degrees of discretion, authority, and power
Criminal justice professionals encounter a multitude of situations in which they must make choices that affect people’s lives
why study ethics (professional vise)
Legislators: in making laws and determining punishment
Police: in enforcing laws
Attorneys and Judges: affecting justice process
Correctional Professionals: affecting offenders’ lives
emoluments clause
Also known as the Title of Nobility
Clause, Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the U.S.
The constitution prohibits any person holding a government office from accepting any present, emolument, office, or title from any “King, Prince, or foreign State” without congressional consent.
Constitutional Ethics makes the police and state due what?
Police and the state have an obligation to provide “due process” and “equal protection” for all.
Four philosophies that influenced Western ethics are
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics
Making Moral Judgments is and includes what
An Act
Only Human Acts are judged as ethical or moral
Free Will: You must have done the act by free choice
Affect Others: The act must affect others
