Examples Of Police Discretion

In our text, discretion is defined as having to decide between two or more courses of action or behavior. Discretion is practiced in all aspects of the criminal justice system, police, corrections, judges and attorneys all have the power and capabilities to exercise discretion. An example of police discretion is a police officer responding to a domestic violence call, the officer can analyze the situation and decide to arrest one or both parties or, attempt to provide them the resources to get help or give a warning. An example of a correctional officer using discretion is, if the correctional officer witnesses an inmate breaking a law or code of the facility and can make the decision to do nothing or follow procedure. Another example of discretion
that is applied to an attorney setting is, whether or not a prosecutor will waive a case that can be tried in a juvenile court setting on to be tried in an adult court setting. There are established codes and regulations in each section of the criminal justice system, acting in these sanctions while utilizing professionalism is considered ethical when exercising discretion. There are also known “codes of ethics” in the police force and other divisions of the system that often do not always follow the “official guidelines” and, when officers, and other criminal justice professionals sway from these practices injustices and what can be considered unethical actions can occur.