USA: +1(669)289-8683 
Sign in
The Prompt:
Respond to the following discussion questions
.
Complete all parts A,B, and C.
A) Research news articles/videos of law enforcement. Provide a video/ article highlighting the law enforcement serving in the Public Servant role of policing and one an video/article of law enforcement serving in the Crime Fighter role of policing. What is the difference?
B) Research NC new law on law enforcement body cams/video and community accessibility, what does the law state? How will this affect how the community views law enforcement officials?
.
C) Choose which of the major ethical systems most closely matches your personal views, and explain how you arrived at this choice. Is this ethical system absolute, or is there a “situational” exception to the rule? Make sure to relate this idea to what you perceive as good according to your own values and the guidelines identified in the chapter. Select another system and complete an ethical pyramid for the following ethical dilemma below>>
You are a manager of a retail store. You are given permission by the owner of the store to hire a fellow classmate to help out. One day you see the classmate take some clothing from the store. When confronted by you, the peer laughs it off and says the owner is insured, no one is hurt, and it was under $100. “Besides,” says your acquaintance, “friends stick together, right?” What would you do?
Remember to include:
Situation, Rules, Ethical System
CHAPTER 5
The Role of Police in Society
Abuse of Power by Police
The majority of police officers are professional and ethical.
However, a small minority abuse their power. This leads to
close scrutiny by the public of all police.
Police officers have tremendous power in our society:
• The power to arrest
• The power to mediate or to charge
• The power to use force
• The power of life and death
❑ Officers received tip regarding drug activity
in a home.
❑ They filed an affidavit for a no-knock search
warrant, falsely indicating they had sent an
informant in to buy drugs.
❑ When the raid team burst in, the 92-year old
San
Francisco
Police
Testilying
Case
(2006)
female resident began shooting at officers.
She was killed by a hail of bullets.
❑ When officers found no drugs, they planted
drugs, and forced an informant to lie about
buying drugs from the woman.
❑ 2 of the 3 officers ultimately confessed and
pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
❑ The lead officer received a 6-year sentence.
Their sergeant pleaded guilty to federal
charges of violating the dead woman’s
rights.
❑ Officers were accused of committing
perjury by falsely describing drug
busts they conducted in written police
reports.
❑ Video taken by surveillance cameras
San
Francisco
Officers
Allegedly
Committed
Perjury in
Reporting
Drug Busts
(2011)
during separate drug raids show the
police officers failed to get consent
from the apartment-dwellers before
conducting warrantless searches for
narcotics.
❑ The officers also misrepresented
their searches in later police reports.
❑ Since these reports are written under
oath, this was tantamount to perjury,
according to the Public Defender.
Viewpoint: Police as Crime Fighters
•
Criminals are the “enemy” and are fundamentally different
from “good” people.
•
Police are the “army” that fights the enemy.
•
Police must be able to use any means necessary against
criminals.
•
Since police are in a “war,” they must be allowed discretion in
making decisions.
Herbert Packer’s
Model of Law Enforcement
Crime Control Orientation
• Preventing criminal conduct is the most important
function of law enforcement.
• Failure of law enforcement means the breakdown of
order.
• Criminal process is the positive guarantor of social
freedom.
• Efficiency is a top priority.
• Emphasis is on speed and finality.
• There is a presumption of guilt.
Viewpoint: Police as Public Servants
• Criminals are like any other citizens.
• Police have limited ability to affect crime rates one way or
the other.
• Police as public servants serve all people, including
criminals.
• Since police are public servants, their ability to use force
should be restricted.
Herbert Packer’s
Model of Law Enforcement
Due Process Orientation
• There is a possibility of error.
• Finality is not a priority.
• There is insistence on prevention and elimination of
mistakes.
• Efficiency is rejected if it involves shortcuts.
• Protection of process is as important as protection of
innocents.
• The coercive power of the state is always subject to abuse.
Early American Law Enforcement
• 19th-century police were involved in social
service activities.
• Corruption was common in early police
departments.
• The move towards police “professionalism”
began in the 1920s.
• During this period, the role of crime fighter
emerged as a characteristic of police.
• The role of public servant was minimized.
Community Policing
• In some ways, a return to original police
involvement in service and engagement with
community.
• Focus is on proactive crime prevention rather than
emergency response.
• Encourages officers to see citizens as partners.
• Shifts decision-making and discretion downward to
patrol officers who know the neighborhood best.
• More visible operations increase police
accountability.
Ethical Problems in
Community Policing
• Gratuities may be an issue for officers who are
expected to create and maintain close ties to the
community.
• The officer’s discretion in enforcing the law may be
compromised by personal relationships.
• Increased autonomy and decreased supervision may
provide greater opportunity for misconduct.
❑ One police officer was fired and
St.
Petersburg
Officers
Disciplined
for Taking
Gratuities
two others were disciplined
after an internal investigation
revealed they routinely
accepted items from a local
convenience store without
paying for them.
❑ Accepting gratuities is a
departmental policy violation
and a violation of the officers’
code of ethics.
Klockars’ Police Control
Authority: Entitlement to unquestioned obedience
that derives from fulfilling a specific role.
Power: Power is the threat behind the authority.
Persuasion: The use of signs, symbols, words,
and arguments to induce compliance.
Force: Physical coercion.
Source of Police Authority?
The Social Contract
• Each person gives up complete freedom in exchange for
the guaranteed protection of the society against others.
• Police power is part of this quid pro quo.
• Police power exists to provide protection.
• Since police power may also violate rights if abused, it is
limited to what is minimally necessary for protection.
• If the social contract is the basis of police power, it is also
the basis of police ethics.
Ethical Standards Associated
with the Social Contract
•
Fair access
•
Public trust
•
Safety and security
•
Teamwork
•
Objectivity
Characteristics of the Effective Public
Servant
• Wisdom
• Good character
• Balanced perception
• Integrity
Discretion
The power and authority to choose between two
or more courses of behavior.
Discretion may be influenced by “style”
of policing.
Duty
•
The responsibilities attached to a specific role.
•
Police roles include both crime fighting and
public service.
•
How far does police duty extend…
Enforcing the written law?
Providing service?
Ensuring medical treatment is provided?
Preventing crime altogether?
Formal Ethics: Codes, Guidelines & Rules
Aspiration/
Ideal “Code”
Principles/
Guidelines
Mandatory
Rules of
Conduct
Describes the
perfect
professional.
Describes the
Serve as the
value system of basis of
the organization.
discipline.
Characteristics of Codes of Ethics
▪ Fairness
▪ Service
▪ Importance of the law
▪ Personal conduct
Informal Ethics: The Subculture
➢
Typically form a homogenous social group.
➢
Have a uniquely stressful work environment.
➢
Participate in a basically closed social system.
“Themes” of Policing (Crank)
• Force
• Uncertainty
• Territorial
• Excitement
control
• Solidarity
• Illicit coercion
• Masculinity
• Guns
• “Maintaining
• Suspicion
• Danger
the edge”
Police Characteristics (?)
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
Cynical
Isolated, alienated
Defensive, distrustful
Authoritarian, dogmatic
More conservative than the general public
Value equality less than the general public
Value obedience over independence
Noble-Cause Corruption
• Involves officers employing unethical means to
catch criminals because “it’s the right thing to
do”
• Perceived by officers as fulfillment of their
profound moral commitment to make the world a
safer place to live
• Is utilitarianism (the end justifies the means)
❑ A forensics expert for the NC State Bureau of
North Carolina
State Bureau
of
Investigation
Forensics
Scandal
(2010)
Investigation repeatedly lied on the stand
while providing testimony crucial to the 2003
conviction of a novelist accused of murdering
his wife.
❑ Michael Peterson’s conviction was overturned
and he was granted a new trial in December
2011.
❑ Judge Orlando Hudson described at length
how the expert, Duane Deaver, an agent with
the NC State Bureau of Investigation, misled
a jury about his qualifications and the
reliability of his scientific opinions in the
Peterson case.
❑ Additionally, an independent audit completed
in 2010 found that agents at the crime lab
manipulated and withheld the results of
hundreds of tests to confirm the presence of
blood, tainting prosecutions based on that
evidence.
“Blue Curtain of Silence”
•
Facing the wrongdoing of a fellow officer is a police officer’s
most difficult ethical dilemma.
•
The code of silence present in police work is also present in
other occupations and professions.
•
In policing, the code of silence is a form of noble-cause
corruption.
•
Evidence indicates “blue curtain of silence” or “blue curtain of
secrecy” is breaking down but still present (2/3 of police said
“whistleblower would receive informal sanctions” & 61% said
officers do not always report even the most serious
violations/crimes of other officers).
Loyalty
❖ A component of the esprit de corps of policing.
❖ An absolutely essential element of a healthy
department.
❖ Explained by officers’ dependence on one another,
sometimes in life-or-death situations.
❖ A personal relationship, not a judgment.
Sanctions on “Whistleblowers”
➢A distressing aspect of loyalty
➢ Are often extreme
➢ Have resulted in state and federal legislation to
protect whistleblowers
➢ Legislation is ineffective against informal ostracism
and rejection
❑ A police officer in Southern Russia was fired
after publicly accusing his bosses of
corruption.
❑ Dymovsky called on Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin to take steps to fight corruption in the
police force.
❑ He says officers are forced to make up
Major Alexey
Dymovskiy Russian
Police Officer
Alleges Police
Corruption
criminal charges against innocent people in
order to cover up the police’s inability to track
down real criminals.
❑ Although Dymovsky was immediately fired
for what his superiors considered slander, an
official probe was allegedly launched by the
country’s interior ministry into the situation in
the local police department.
❑ Dymovskiy spent 1 ½ years in jail for fraud
and misuse of authority.
Change in the Police Subculture
Increased diversity
• Work force no longer socially homogenous.
• Officers vary substantially in their cultural views.
• Few factors are strong predictors of officers’ values.
Civil litigation
• Has increased the risk of covering for another officer.
Police unions
• Have become more formal with increased power.
Zero-Tolerance Policy
–Implemented by William Bratton, N.Y. police chief, 1995-1999
• Police took an aggressive stance against street people and minor
•
•
•
•
criminals, especially those in the business area and subway
system.
New York City enjoyed a dramatic decline in crime.
However, citizen complaints against New York City police rose by
75%.
Crime rates fell throughout the country during this period, even in
areas without zero-tolerance policies.
Also used “CompStat” which is form of accountability.
Do you think zero tolerance is effective?
What Type of Policing Do We Want?
• If forced to make a choice, it is probable that the citizenry
would choose crime fighter.
• Generally, police do not encounter much criticism when
they are successful in their crime fighter role.
• The zero-tolerance policy, implemented by William
Bratton was an example of this.
CHAPTER 4
Becoming an Ethical
Professional
Declining Morality?
1. We have eliminated many of the opportunities for
the teaching of morals.
2. The community is not a cohesive force any longer.
3. The authority of religion is not as pervasive as it
once was.
4. The family is weakening as a force of socialization.
5. Educators have abdicated their responsibility for
moral instruction in favor of scientific neutrality.
U.S.
Leaders
Acting
Unethically
•
John Edwards, potential
presidential nominee
•
Eliot Spitzer – Former
New York governor, district
attorney, and attorney
general
How Does One Become
a Good Person?
Deterministic
Free Will/Agency
• Biology
• Religion
• Psychology
• Philosophy
• Sociology
• Criminology
Fields of study seek to answer this question with free will
acknowledged to greater or lesser degrees.
Why do People Act Unethically?
• Does biology play a role?
– Nature?
• Is modeling and/or reinforcement lacking?
– Nurture?
• Does it have to do with moral development?
• Could it be a combination of things?
Theories of Moral Development
BIOLOGICAL FACTORS
Behavior depends on an individual’s biological predispositions.
LEARNING THEORIES
Behavior depends on the rewards an individual has received.
DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES
Behavior depends on an individual’s intellectual and emotional
stage of development, which in turn depends on their
environment.
Biological Theories
Recent research suggests
individuals may be predisposed to
certain types of behavior due to the
biology of their brains.
Frontal Lobe Damage
May result in increased impulsiveness,
decreased attention span, difficulty in
logical reasoning and following
instructions, and antisocial behavior.
Cortical Limbic Network
• Structured event knowledge
• Social perceptual and functional
features
• Central motive and emotional states
Disruptions in the network can limit the ability to respond to ethical dilemmas.
Sex Differences
Inherited Trait
• Men’s brains function differently than
women’s.
• Statistically, men are more likely to be
antisocial, to have serious childhood conduct
disorders, and to commit serious offenses.
Socio-biology
• Certain traits support the survival of the species
• Moral “senses”: sympathy, fairness, self-control,
and duty
• Individual inheritance or group selection
(evolution)
• Morality seems to lie in the inferior parietal lobe
(rationality) but also in the “emotion” center of the
brain (amygdala)
Learning Theories
Premise: All human behavior is learned; therefore,
ethics is a function of learning rather than reasoning.
Modeling
▪ Imitating the behavior of
others
▪ Parents and other
adults provide role
models for children
through their behavior
Reinforcement
• A behavior that is rewarded will
be repeated
• After enough reinforcement,
the behavior becomes
permanent
• The individual develops values
consistent with the behavior
(cognitive dissonance)
Bandura: “Selective Disengagement”
or Moral Restructuring
Moral justification: Appeal to a higher end (e.g., terrorists who are fighting
for a cause).
Euphemistic labeling: Downplaying the seriousness of actions (e.g.,
“collateral damage”).
Advantageous comparison: Act isn’t as bad as some others (e.g., “What
was done at Abu Ghraib wasn’t as bad as what the insurgents did who cut
off the heads of civilian contractors.”).
Displacement of responsibility: Denies culpability (e.g., “I was only
following orders.”)
Diffusion of responsibility: Mob actions
Distortion of the consequences: Misidentifying the consequences of one’s
actions (e.g., CEO who gives the order to pollute merely requests that the
problem be “taken care of”).
Dehumanization: Process to strip the victim of any qualities of similarity
that may create sympathy (e.g., the use of terms such as gooks, slant-eyes,
pigs, wetbacks).
Developmental Theories
Premise: Moral development, like physical growth, occurs in stages.
1. They involve qualitative differences in modes of thinking,
as opposed to quantitative differences.
2. Each stage forms a structured whole; cognitive
development and moral growth are integrated.
3. Stages form an invariant sequence; no one bypasses any
stage, and not all people develop to the higher stages.
4. Stages are hierarchical integrations.
Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral
Development
Pre-Conventional Level
Approach to moral issues motivated purely by personal
interests.
Stage 1: Punishment/Obedience Orientation
Stage 2: Instrument/Relativity Orientation
Conventional Level
Approach to moral issues motivated by socialization.
Stage 3: Interpersonal Concordance Orientation.
Stage 4: Law-and-Order Orientation.
Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral
Development
Post-Conventional Level
Approach to moral issues motivated by desire to discover universal
good beyond own self or own society.
Stage 5: Social Contract Orientation
Stage 6: Universal Ethical Orientation
Post-Post-Conventional Level
Approach to moral issues moves beyond the human to a cosmic or
religious level of awareness. Kohlberg only speculated that this
stage might exist.
Stage 7: Transcendental Orientation
• Between 2003 – 2010, 129 U.S.
Customs and Border Patrol agents
were arrested on corruption charges.
• Corrupt officers could earn up to $60K
per day—the equivalent to a year’s
salary
• In 2009, it was reported that some
Corruption
at the
Border
Mexican smuggling cartels groom
their workers to apply for border patrol
jobs as a part of a long range plan to
smuggle.
• U.S. Border Patrol Agent Martha
Garnica – Arrested, convicted, and
sentenced to 20 years after trying to
recruit a fellow border agent into the
racket of protecting smugglers
Criticisms of Moral
Development Theory
• Justice/Western Bias: Stages center too much on the concept of
justice, ignoring other aspects of morality.
• Value Bias: Justice, rules, and rights are emphasized as higher
values than caring and relationships.
• Deontological Bias: The higher stages are based on deontological
assumptions about universal ethical principles.
• Rationality Bias: Emphasizes reason in moral decisions while
ignoring emotional factors.
• Gender Bias: Emphasizes traditionally “male” values and virtues.
• Belief = Action?: Difficult to link reasoning levels with moral action in
particular situations.
Factors Necessary for Moral Growth
• Encouragement to examine situations from other points
of view
• Exposure to individuals whose thinking is a stage higher
than one’s own
• Exposure to conflicts in moral reasoning that challenge
one’s present stage
• Engagement in logical thinking, such as reasoned
argument and consideration of alternatives
• Responsibility for making moral decisions and acting on
them
• Participation in creating and maintaining a just
community
Teaching Ethics (Sherman)
▪ Stimulate the “moral imagination” by posing difficult moral
dilemmas.
▪ Encourage the recognition of ethical issues beyond immediate
goals.
▪ Help to develop analytical skills and the tools of ethical analysis.
▪ Elicit a sense of moral obligation and personal responsibility.
▪ Explore the morality of coercion, which is intrinsic to criminal
justice.
▪ Help students recognize the difference between technical and
moral competence.
▪ Address the full range of moral issues in criminology and criminal
justice.
•
An former U.S. lobbyist, businessman, movie
producer, & writer.
•
Extensive corruption investigation that led to
his conviction and to 21 persons either
pleading or being found guilty.
•
After a guilty plea in the Indian lobbying
scandal and his dealings with Sun Cruz
Casinos in January 2006, he was sentenced
to 6 years in federal prison for mail fraud,
conspiracy to bribe public officials, and tax
evasion. He served 43 months in prison and
was released in 2010.
•
Wrote the book, Capitol Punishment: The
Hard Truth About Corruption From America’s
Most Notorious Lobbyist.
•
Since his release, he has taught ethics.
Jack
Abramoff
Corruption Continuum
• Indifference towards integrity.
• Ignoring obvious ethical issues.
• Creating a fear and hypocrisy
dominated culture.
• Maintaining a survival of the
fittest environment by individual
employees.
Gardner’s Cognitive Capacities
• The “disciplined mind”—the ability to focus and learn a field
of study.
• The “synthesizing mind”—the ability to integrate diverse
ideas into a coherent whole.
• The “creating mind”—the ability to recognize and solve
problems.
• The “respectful mind”—the ability to form and maintain good
relationships with other people.
• The “ethical mind”—the ability to fulfil one’s responsibilities
as a citizen and to identify with fellow humans.
How Leaders Can Foster Ethics
(Metz)
1. Establish realistic goals and objectives.
2. Provide ethical leadership (set a moral tone by
actions).
3. Establish formal written codes of ethics.
4. Provide a whistle blowing mechanism.
5. Discipline violators of ethical standards.
6. Train all personnel in ethics.
Ethical Leadership
• Strong leadership involves caring and
commitment to the organization.
• Idealistic realism: the ability of good leaders
to acknowledge and understand social realities
while avoiding the trap of cynicism.
• Ethical leaders possess vision and moral
responsibility and engage in enlightened
reasoning.
Thinking
Point
The police chief in Bell,
California was under
investigation for accepting a
salary of $457,000 per year.
Chief Randy Adam’s salary
is double that of LAPD’s
police chief Charlie Beck.
The city of 40,000 consists
of blue collar workers and
has a higher than average
poverty rate.
Ethical Choices for
Criminal Justice Professionals
• Friendship vs. institutional
(integrity/professionalism)
• Client (offender) needs vs. bureaucratic
efficiency and institutional goals.
• Personal goals or biases vs. fair and impartial
treatment of the public and the clients served.
The inappropriate use of discretion occurs when the
professional uses unethical criteria to resolve decisions.
Avoiding Cynicism and Burnout
1. First, adopt realistic goals before
entering the profession.
2. Second, find and nurture a network of
mentors and colleagues that promotes
ethical values.
3. Third, seek self-fulfillment and personal
enrichment.
